Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Mallett
This was my point.
No argument from me. I watched Le Mans a couple of weeks ago and noted the presence of "road going" Porsche 911s. I'm sure they were modified but nonetheless were probably the last time race modified road cars were entered. The McLaren was always homologated for racing and thus needed relatively little modification to race. The Viper was a complete beast in anything but road going trim. I once saw someone with one on a track display at Spa. Must have spun at every corner!
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Whilst agreeing with the points that you make, the McLaren F1 was never intended to race when first conceived, this was the clear position at the time from Ron Dennis, Gordon Murray and Peter Stevens. Ray Bellm forced their hand in '94 when he declared his intention to enter BPR in '95. They figured that if the car was going to race then they should control the project, and also profit from it. Bellm also recruited Thomas Bscher and Lindsay Owen-Jones to purchase cars, the three F1 GTRs appeared at Jerez in February '95 and the rest is history.