Guide: Take it to the Track - a Historical & Technical Appraisal of the McLaren F1 GTR 95

May 20

May 20 Guide: Take it to the Track - a Historical & Technical Appraisal of the McLaren F1 GTR 95

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Background

When McLaren began to design the F1 road car, no thought was given to building a competition version.

At the time, the World Sportscar Championship was organised exclusively for out-and-out prototypes and traditional GT racing had all but disappeared.

Unfortunately, rising costs, falling participation and an ill-fated switch to new regulations during a global recession killed the World Sportscar Championship before the first race of 1993.

From its ashes, a new low cost international series emerged: the BPR GT Championship.

Organised by Jurgen Barth, Patrick Peter and Stephane Ratel, the inaugural BPR Championship of 1994 proved an enormous success.

Pockets of domestic GT racing did already exist in Europe (such as in Britain, Italy and Germany) and, for 1993, the Le Mans organisers had included a Grand Touring category for the first time since 1986 in an attempt to boost participation.

However, it was the 1994 BPR world series that marked a watershed moment for GT racing.

That year, grids mostly comprised privateer machinery from Porsche and Venturi with the odd Ferrari F40 and Lotus Esprit also thrown into the mix.

Participants were split into one of four classes (GT1 to GT4) and homologation required just a single road version to have been manufactured.

Pharmaceuticals magnate, Ray Bellm, and banker, Thomas Bscher, both participated in the 1994 BPR Championship driving Porsches. What they really wanted though was a GT1 version of the McLaren.

Bellm and Bscher lobbied Ron Dennis to produce such a vehicle and, having initially been reluctant, the F1 GTR was approved in July 1994.

The initial agreement was a three-car customer race programme for Bellm, Bscher and L’Oreal CEO, Lindsay Owen-Jones.

However, demand soon saw the project expand. Eventually, eight customer cars were produced for 1995 in addition to the original works prototype (chassis 01R).

The F1 GTR was unveiled by McLaren during the second week of January 1995. Each car was priced at £775,000. At the time of launch, the first six had already been sold.

02R and 04R were purchased by Bellm and Owen-Jones. These cars would be campaigned by GTC Motorsport (co-owned by Bellm and Michael Cane) with backing from Gulf Oil.

03R went to Bscher. It was sponsored by German cigarette brand, West, and looked after by Dave Price Racing (DPR). Another example campaigned by DPR was 06R. Purchased by Moody Fayed, this F1 GTR was backed by the Harrods department store owned by Moody Fayed’s uncle, Mohammed Fayed.

Chassis 05R and 07R were sold to French privateers Jean-Luc Maury-Laribiere (BBA Competition) and Paul Picard (Giroix Racing Team).

08R was initially retained as a spare while 09R was sold to the Sultan of Brunei and never raced.

Chassis

Each GTR started life as a standard F1 carbon composite monocoque.

The double wishbone suspension was switched from rubber to rigid aluminium bushes and ride height was dropped by 45mm at the front and 40mm at the rear.

Bigger brake discs and uprated calipers were supplied by Brembo. Front disc size rose from 332mm to 380mm while at the rear they were increased from 305mm to 355mm. Steel was initially used, but new Carbon Industrie discs were available mid season as part of the £40,000 Le Mans pack.

The road car’s ABS system was ditched.

New OZ Racing centre-lock magnesium wheels were another addition. Wheel diameter was increased from 17 to 18-inches and width rose from 9 to 10.85-inches at the front and from 11.5 to 13-inches at the rear.

The standard 90-litre fuel tank was switched to a 100-litre safety cell.

Engine / Gearbox

Engine-wise, the GTR came with a new Type S70/3 motor to replace the original S70/2 unit.

Another dry-sumped all-alloy 60° V12 from BMW Motorsport, it featured dual overhead camshafts for each bank of cylinders, four valve heads and variable valve timing.

Displacement was unchanged at 6064cc thanks to a bore and stroke of 86mm and 87mm respectively.

The 11.0:1 compression ratio was also retained.

Because air restrictors mounted in the roof intake were mandatory, output was actually lower than the road car. Each GTR produced 600bhp instead of 627bhp at an unchanged 7500rpm.

The TAG engine management was re-mapped accordingly and, as a result, the GTR had a much improved torque rating: 527lb-ft at 4500rpm instead of 479lb-ft at 5600rpm.

Extra cooling was required for the six-speed manual gearbox which still came with an aluminium casing and full synchromesh, but now featured straight cut gears. The GTR’s AP Racing clutch was another uprated component.

Bodywork

Cosmetically, McLaren focused on improved cooling and extra downforce.

The nose panel was modified with a flatter profile, bigger intakes and a chin splitter.

Wheelarch extensions were added at the front and deep side sills were installed down each flank.

At the back, McLaren fitted a pylon-mounted spoiler with electronic stabilisers. The road car’s active wing was removed.

Additional cooling ducts were added to the front lid and ahead of each rear wheelarch. A new rear diffuser was also installed.

Interior

Inside, the cockpit was stripped of all its superfluous luxuries. Aside from the grey alcantara anti-glare dash, a leather / alcantara driver’s seat and a simplified alcantara-rimmed three-spoke steering wheel, there was practically no upholstery to speak of.

The analogue instrumentation from the original F1 was dropped in favour of a digital Stack read out. Most of the switchgear was now housed on an enormous carbonfibre control panel off to the driver’s right-hand side in what was originally the passenger seat footwell. More electrical gubbins along with a plumbed-in fire system was located where the right-hand passenger seat usually resided.

Just the one single-piece composite bucket seat was installed along with a six-point harness. Other safety gear included a fully integrated rollcage.

Lightweight single piece Lexan windows were fixed in position.

Weight / Performance

At 1050kg, the GTR was 90kg lighter than the F1 road car.

However, because of its high downforce body kit, top speed dropped from 241mph to just under 200mph.

Testing

After a two lap shakedown at the Longcross track in Chobham on Tuesday 10th of January, testing proper began at Silverstone on Friday 13th.

McLaren then took their prototype to Barcelona over January 24th and 25th.

Deliveries started two weeks later.

1995 Jerez 4 Hours

The twelve-race 1995 BPR series got underway with the Jerez 4 Hours on February 26th.

Three GTRs were present: pole went to the GTC Gulf entry of Pierre-Henri Raphanel / Lindsay Owen-Jones, John Nielsen / Thomas Bscher were second in their white and red DPR West machine and Ray Bellm / Maurizio Sala were third in the sister Gulf car.

From the off, the GTRs ran in formation at the head of the field with Raphanel and then Bscher taking the lead.

At the first round of stops, Bellm handed over to Sala, but the modified seat required to accommodate the two different sized drivers slid out from its runners and caused a delay.

Disaster then struck for the other GTC machine after its second stop. Owen-Jones handed over to Raphanel who arrived at the first corner on three wheels. He soon lost another wheel and the car was stranded out on track; misaligned drive pegs had prevented the new rims from properly seating.

The pace car that followed enabled Bellm to regain the lap he had lost earlier.

Bellm later took the lead, only to spin after six laps at the head of the field.

Gearbox problems then put Nielsen out of the race almost within sight of the chequered flag.

After his spin, Bellm put in a storming last few laps to re-take the lead, this time from the Larbre Competition Porsche 911 GT which was running in the GT1 class thanks to a trick engine and wider than standard rear wheels.

The sole remaining McLaren eventually won by 16 seconds.

1995 Paul Ricard 4 Hours

Round two was the Paul Ricard 4 Hours on March 12th where the McLaren contingent grew to four cars with the addition of the black and red BBA Competition entry driven by Jean-Luc Maury Laribiere / Laurent Lecuyer / Pascal Fabre.

The French crew qualified fifth behind the Larbre Porsche 911 (fourth), Nielsen / Bscher (third), Owen-Jones / Raphanel (second) and Bellm / Sala (pole).

Raphanel’s Gulf GTR once again led the early stages and had established a ten second advantage when the engine started to lose its edge. Four pit stops with fuel pick up problems dropped the car out of contention.

Nielsen subsequently inherited the lead and, at the first driver change, handed Bscher a 13 second advantage.

Bellm and Bouchut (Porsche) then went passed Bscher, but the red and white West-backed GTR was back in the lead when the pace car came out while Bellm was already in the pits.

However, this effectively enabled Bellm to rejoin without losing a lap, which ultimately decided the race. The West car needed to make a late fuel stop which relegated it to third.

Bellm and Sala took their second win of the season with the Larbre Competition Porsche 911 GT of Bob Wollek / Jean-Pierre Jarier / Christian Bouchut in the runner up spot.

The BBA F1 GTR came home fifth and the sick Gulf entry of Raphanel / Owen-Jones was seventh.

1995 Monza 4 Hours

The Monza 4 Hours on March 26th marked the debut of Michelotto’s rapid new Ferrari F40 GT Evoluzione. Campaigned by Ferrari Club Italia, the solitary example for Anders Olofsson / Luciano Della Noce made a big splash by taking pole on its maiden outing.

The DPR McLaren of Nielsen / Bscher started second. For this race it had been switched to a black and red Davidoff livery.

Another F40 was third (the Pilot Aldix LM of Michel Ferte / Olivier Thevenin) while fourth on the grid was the Owen-Jones / Raphanel Gulf McLaren which was fortunate to start after it suffered a stub axle failure at Parabolica in qualifying. Fresh components were flown to Italy in time for the race.

Bellm / Sala took fifth spot for Gulf with Maury Laribiere / Lecuyer / Fabre sixth for BBA.

Bellm rose to third in the race, but having then been delayed with a loose wheel nut, he retired in the second hour with fuel feed problems.

Meanwhile, Raphanel caught the lead F40 after fuel stops, but his co-driver, Lindsay Own-Jones, had his second off of the weekend when he exited the track at Lesmo after a rear suspension failure.

With the Gulf cars out of the equation, the F40 GTE and Davidoff GTR were left to battle for the lead until both lost time in the pits with brake trouble. This left the Larbre Competition Porsche holding a healthy lead at the three hour mark.

The Ferrari and McLaren gave chase until the F40 was slowed by a puncture and forced to settle for third. By contrast, the GTR did eventually overhaul the Porsche and won by 15 seconds to give DPR their first victory of the season.

The BBA GTR finished down in eighth.

1995 Jarama 4 Hours

By the time of the Jarama 4 Hours on April 9th, two more F1 GTRs had been delivered: the yellow and green Harrods-backed machine run by DPR and the blue and grey Jacadi-sponsored example entered by the Giroix Racing Team (GRT).

Ferrari Club Italia now had a second F40 GTE as well, but numerically the odds were still firmly in McLaren’s favour.

As it turned out, only five GTRs started the race; during Thursday practice, Lindsay Owen-Jones put a wheel on the dirt, lost control and slammed into the tyre wall. His car flipped onto its roof and sustained enough damage for the team to send it back to McLaren.

Pole went to the Olofsson / della Noce F40 GTE by half a second. Next up were Bellm / Sala for Gulf followed by Fabien Giroix / Olivier Grouillard in the new Jacadi-backed GTR. Ferte / Thevenin started fourth in their F40 LM and Nielsen / Bscher were fifth in their DPR McLaren which was now back in its familiar white and red West livery.

The second F40 GTE of Mancini / Monti / Ayles started sixth followed by the Larbre Competition Porsche of Wollek / Jarier / Bouchut. Maury Laribiere / Lecuyer / Fabre qualified eighth in the BBA McLaren and Andy Wallace / Justin Bell were down in ninth with the Harrods F1.

Sala was immediately given a ten second penalty for jumping the start, but the Ferraris were unable to capitalise as all of them fell by the wayside for one reason or another.

By the third hour, the Giroix / Grouillard GTR had a 45 second lead with the second place Gulf car of Bellm / Sala struggling for pace on old tyres.

However, the French F1 began to suffer brake fade when it had a full lap advantage and was subsequently delayed by a lengthy stop for new pads. It eventually finished fifth while Bellm / Sala took a hard fought win from Nielsen / Bscher. Third place went to the Larbre Porsche while Wallace / Bell came through to finish fourth.

After four hours of racing, the top four cars were covered by less than a minute.

The BBA entry placed 14th.

1995 Nurburgring 4 Hours

Round five was the Nurburgring 4 Hours on April 23rd and it turned out to be McLaren’s best race yet.

Ferrari once again dominated qualifying. Olofsson / della Nose took their third consecutive pole while Ferte / Thevenin started second in the Pilot Aldix F40 LM.

Fastest of the McLarens was the Gulf entry of Owen-Jones / Raphanel in third. This was a brand new car (08R) to replace the one that had been heavily crashed at Jarama (04R).

Next up was the West-backed machine of Nielsen / Bscher followed by the F40 GTE of Mancini / Monti / Ayles and the Larbre Porsche of Wollek / Jarier / Bouchut which, for this race, had a works-backed GT1 engine.

Bellm / Sala were seventh for Gulf, Wallace / Bell were eighth in the Harrods machine and Giroix / Grouillard were ninth in the Jacadi GRT entry.

Olofsson led from Ferte during the early stages. However, both Ferraris were soon out of the race owing to overheating brakes and gearbox problems respectively.

Once the GT1-engined Larbre Porsche broke a driveshaft, the GTRs were left to fight amongst themselves.

Bellm and Sala went deliberately light on the brakes assuming all the other runners would need a lengthy stop for new pads.

The plan worked and the Gulf pair took their fourth win in five races. They finished 21 seconds ahead of Giroux / Grouillard while Nielsen / Bscher rounded out the podium. Raphanel / Owen-Jones took fourth and Wallace / Bell were fifth as McLarens swept the top five positions.

1995 Le Mans Pre-Qualifying

Pre-Qualifying for the Le Mans 24 Hours (which was not part of the BPR Championship) took place on April 30th.

47 cars arrived to fight over the 28 places still up for grabs including seven F1 GTRs. This included the six machines already seen in the BPR series plus chassis 01R, the works prototype.

McLaren had been approached by Japanese businessman, Motokazu Sayama, who wanted his medical supplies company, Ueno Clinic, to be the title sponsor of a GTR at Le Mans.

With no advertising space left on any of the other GTRs, McLaren decided to use chassis 01R. It was taken to Pre-Qualifying by McLaren themselves. For the race, it would be managed by Lanzante Motorsport in conjunction with a small contingent of factory personnel.

On both occasions, 01R appeared under the Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing banner (KKR).

LMP class cars unsurprisingly dominated proceedings.

Courage topped the timesheets with first and second positions, a brace of WRs were third and fourth and Kremer’s K8 was sixth. Best of the GT1 cars was the Pilot Aldix Ferrari F40 LM in fifth followed by one of the GTE variants in seventh.

John Nielsen’s West-backed DPR F1 was quickest of the McLarens in eighth, Raphanel / Owen-Jones were ninth for Gulf GTC and Yannick Dalmas / Raphanel rounded out the top ten in the works KKR machine which had attended in its original silver and orange promotional livery.

The second F40 GTE placed eleventh followed by another trio of GTRs: Olivier Grouillard was twelfth (Jacadi GRT), Andy Wallace was 13th (Harrods DPR) and Mark Blundell was 14th (Gulf GTC). The BBA Competition entry was back in 21st.

All the GTRs qualified.

Le Mans Upgrade Pack

After Pre-Qualifying, McLaren went on to develop a special long distance kit for the 24 Hour race which all the customer teams signed up for.

Work focused on a new carbon brake pack, a dry-sump lubrication system for the gearbox, uprated driveshafts and a long-life clutch.

The £40,000 price also included a contribution to a 24 hour test with 01R at Magny Cours in May.

1995 Donington 4 Hours

The BPR Championship headed to Donington for another four hour hour race on May 8th.

As Pre-Qualifying had only been held one week before, none of the F40s showed up and nor did the BBA team.

The quintet of GTRs present dominated qualifying to occupy the first five grid positions.

Nielsen / Bscher started from pole in the DPR West entry, Wallace / Bell were second in the DPR Harrods machine and Giroix / Grouillard started third for Jacadi GRT. The Gulf-backed GTC entries of Bellm / Sala and Owen-Jones / Raphanel qualified fourth and fifth respectively.

Early on in the race, the DPR entries led from Bellm who soon peeled into the pits stuck in sixth gear. It took 21 laps to solve the problem which dropped the Gulf machine out of contention (it eventually finished 15th overall).

Wallace then nudged a backmarker when he braked a little late at the chicane; the slight impact was enough to break a suspension joint which cost the Harrods car three laps.

This left Nielsen with a 40 second lead over the Jacadi GRT machine, but as the West car’s tyres went off, it was reeled in and Grouillard set about establishing a big lead of his own.

With one hour to run, it seemed the GRT entry was on course for its first win of the year. However, a ten second penalty for speeding in the pitlane cut its lead dramatically. Grouillard did re-emerge in the lead, but his enthusiasm had got the better of him and he was immediately hit with a second penalty for speeding at the stop-go.

The resulting four-minute punishment actually proved academic as, before he could come into take it, the Frenchman coasted to a halt with transmission failure.

This allowed Nielsen / Bscher to secure their second win of the year while Raphanel / Owen-Jones finished second and Wallace / Bell were third.

1995 Montlhery 1000km

Having been absent at Donington, the BBA Competition team were the only F1 representatives to show up for the Montlhery 1000km race on May 14th.

None of the other GTRs were present as the bumpy track with its punishing 70 year old banking was expected to take a severe toll on gearboxes, driveshafts and engines.

The F40 GTEs of Mancini / Monti / Ayles and Olofsson / della Noce qualified first and second while, in the absence of any other GTRs, the BBA crew of Maury-Laribiere / Lecuyer / Sourd had their best session of the year to start third.

Sourd briefly led the race, but contact with a slower car bent his left rear suspension. After three pit stops, the French team called it a day.

It looked as though the F40 was set for its first win of the year, even after second place Mancini was knocked out of the race by a slower Porsche. However, with 15 minutes to go, Olofsson (who had a four-minute lead) was also forced to retire when a failed electrical relay cut power to the alternator.

The race was eventually won by the Porsche 911 GT of Stefan Oberndorfer and Detlef Hubner.

1995 Le Mans 24 Hours

For the Le Mans 24 Hours (June 17th and 18th) the McLarens ran 39.4mm air restrictors and were typically hitting around 195mph down the Mulsanne Straight.

All but two of the seven GTRs present were in their usual liveries. The works KKR entry was now black and grey to reflect backing from Ueno Clinic.

Meanwhile, the BBA Competition entry had been repainted by French artist, Cesar. The car’s new livery was inspired by a sculpture Cesar had created for Herve Poulain who co-drove with Jean-Luc Maury-Laribiere and Marc Sourd.

As usual, the F40s proved fastest of the GT1 contenders; they started sixth, seventh and eighth.

Best of the GTRs was the works KKR entry of Yannick Dalmas / Masanori Sekiya / JJ Lehto in ninth which was followed by a works Venturi 600 SLM in tenth.

Then followed the bulk of the McLaren contingent. Mark Blundell / Ray Bellm / Maurizio Sandro Sala started eleventh (Gulf GTC), John Nielsen / Jochen Mass / Thomas Bscher were twelfth (West DPR), Andy Wallace / Derek Bell / Justin Bell were 13th (Harrods DPR), Pierre-Henri Raphanel / Philippe Alliot / Lindsay Owen-Jones were 14th (Gulf GTC) and Jean-Denis Deletraz / Olivier Grouillard / Fabien Giroix were 15th (Jacadi GRT).

The BBA Competition art car started 20th.

The 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours proved to be one of the wettest on record. Multiple stops for tyres followed by a minor crash late on meant the highly fancied Courage C34 of Bob Wollek, Eric Helary and Mario Andretti was forced to play catch up for most of the race.

The West-backed GTR and the Gulf entry of Raphanel / Alliot / Owen-Jones took turns leading during the first few hours, but both cars crashed out before half distance.

The Harrods and Ueno Clinic machines then exchanged the lead several times. By half distance, the Courage had risen to third, albeit four laps in arrears.

By noon on Sunday, the Courage was just a lap behind the Ueno Clinic car which had in turn lost a lap to the Harrods entry as a result of poor tyre choice.

However, the Harrods car lost its lap advantage at the head of the field when it needed a new set of brake pads which set up an epic fight between Derek Bell and JJ Lehto.

Unfortunately, this was cut short when Bell started to lose gears. After a five minute stop, the yellow and green McLaren was passed by the recovering Courage and eventually finished third.

Andretti also overtook Lehto late on to put the Courage on the same lap as the lead McLaren, but in the end, it finished three minutes behind the British machine.

McLaren became only the third manufacturer to win Le Mans at their first attempt; amazingly, an LMP1 car had only topped the leaderboard for a single lap during the entire 24 hours.

Fourth and fifth positions were also taken by GTRs. Despite the Gulf GTC entry of Bellm / Sala / Blundell having lost 45 minutes after a crash at the Porsche Curves, some excellent driving saw it eventually recover to claim fourth. In fifth spot was the Jacadi GRT entry while BBA Competition finished 13th overall.

1995 Anderstorp 4 Hours

Two weeks after Le Mans, the BPR Championship resumed in Sweden for the Anderstorp 4 Hours (July 2nd).

Only three GTRs were present: a brace of cars from Gulf GTC and the West-backed DPR machine.

Pole position fell to the Pilot Aldix F40 LM of Ferte / Thevenin with the Evoluzione variant of Monti / Ayles / Mancini second. Best of the McLarens was the Raphanel / Owen-Jones machine in third alongside which was the F40 GTE of Olofsson / della Noce. Nielsen / Bscher started fifth and Bellm / Sala were sixth.

Monti got the jump on Ferte at the start while Nielsen held third and Raphanel moved into fourth. Olofsson’s Ferrari retired on lap five after a collision with Sala. The McLaren sustained heavy front end damage, but limped back to the pits for repairs.

When Lindsay Owen-Jones took over from Raphanel, his GTR started to lose power and two laps were lost as the engine management system was attended to.

The final hour saw the F40s battle the West McLaren at the head of the field.

With half an hour to go, Mancini twice ran into the back of Nielsen before they collided again in front of the pits. Mancini flew off into the sand trap while Nielsen suffered a puncture. This allowed the Pilot Aldix F40 LM to assume a lead which it retained until the end.

The Nielsen / Bscher F1 held on to take second while the Raphanel / Owen-Jones GTR recovered to finish third. Bellm and Sala placed a distant 13th overall after their early incident.

1995 Suzuka 1000km

The BPR Championship headed for Japan at the end of August where, unlike all the other rounds, a small contingent of WSC-class prototypes were invited to attend.

Pole position was unsurprisingly claimed by one such car: the works-backed Kudzu DG-3 Mazda of Franck Freon / Yojiro Terada / Takashi Yorino.

Six F1 GTRs were present to include those of DPR Harrods, Jacadi GRT and BBA Competition (still in its Cesar art car livery), all of which had been absent at Anderstorp.

The DPR entry of Nielsen / Bscher arrived in the same black and red Davidoff livery it had worn at Monza.

The GTC machine of Bellm / Sala / Sekiya swapped its usual Gulf colour scheme for a replica of the black and grey Ueno Clinic livery seen at Le Mans.

Once again, the Ferrari F40s proved to be the quickest GT1 cars over a single lap: Olofsson / della Noce started second in their GTE (now running a new 3.5-litre engine) followed by Ferte / Thevenin in the Anderstorp-winning LM.

Best of the McLarens were the GTC entries. The black and grey Ueno Clinic machine of Bellm / Sala / Sekiya was fourth. In fifth was the Gulf example of Raphanel / Owen-Jones. They too had a Japanese co-driver in Hideo Fukuyama.

John Nielsen / Thomas Bscher started sixth for Davidoff DPR, Fabien Giroix / Jean-Denis Deletraz / Tomiko Yoshikawa were ninth for Jacadi GRT and Andy Wallace / Karl Wendlinger were eleventh in the Harrods-backed DPR F1.

The BBA Competition entry of Jean-Luc Maury-Laribiere / Jean-Paul Libert / Jun Harada started back in 23rd.

Having initially held station behind Olofsson’s F40 and the Freon Kudzu, Bellm took the lead at first round of stops and the Ueno Clinic car thereafter proved uncatchable.

Wendlinger lost a wheel and retired 20 laps into his shift with the Harrods machine while the Kudzu went out soon afterwards with broken transmission.

The GTRs gradually took control and, at mid distance, they occupied the top four positions with the two F40 GTEs close behind.

With around 300km to go, two of the front running GTRs were eliminated in separate accidents on the same lap. Deletraz was taken off by a GT2 class Honda which had made way for the Ueno Clinic F1 but failed to spot the GRT entry. In the Gulf machine, Owen-Jones was third when he was rammed into retirement by a Venturi.

After nearly seven hours racing, Bellm / Sala / Sekiya took an impressive win while Bscher / Nielsen finished second to retain their slim advantage in the championship standings. The BBA entry finished eleventh.

1995 Silverstone 4 Hours

Only the GTC Motorsport and Dave Price Racing GTRs were present for the Silverstone 4 Hour race on September 17th.

GRT driver, Olivier Grouillard, defected to the Harrods-backed team and took sponsors Jacadi and Elf with him. Team owner, Fabien Giroix, pledged to take the matter to court claiming Grouillard had defaulted on payment for his drive.

The Harrods GTR took pole after Wallace set the fastest time before a rain storm in second qualifying. Sala / Bellm were second for Gulf while the best of the Ferraris was that of Ayles / Mancini / Monti in third.

Owen-Jones / Raphanel lined up fourth on the grid in the second Gulf GTR while problems for the F40 GTE of Olofsson / della Noce and the West GTR of Nielsen / Bscher saw them start back in 16th and 27th positions respectively.

With weather conditions uncertain, the field began the race on a mix of dry, inter and wet tyres.

After a collision with a slower car in qualifying, Nielsen suffered his second indiscretion of the weekend when he put his car in the gravel at Club on lap nine. He was fortunate to escape and set about climbing back up the field.

The F40 GTEs started the race on slicks. Olofsson had stormed into second when the rain started to fall in earnest, by which time Wallace (on inters) was 90 seconds ahead.

Heavy rain saw the pace car emerge, after which the GT1 cars struggled to cope with the amount of water lying on the track. Many span out, including championship contender Sala who thumped the barrier and retired.

The lead briefly fell to the Lilian Bryner / Enzo Calderari Porsche 911 GT, but as the rain eased, the Harrods GTR regained its position at the head of the field.

Wallace and Grouillard held on to score the car’s first win of the season despite serving two 30 second stop-go penalties (the first for speeding in the pitlane and the second for missing the penalty box).

A fifth place finish for Bscher and Nielsen in the West-backed DPR machine was enough for them to clinch the European section of the BPR GT Championship. Owen-Jones / Raphanel came home a distant eighth.

1995 Nogaro 4 Hours

Three weeks later, the teams headed to Nogaro for the penultimate round of 1995.

Better suited to the McLarens than the Ferraris, the Nogaro track saw all four GTRs outqualify the F40s.

Locking out the front row were the Dave Price Racing entries with the West-backed F1 of Nielsen / Bscher on pole and the Harrods machine of Wallace / Grouillard second. Then came the Gulf GTC cars of Raphanel / Owen-Jones and Bellm / Sala followed by the F40s of della Noce / Olofsson and Drudi / Ayles.

For the first hour, the grid positions barely changed, but after the first stops, Grouillard took over the Harrods car and began to chase down Bscher.

Having dropped to second, the West car later began to suffer from fuel vapourisation and the Harrods GTR eventually lapped its sister DPR entry on the very last corner.

Wallace and Grouillard took their second win of the season while the runners up position and fastest lap for Nielsen / Bscher meant they clinched the BPR world title to add to the European crown they had secured at Silverstone.

Olofsson’s F40 retired from third with an electrical failure and looked to hand the final podium position to the Owen-Jones / Raphanel Gulf GTR. In a continuation of the bad luck it had experienced all season though, the McLaren’s fire extinguisher discharged itself over Raphanel on the final lap. The Frenchman bailed out after crossing the line but by this time Bellm had already gone passed.

1995 Zhuhai 3 Hours

The Zhuhai street circuit in China hosted the final BPR race of the year on November 12th.

At three hours, this was the shortest event on the calendar and several teams switched liveries to reflect backing from different sponsors.

The Bscher / Nielsen DPR entry reverted to its black and red Davidoff colour scheme while the Harrods machine arrived in the white and red of San Miguel beer.

The Giroix Racing Team entry was still painted blue and grey, but the Franck Muller watch company had taken over title sponsorship in the absence of Jacadi and Elf.

After the Ferrari F40s had been outqualified at Nogaro, normal service was resumed with pole going to the GTE variant of Olofsson / della Noce.

Wallace / Grouillard continued their good recent form and started second ahead of the other F40 GTE driven by Drudi / Ayles / Gounon. In fourth was the 911 GT Evolution of Jarier / Bouchut behind which were the GTRs of Bscher / Nielsen and Bellm / Wollek.

Bob Wollek replaced the error prone Sala for this race while the second Gulf GTC machine stayed at home.

Giroix / Deletraz started eighth and the BBA Competition entry of Maury-Laribiere / Libert was 17th on the grid.

The bumpy Zhuhai street circuit led to a high overall attrition rate, but only one of the McLarens failed to finish. This was the Gulf GTC entry of Bellm / Wollek which had occupied second during the early stages until it subsequently developed a gearbox problem. The drivers continued, changing gear only four times per lap, and still looked set for a good result before the ‘box eventually failed.

All three F40s retired as well, which left the way clear for another dominant McLaren victory.

Despite a couple of incorrect tyre choices and a malfunctioning fuel light which meant they made an extra stop, the speed of Wallace and Grouillard in the white and red Harrods / San Miguel GTR meant they were untouchable. Victory in Zhuhai was their third consecutive win.

Nielsen / Bscher finished second to cap off a fine year and Giroix / Deletraz were third. Maury-Laribiere / Libert came home behind the fourth place Bryner / Calderari Porsche 911 GT.