VIN: the Team Lark / John Studholme / Adrian Newey McLaren F1 GTR chassis 14R
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
