McLaren F1

The F1 genuinely was a production car in the spirit the ACO had intended
In the early 1990s the ACO looked back to its roots, shifting focus from the increasingly esoteric Group C cars towards production-based GTs people could identify with.

So Le Mans welcomed ‘real’ cars again – including, in 1994, the Ferrari F40, Honda NSX, Mazda RX7, Bugatti EB110S, Ferrari 348, Dodge Viper, De Tomaso Pantera, Venturi 400GTR and 600LM, Callaway Corvette, Lotus Esprit, Nissan 300ZX and, of course, various more or less road-related versions of the 911.

But while that year’s winning Dauer 962LM Porsche was accepted as a GT car, it was really a 600bhp LM Prototype clone with a big fuel tank. It won the GT category by 71 laps, and overall by a single lap from the ‘real’ LM Prototype Toyota 94CV.

Even with its £650,000 price tag, the McLaren F1, on the other hand, genuinely was a production car in the spirit the ACO had intended. As an endurance racer, however, the F1 GTR, launched in February 1995, was largely an unknown quantity. It was dominating the Global GT series, but those were sprint races and the GTR had never done an endurance race. Nor had it raced in the wet – of which Le Mans 1995 promised plenty.

The mandatory 600bhp restrictor probably meant the GTR had less power than the road car, and there was little opportunity to lose weight, but the central driving position suited racing, and Gordon Murray’s preparations were thorough, if largely untested. Seeing the transmission as potentially a weak link, its oil system was modified, and all but one car adopted carbon brakes – not only for performance but for durability and weight saving.

No fewer than seven GTRs were entered, including GTR 001, the McLaren development car leased to Kokuhai Kaihtso UK for GP drivers JJ Lehto and Yannick Dalmas and Le Mans regular Masanori Sekiya. It was fastest of the GTRs in qualifying (for Lehto), but surprisingly not fastest GT1 – behind three F40s.
The McLaren entry also included Andy Wallace with father-and-son pairing Derek and Justin Bell in the Harrods-sponsored Mach 1 Racing car; Bellm, Sala and Blundell for GTC Gulf Racing; Giroid, Grouillard and Deletraz in the GRT Jacadi Racing car; Maury-Laribière, Poulain and Sourd for BBA Competition; Bscher, Nielsen and Mass for West Competition; and Owen-Jones, Raphanel and Alliot in another GTC Gulf Racing GTR.

The GTRs’ true pace soon became evident. By lap one, Nielsen was fourth overall, and one or other McLaren would lead all but eleven of the 298 laps. They proved to be quick in the wet, which meant around two-thirds of the race, and before long they were mainly racing each other.

For a while it looked as though there might be a fairytale ending for five-times winner Bell and crew. But clutch problems cost Bell senior a pit stop long enough to lose the lead, which was taken and held to the finish by the Dalmas, Lehto and Sekiya GTR.

Wallace and the Bells held on to third overall, with Bellm, Sala and Blundell fourth, and the GRT car fifth. It was a spectacular result – a road car winning Le Mans. They returned each year until 1999, and even as cars like the Porsche 911 GT1, Mercedes CLK-LM and Toyota GT One stretched the ‘production’ rules to extremes, McLarens took fourth and fifth in 1996, second and third in 1997 (winning GT1), and fourth in 1998, when Porsche’s GT1 won.

They were great days.