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  McLaren MP4/8 Ford      

  Article Image gallery (14) MP4-8A-6 Specifications User Comments (1)  
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Country of origin:Great Britain
Produced in:1993
Numbers built:8
Designed by:Neil Oatley for McLaren
Author:Wouter Melissen
Last updated:October 12, 2010
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 McLaren MP4/8B  
HoldenV8
12-22-2011
 Does anyone know if anything other than a few photo's exist of the MP4/8B that McLaren built to test the Lamborghini V12 engine? From all reports it was faster than the race car (Häkkinen lapped Silverstone 1.4 seconds faster than he had in the Ford powered car while Senna was reportedly nearly 2 seconds faster at Portugal). Senna even asked Ron Dennis about the chance of ditching the Ford V8 for the Japanese GP (which he won anyway) and racing the V12. Apparently he didn't care much about reliability, just that with the V12 behind him he would be bloody quick. Dennis said no, foolishly jumped into bed with Peugeot instead of Chrysler and fate took Senna to Williams in 1994.

Senna helped develop that Lambo V12 more in 2 months than had been done since 1989. He told Forghieri to kill top end power and replace it with fatter mid range torque. Because it was Senna, someone he admired and respected greatly, Forghieri did this and while 25hp was lost up top, all round the engine gained some 60hp and became a 700+hp weapon with the promise of more to come. It compared well with Renault's already highly developed V10 and Ferrari's V12 which were producing around 700hp and the Ford V8 used by Benetton & McLaren which was only about 650hp.

  Article Image gallery (14) MP4-8A-6 Specifications User Comments (1)  
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