McLaren F1 turns 20

The iconic British built McLaren F1 is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Born in March 1990 and launched on May 28th 1992 in Monaco, the McLaren F1 was a pioneer and the benchmark for supercars for many years. 
In 1994 the McLaren F1 was being sold at a price tag of no less then 540,000 GBP which made it the most expensive car in the world at that time. Besided the F1, McLaren also produced versions like the F1 LM , F1 GT anf F1 GTR, with the most powerful beeing the F1 LM Roadcar which extracted power from a BMW sourced V12 engine that produced 680 BHP.
In October 2008, a McLaren F1 supercar was sold at an auction for 2.53
million GBP and another interesting fact is that in 2010 the McLaren F1 still holds the world
record for the fastest naturally aspirated production car.
For more interesting details regarding the McLaren F1 follow the jump for the official press release.
McLaren press release :
In 1988, McLaren took the decision to expand from Formula One and
design and build “the finest sports car the world had ever seen”. In
March 1990 the team that was to create the F1 came together for the
first time.  In its 20th anniversary year, the McLaren F1 is considered
by most people to be one of the greatest cars of all time.   Its
exclusivity, technical innovation, racing provenance, revolutionary
packaging and extraordinary driving experience have made it an icon.
Just two years later, the McLaren F1 road car was launched to the
world on 28th May 1992 in Monaco, with the first production car
delivered to its proud owner in December 1993.
The F1 defines the McLaren road car DNA
McLaren is a carbon pioneer. The McLaren Formula 1 team was the first
team in Formula 1 to use a carbon fibre chassis in 1981. Nine years on,
these Formula 1 techniques were developed to create the carbon monocoque
for the McLaren F1: the resulting structure weighed just 100kg whilst
offering the highest levels of strength and safety. The bare carbon
fibre passenger doors weighed just 7 kg each (which included the weight
of the side intrusion beam).
The F1 defined the McLaren road car DNA: low weight, low polar moment
of inertia, clever packaging, superb quality and innovative design,
resulting in an outstanding driving experience.
The F1 bristles with innovative design. The central driving position,
which ensures superb visibility and no compromise on control positions
for the driver; the pannier side lockers providing unprecedented levels
of luggage capacity in a car of this type; the patented suspension
system to provide both control and ride quality.
The F1 was launched at a price of £540,000 in 1994, and over the
course of the next four years 64 F1, 5 F1 LM and 3 F1 GT road cars were
produced, together with 28 F1 GTR race cars.  An additional six
prototypes were produced.
In October 2008, a delivery mileage F1 was sold at auction for £2.53
million, underlining the F1’s status as one of the great motoring icons.
Taking a road car to the track
In 1994, after pressure from owners, McLaren developed a racing version
of the F1 road car to run in the FIA GT1 category in the 1995 season.
Despite a design and development period of just 3 months, the F1 GTR
swept all before it, winning not only the 1995 GT1 Championship, but
also the 24 Heures du Mans on its debut. McLaren not only won, but
dominated the rain-soaked endurance race, finishing in 1st, 3rd, 4th,
5th and 13th places.
The Le Mans winning F1 GTR was piloted by J.J. Lehto, Yannick Dalmas
and Masanori Sekiya.  Lehto’s performance through the night on a
treacherous circuit has been hailed as one of the great racing
performances of all time, taking up to 10 seconds a lap off the cars in
front of him. The winning car is proudly displayed at the McLaren
Technology Centre in exactly the condition that it finished Le Mans in
1995.
Thus the F1 GTR secured for McLaren a unique position in motor racing
history, as the only manufacturer to win the Formula 1 World
Championship, the Indianapolis 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours. 
McLaren decided to celebrate the extraordinary result at Le Mans by
creating 5 F1 LM road cars, one for each F1 that finished this most
grueling of races. Launched in McLaren Orange, as used on Bruce
McLaren’s race cars the 1960s and 70s, and with a derestricted race
engine, the LM is not only the most powerful of all F1 variants, but
also the most valuable. Formula 1 fans will recognize this as the car
which Lewis Hamilton has set his heart on owning. 
In 1997, the final iteration of the F1 road car project was built.
The F1 GT was built solely to fulfil the new homologation rules for the
1997 GTR race car, of which 10 examples were produced in the same year.
Both the GT road car and the 1997 GTR race cars became known as the
‘Longtail’, because of the longer front and rear overhangs for improved
downforce when racing. Although McLaren only had to build one car for
homologation purposes, two more were built following requests from
existing F1 owners.
In 1998, with a total of 106 of all variants built and its production
run complete, the McLaren F1 went on to achieve its greatest feat
outside competitive motorsport.  McLaren development and race driver
Andy Wallace took XP5, the fifth and final prototype F1 with some 45,000
hard test miles on the clock, to the Ehra-Lessien proving ground in
Germany.  It was here on 31st March 1998 that the howling V12 propelled
him to an amazing 240.1mph. Over 12 years later, this remains a world
record for a naturally aspirated production car.
Back to the F1 future
On 27th April 2010, McLaren Automotive celebrated the 20th
Anniversary of the start of the F1 programme by inviting F1 owners past
and present to a celebration dinner at the McLaren Technology Centre in
Woking, England. The following day, after an insight into McLaren
Automotive’s exciting plans for a future range of high performance
sports cars, the owners were treated to a display of  21 McLaren F1 road
and race cars, the largest number of F1 cars ever assembled in one
place.
Ron Dennis, McLaren Automotive Executive Chairman, said:
“The F1 is a technological tour-de-force and a real triumph in terms
of packaging and design.  Whether endurance racing or on road, it is
supremely fast, agile and yet comfortable. Its styling is enduring and
will never fade. I enjoy driving mine more today than ever before
because I find its technical purity highly satisfying; the F1 remains
one of McLaren’s proudest achievements.”
With the launch of McLaren Automotive as a new car company announced
in March 2010, the company begins production planning for an entire
range of high performance sports, designed and built in-house by
McLaren. The first in this range will be the MP4-12C.
The 12C shares much of the design philosophy that was applied to the
McLaren F1. Starting with the new car’s MonoCell, a one-piece carbon
fibre chassis that is stiff, light and ensures occupant safety, every
component has been designed to ensure the car is lightweight, nimble and
able to deliver ultimate performance.  When the 12C launches in 2011,
it will be the first in the ‘core’ sports car sector to offer a carbon
chassis, and the first road car ever with a one-piece, moulded carbon
chassis.
From the outset, the 12C has been ‘designed around the driver’. 
Outstanding aerodynamic efficiency and bespoke technologies including
Proactive Chassis Control, Seamless Shift dual-clutch Gearbox (SSG),
Brake Steer and the 12C’s unique Airbrake feature in a car which has
been developed using Formula 1 simulator technology.   The new high
performance sports car from McLaren will be sold initially through 35
retailers in 19 different countries around the world from Spring 2011.
McLaren’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of the F1 will continue
throughout the year.
McLaren enthusiasts will have the opportunity to see both the F1 and
12C together at this summer’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, which takes
place at the famous English motorsport venue from 2-4 July 2010.
Technical specifications of each McLaren F1 derivative are detailed
below.