VIN: the Team Lark / John Studholme / Adrian Newey McLaren F1 GTR chassis 14R
/ Ben Tyer
HISTORY OF CHASSIS 14R
Chassis 14R was one of two 1996-spec. GTRs allocated to a factory-backed assault on that year’s Japanese GT Championship.
The programme was financed by Philip Morris International who wanted to promote their Lark brand of cigarettes.
Kazumichi Goh was brought on board to manage the campaign; the two grey and pink GTRs appeared under the Team Lark McLaren banner.
Together with its sister car (13R) and a spare that was brought up to ‘96 trim (04R), the GTRs won four out of six races in 1996 despite running restricted 550bhp engines and 200kg of ballast.
Driving chassis 13R, Naoki Hattori and Ralf Schumacher took three wins compared to the solitary victory notched up by David Brabham and John Nielsen in 14R. However, Brabham and Nielsen’s greater consistency delivered them the title by 63 points to 60.
14R only contested five of the six races that year as, in the penultimate round at Sugo, it was crashed on the opening lap by David Brabham. The spare (04R) was called up for the season finale at Mine.
By finishing fourth in the race at Mine, Brabham and Nielsen won the title.
Chassis 14R was returned to McLaren, rebuilt to LM specification and configured for road use. The colour was changed to orange and it was registered M66 MCL.
14R was subsequently sold to John Studholme of Boston, Lincolnshire, who already owned a unique Calypso Red F1 road car (chassis 017). Studholme was the founder of Dynamic Cassette International which initially manufactured typewrite cassettes and later moved into compatible printer cartridges.
During the early part of 1998, Studholme replaced 017 with a new F1 road car, 059, which he subsequently had uprated with McLaren’s High Downforce Kit.
After several years in Studholme’s collection, 14R was sold to legendary Formula 1 designer, Adrian Newey.
Notable History
Team Lark McLaren
Pink and grey Lark livery
31/03/1996 JGT Suzuka 300km (D. Brabham / J. Nielsen) 2nd oa, 2nd GT500 class (#61)
04/05/1996 JGT Fuji (D. Brabham / J. Nielsen) 1st oa, 1st GT500 class (#61)
30/06/1996 JGT Sendai (D. Brabham / J. Nielsen) 8th oa, 8th GT500 class (#61)
11/08/1996 JGT Fuji (D. Brabham / J. Nielsen) 2nd oa, 2nd GT500 class (#61)
06/10/1996 JGT Sugo (D. Brabham / J. Nielsen) DNF (#61)
Rebuilt to LM specification and colour changed to orange
Registered M66 MCL
Sold to Adrian Newey
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: McLaren - https://www.mclaren.com
To see off the expected threat from GT1 iterations of the Ferrari F50 and a reverse engineered purpose built racer that Porsche was known to have in development, McLaren created an uprated…
After collaborating with its F1 engine supplier, Mercedes-Benz, to design and build the C199 SLR between 2004 and 2010, McLaren re-launched its road car division with the critically acclaimed…
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of McLaren’s 1995 victory at Le Mans, the first debut win by a manufacturer at la Sarthe since 1949 and the first by a production-based car since 1979, the firm…
Chassis 007 was the seventh F1 production car built and one of 25 examples manufactured in 1994. It was configured with arguably the best exterior colour scheme for an F1: Jet Black (which included…
McLaren’s response to purpose-built GT1 challengers from Porsche and Mercedes-Benz was the F1 GTR 97 which featured an array of radical upgrades, the most obvious of which was its dramatic new…
In 1995, BMW watched from the sidelines as its legendary 6.1-litre Motorsport V12 powered McLaren’s F1 GTR to ten wins from twelve outings in the BPR Global GT Championship plus a historic…
After an enormously successful partnership with TAG Porsche that delivered three Driver and two Constructor titles between 1984 and ‘87, McLaren signed an engine supply deal with Honda for 1988.
It’s hard to argue that the McLaren F1 is not the single best expression of a high performance automobile ever. However, McLaren’s preference to dial down the F1’s visual drama for reasons of…
In total, ten McLaren F1s were delivered to the Brunei Royal Family. Of these, five were standard F1 road cars (chassis 002, 004, 005, 008 and 014), one was an F1 GTR (chassis 09R), three were to F1…
Having swept to the top of international GT racing with a formidable BMW power unit, the McLaren F1 found itself firmly in the crosshairs of ‘Bee-Emm’s domestic rivals: Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.
Following the original 12C’s evolution to 650S trim, McLaren released the most exciting iteration of what was dubbed their ‘Super Series’ line when the 675LT was announced in early 2017 (and which…
As a consequence of its unrivalled technical specification and groundbreaking performance, every McLaren F1 is a very special car. However, even among such rarefied company, some stand…
Following on from a batch of special 650S Coupes built to commemorate McLaren’s victory at the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours, a run of 50 Spiders was created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the…
When the McLaren management team of Ron Dennis, Mansour Ojjeh, Creighton Brown and Gordon Murray decided to forge ahead with their plan to construct the ultimate road car of its era…
Towards the end of 1981 season, McLaren boss Ron Dennis approached Porsche about the possibility of creating a turbocharged engine for his F1 team. With Renault and Ferrari having…
Chassis LM1 was the first of five consecutively numbered F1 LM production cars manufactured after McLaren’s prototype (chassis XP LM). Of the F1 LM quintet sold to customers, one went to…
Despite having been arguably the most consistent supporter of Prototype and GT racing during the second half of the 20th century, no other manufacture simultaneously had such a destructive impact…
Of the little over 3000 cars built as part of the MP4 12C line, perhaps none can boast a more sought after name to have in the log book than chassis ‘000132’. Delivered to seven-time F1…
The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, was already a serious buyer of high end cars while still Crown Prince of the Southeast Asian kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s; during studies at the Royal…
Chassis 022 was the 21st McLaren F1 built and one of 26 completed in 1994. It was ordered by German banker, Thomas Bscher, and was originally painted Genesis Dark Blue. The interior was…
McLaren built nine examples of the first generation F1 GTR from 1995, all of which were raced bar one: chassis 09R. Although demand for the GTR from racing teams was strong, McLaren supplied…
Chassis LM4 was one of six F1s built to LM specification. This figure comprised the prototype (chasiss XP LM) which was retained by McLaren and five customer cars (chassis LM1 to LM5).
Following a successful couple of seasons for the 12C GT3 racing car, McLaren decided to produce a limited batch of GT Sprint variants for those customers that wanted a more focused track-only…
Twelve months after the critically acclaimed 650S had been unveiled as a replacement for the MP4 12C, McLaren presented an even more focused elaboration of the theme at Geneva in March 2015.
In April 1995, McLaren received an approach from Japanese businessman, Motokazu Sayama, who wanted his medical supplies company, Ueno Clinic, to be the title sponsor of an F1 GTR at that…
Although conceived purely for road use, the McLaren F1’s groundbreaking specification meant that, once converted into a top flight GT1 racing car, it had the measure of every other machine on…
Having finished second to Renault in the 2005 Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship with Kimi Raikkonen runner up in the Drivers’ standings and team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya fourth, McLaren…
Aside from the prototype F1 Clinic Model, chassis 060 was one of only two F1 production cars to be painted that colour (the other having been chassis 014 which was Titanium Yellow and delivered to
Chassis 21R was one of four 1997 F1 GTRs supplied to BMW Motorsport. In addition to having created the 6.1-litre engine for McLaren’s F1 supercar programme, BMW Motorsport had purchased three…
Chassis 065 was the 52nd of 64 McLaren F1 production cars built and one of ten completed in 1997. Configured in the most popular F1 colour of Magnesium Silver (one of 18), the interior was…