Mclaren f1 speeds of 240 mph, The car that reached 231 mph at the Fiat owned Nardo test track in Italy and the car that did 240.1 mph at the VW test track in Erha Lessien in Germany was NOT a production Mclaren F1 road car it was the XP5 , experimental prototype. suposedly its the same as a production F1 but the performance numbers don't match up.
Autocar & Motor fully road tested the XP5 and its quotes the top speed as 221 mph ( redline limited ).
Road & Track January 1995 they had thier fourth annual worlds fastest cars issue . R & T invited the following Bugatti EB 110 S ,Jaguar XJ220, Lamborghini Diablo SE, Mclaren F1 and Ruf Porsche BTR.
heres a quote. " Lamborghini was not interested because a normal Diablo had reached just over 200 mph at our previous meeting . and after long discussions, Mclaren did not send a car. this requires some comments. Last June, when i ( Paul Frere ) had dinner with Gordon Murray, Mclarens technical boss , and Jonathan Palmer,
The Formula 1 driver of the eighties and now development test driver and marketing director for the Mclaren road car, I told them the tentive dates for R & T's top-speed tests were September 24-25, 1994 a date later confimed that could not be changed as it had bee VW's choice.
On the telephone Jonathan Palmers's secretary told me that Johathan would not be availble that weekend. I replied that surely someone else could bring the car to Germany and confirmed the date.
When i called with final details, I was Shocked to hear Mclaren would not send the car only because Johnathan was authorized to drive for such tests. I argued that the cars would be in fairly good hands, Those of Phil Hill and myself, both former Formula 1 drivers and Le Mans winners and Phil a World Champion to boot ! and both of us are still in almost daily contact with very fast cars. But Mclaren remained steadfast and did not participate. "
to my kwonlege no customer Mclaren F1 road car was ever tested independantly until Road & Track did a full road test with the exception of a top speed test in its December 1997 issue and its performance numbers were not as fast as the Autocar & Motor numbers for the XP5, here is the numbers side by side.
0-30 - F1 1.7 - XP5 - 1.8
0-40 - F1 2.3 - XP5 - 2.3
0-50 - F1 2.9 - XP5 - 2.7
0-60 - F1 3.4 - XP5 - 3.2
0-70 - F1 4.5 - XP5 - 3.9
0-80 - F1 5.3 - XP5 - 4.5
0-90 - F1 6.1 - XP5 - 5.6
0-100 -F1 7.7 - XP5 - 6.3
0-110 -F1 8.8 - XP5 - 7.2
1-120 -F1 10.5- XP5 - 9.2
1/4 mile F1 11.6@125mph - XP5 - 11.1@138 mph.
now the numbers are almost the same until 50 mph when the XP5 gets noticibly faster and the 1/4 mile trap speed there is a big differance. the XP5 is a half second faster in the E/T and 13 mph faster in the trap speed thats a huge difference.
now a the same customer Mclaren F1 road car was FINALLY road tested for top speed by Road & Track in thier R & T road tests issue 1999.
the Mclaren F1 was driven by the Great Mario Andretti to a top speed of 217.7 mph at the 7.712-mile highspeed oval in Fort Stockton, Texas.
the condtions were ideal for top speed tests and Mario took advantage of the cool morning air. here is a quote after Mario tested the F1.
" Overall , a very impressive car. But i was really suprised at how areodynamically unstable it was. Absolutely unstable. I was taking coners at about 200 mph, but probably could have taken then quite a bit quicker if the back end hadn't wanted to keep hagning itself out.
This really caught me by suprise. I never thought it was going to move around the way it did. Also, the speedometer was really optimstic, indicating that i had hit 240 mph, when i was really only going 217. Nevertheless, it's the only car that i actually had to use the brakes before gooing into the coners to feel safe. That was a very scary 217."
Now you cant go by speedometers because thier not accurate, Car and Driver tested the Viper GTS ,Acura NSX and the Porsche 996 twin turbo in its July 1997 issue. and brought this issue up. the NSX indicated top speed was 174 mph on the speedometer and it was measured at 170.03 mph the GTS was actually faster then its speed indicated of 184 when it was really doing 188.70 mph, and the Porsche TT was really optimistic indicating it was doing 200 mph when its true speed was only 181.17 mph now thats a difference of 19 mph.
Ferrari claimed its F50 could do 202 mph , Car and Drive asked Ferrari North America if they could measure the F50s speed thier response was " No , theres is no press car. " fair enough , not many car companys hand out half-million dollar machines to writers who will thrash them on the track. Car and Driver asked owners to let them test thier cars and 4 owners agreed then one by one backed out , saying they where pressured by FNA not to lend thier cars out to Car and Driver. Finally C & D got at the only F50 that was owned out right at the time F50s owners had to lease the F50 from Ferrari for 2 years before they became a outright owner.
Andy Evans loaned is car which was owned outright and in Car and Driver January 1997 the F50 reached a top speed of " ONLY " 194 mph with Andy driving and that was 14o rpms into the reline. now this is NOT the same as the factory claimed 202 mph and it was suposed to do a 1.2 G on the skidpad and it only did 0.95 G, in fact NO road going Ferrari has ever did 200 mph and that should change with the F60.
The Best the F40 went was 197 mph ( R & T 91 ) and the 550 didn't do the factory claimed 199 mph Motor Trend ( July 99 ) tested it to 194 mph the same as a F50 which has more horsepower and weighs less.
NO Mclaren road car has ever done 231 mph or 240 mph , does this take anything away from the car? NO its still a great car and until someone else tests a F1 road car the best it has done was 217.7 mph.
Autocar & Motor fully road tested the XP5 and its quotes the top speed as 221 mph ( redline limited ).
Road & Track January 1995 they had thier fourth annual worlds fastest cars issue . R & T invited the following Bugatti EB 110 S ,Jaguar XJ220, Lamborghini Diablo SE, Mclaren F1 and Ruf Porsche BTR.
heres a quote. " Lamborghini was not interested because a normal Diablo had reached just over 200 mph at our previous meeting . and after long discussions, Mclaren did not send a car. this requires some comments. Last June, when i ( Paul Frere ) had dinner with Gordon Murray, Mclarens technical boss , and Jonathan Palmer,
The Formula 1 driver of the eighties and now development test driver and marketing director for the Mclaren road car, I told them the tentive dates for R & T's top-speed tests were September 24-25, 1994 a date later confimed that could not be changed as it had bee VW's choice.
On the telephone Jonathan Palmers's secretary told me that Johathan would not be availble that weekend. I replied that surely someone else could bring the car to Germany and confirmed the date.
When i called with final details, I was Shocked to hear Mclaren would not send the car only because Johnathan was authorized to drive for such tests. I argued that the cars would be in fairly good hands, Those of Phil Hill and myself, both former Formula 1 drivers and Le Mans winners and Phil a World Champion to boot ! and both of us are still in almost daily contact with very fast cars. But Mclaren remained steadfast and did not participate. "
to my kwonlege no customer Mclaren F1 road car was ever tested independantly until Road & Track did a full road test with the exception of a top speed test in its December 1997 issue and its performance numbers were not as fast as the Autocar & Motor numbers for the XP5, here is the numbers side by side.
0-30 - F1 1.7 - XP5 - 1.8
0-40 - F1 2.3 - XP5 - 2.3
0-50 - F1 2.9 - XP5 - 2.7
0-60 - F1 3.4 - XP5 - 3.2
0-70 - F1 4.5 - XP5 - 3.9
0-80 - F1 5.3 - XP5 - 4.5
0-90 - F1 6.1 - XP5 - 5.6
0-100 -F1 7.7 - XP5 - 6.3
0-110 -F1 8.8 - XP5 - 7.2
1-120 -F1 10.5- XP5 - 9.2
1/4 mile F1 11.6@125mph - XP5 - 11.1@138 mph.
now the numbers are almost the same until 50 mph when the XP5 gets noticibly faster and the 1/4 mile trap speed there is a big differance. the XP5 is a half second faster in the E/T and 13 mph faster in the trap speed thats a huge difference.
now a the same customer Mclaren F1 road car was FINALLY road tested for top speed by Road & Track in thier R & T road tests issue 1999.
the Mclaren F1 was driven by the Great Mario Andretti to a top speed of 217.7 mph at the 7.712-mile highspeed oval in Fort Stockton, Texas.
the condtions were ideal for top speed tests and Mario took advantage of the cool morning air. here is a quote after Mario tested the F1.
" Overall , a very impressive car. But i was really suprised at how areodynamically unstable it was. Absolutely unstable. I was taking coners at about 200 mph, but probably could have taken then quite a bit quicker if the back end hadn't wanted to keep hagning itself out.
This really caught me by suprise. I never thought it was going to move around the way it did. Also, the speedometer was really optimstic, indicating that i had hit 240 mph, when i was really only going 217. Nevertheless, it's the only car that i actually had to use the brakes before gooing into the coners to feel safe. That was a very scary 217."
Now you cant go by speedometers because thier not accurate, Car and Driver tested the Viper GTS ,Acura NSX and the Porsche 996 twin turbo in its July 1997 issue. and brought this issue up. the NSX indicated top speed was 174 mph on the speedometer and it was measured at 170.03 mph the GTS was actually faster then its speed indicated of 184 when it was really doing 188.70 mph, and the Porsche TT was really optimistic indicating it was doing 200 mph when its true speed was only 181.17 mph now thats a difference of 19 mph.
Ferrari claimed its F50 could do 202 mph , Car and Drive asked Ferrari North America if they could measure the F50s speed thier response was " No , theres is no press car. " fair enough , not many car companys hand out half-million dollar machines to writers who will thrash them on the track. Car and Driver asked owners to let them test thier cars and 4 owners agreed then one by one backed out , saying they where pressured by FNA not to lend thier cars out to Car and Driver. Finally C & D got at the only F50 that was owned out right at the time F50s owners had to lease the F50 from Ferrari for 2 years before they became a outright owner.
Andy Evans loaned is car which was owned outright and in Car and Driver January 1997 the F50 reached a top speed of " ONLY " 194 mph with Andy driving and that was 14o rpms into the reline. now this is NOT the same as the factory claimed 202 mph and it was suposed to do a 1.2 G on the skidpad and it only did 0.95 G, in fact NO road going Ferrari has ever did 200 mph and that should change with the F60.
The Best the F40 went was 197 mph ( R & T 91 ) and the 550 didn't do the factory claimed 199 mph Motor Trend ( July 99 ) tested it to 194 mph the same as a F50 which has more horsepower and weighs less.
NO Mclaren road car has ever done 231 mph or 240 mph , does this take anything away from the car? NO its still a great car and until someone else tests a F1 road car the best it has done was 217.7 mph.
