McLaren F1 GTR Long Tail and F1 LM in great detail ...
At this weekend's Spa 24 Hours McLaren will return to the sports car racing fray with the all-new MP4-12C GT3. This inspired us to take a look at the last McLaren sports racer as well as a limited edition McLaren built to celebrate the company's legendary win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Developed for the 1997 season, the F1 GTR Longtail was the third and final evolution of the F1 GTR that had taken Le Mans by storm two years earlier. Compared to the two earlier version, it featured a much more aggressive and longer body, which earned it its nickname. This was a response to the purpose-built racing cars fielded by the likes of Porsche and Mercedes-Benz that exploited a loophole in the regulations. Despite its road-car origins, the Longtail F1 GTR was remarkably competitive, scoring five victories in the inaugural FIA GT Championship and winning its class at Le Mans. In the last three years we have seen four of the ten examples produced. They can be found in our exclusive 30-shot gallery and detailed history of the final evolution of the McLaren F1.
One of the rarest F1 variants is the LM. Announced late in 1995, it was built to celebrate the win at Le Mans and honouring the five F1 GTRs that reached the finish, production was strictly limited to five examples. The LM featured a GTR inspired body-kit and a 680 bhp version of the V12 engine. Today this version of the F1 is only very rarely seen with most locked away in private collection. One exception is the F1 LM featured, which is the prototype and is today still owned by McLaren. It could change hands in the near future as the car has been promised to Lewis Hamilton if he manages to win three F1 driver's titles for McLaren.
Enjoy the links:
[url="http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/3173/McLaren-F1-GTR-Longtail.html"]1997 McLaren F1 GTR Longtail - Images, Specifications and Information[/url]
[url="http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/351/McLaren-F1-LM.html"]1995 McLaren F1 LM - Images, Specifications and Information[/url]
Mc Laren F1 LM GTR Chassis#06R
Just a little addition to the History of chassis #06R: for the FIA GT World Championship Season 1997 Martin Veyhle Racing of Leonberg, Germany bought the Harrods Car which was before converted to 1996 spec. The Drivers of the now silver/blue car were Sandy Grau (former DTM and F3) and Gerd Ruch (1996 GT2 World-Champion). But as they had to understand, that there was no chance to gain any reasonable results against the Longtail Cars of the Factories of BMW and AMG they decided to switch over to a Lotus Elise GTR from Toine Hezemans that performed even worse (tested 480 HP against est. 600HP of the Works entries...). Thank You Wouter for Your magnificient Site though!!
