McLaren F1 - The Best

by Mike -

McLaren Automotive designed and built the McLaren F1 in the early 1990s, arguably the best street sports car ever produced.

The unique features:

* The engine is a BMW 6 liter V12 producing 627 hp.

* A weight of only 2,509 pounds.

* The first carbon-fiber monocoque used in a road car.

* An active fan assisted ground effect system.

* A central driving position with a passenger on each side of the driver and just to the rear of the driver. This same driving position was also used in the Bizzarrini Manta concept car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, his first design for his new firm Italdesign.

The F1 held the speed record for a street car for many years at 240.1 MPH. This record was beaten by the 1000 hp Bugatti Veyron and again by the 806 hp Konigsegg CCR in 2005.

An F1 won The 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995.

There were only 107 F1s produced between 1994 and 1998. There were different body styles: 64 of the original style without any wings, 5 F1 LMs to commemorate the Le Mans victory, 3 F1 GTs (for homologation purposes), 28 F1 GTR race cars and 7 prototypes.

Gordon Murray was the chief designer and Peter Stevens was the chief stylist.

Every car lover would like to have one of these but with only 107 there are not enough to go around.

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Various Cars

by Mike - 

We were walking by the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on Christmas Day, 2010. It was closed but mounted outside was The Black Beauty, the car from the movie The Green Hornet. This is something you don't see everyday.

A couple of days earlier we were driving to Los Angeles on Interstate 5 (about 75 miles north of Grapevine heading south) and passed this rusted Alfa Romeo on a trailer. Hopefully it was on the way to the shop to be restored.

This car below is a custom bodied Iso Rivolta known as the "Iso Daytona". It was waiting its turn at the RM Auction in Monterey, August 2010. It sold for $522,500.

The new McLaren MP4-12C at Pebble Beach, August 2010.

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