A Ron Dennis Comment .

[Aslak Vind]

Obviously it is HWA who is doing the development with the Mercedes supercar, and McLaren doing the honours with their own project.

The latter probably ending up wighing a lot less than the white elephant, they launched with the SLR.

[andy_b]

dont forget, Mercedes are now tied up with Aston Martin........

[Adam43]

Fact me up! Despite the report in the papers last week about mutterings from Daimler this is still a rumour at this stage. Still maybe McLaren will be building the new Lagonda

[The359]

From my understanding, Lagonda will get some reworked Maybachs, while Aston Martins will get Mercedes-Benz engines.

[Satorian]

Originally Posted by The359

Aston Martins will get Mercedes-Benz engines.

Which I'm absolutely not fond of if they go with their typical AMG engines. I hope they set the AM engine line apart and alter them towards top end power and flatplane arrangements.

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

I don't see Ron's comments hinting anything at Le Mans really. Still cue the usual F1 v Sportscar irrelevance

However, I agree it would be great. '95 was great, and what a fantastic car. The ultimate road car and winner at Le Mans. Wow.

So , if he is not talking about Le mans ..... what other jewel does he have in mind ? They have won Le Mans ..... do you think he wants to play about with a class win ?

And , i didnt say anything about Le Mans ..... but where else would you suggest he would want to be ..... disneyland !!!

I said that he was interested in racing the car ..... i dont think brit GT or FFSA would do the trick , do you ?

It must be a Le Mans thought .

[Mal]

Ron has also said that his vision is to build Mclaren into a sports car company with iconic staus similar to Ferrari.

In this plan will almost certainly be GT2 / 3 race versions of the forthcoming supercar which will be sold to privateers with some factory support in the same way the Ferrari does it.

[CTD]

perhaps they will make a P11 GT1 (2011 rules) car, and take the engine and also make an LMP1, and go for top honours in both Proto and Sports!.

Originally Posted by andy_b

dont forget, Mercedes are now tied up with Aston Martin........

What i can't help thinking is that, with Aston selling its Lmp1 cars, Mclaren talking about maybe entering.
Could Mercedes have told Aston to quit, to give room for Mclaren!? (but this is unlikely!)

[Mal]

Originally Posted by CTD

What i can't help thinking is that, with Aston selling its Lmp1 cars, Mclaren talking about maybe entering.
Could Mercedes have told Aston to quit, to give room for Mclaren!? (but this is unlikely!)

What might make more sense is a joint engine project to be used in a Mclaren GT and Astom LMP

[Sarthe82]

The way I understood it the whole '95 LM effort was instigated by Ray Bellm and Thomas Bscher with enthusiastic support from Gordon Murray, very little encouragement came from Ron. Also can't see another McLaren supercar getting off the ground, especially with Mercedes pushing ahead with their Gullwing for the new millenium and certainly in the current economic climate.
Sorry to be negative but I'm sure after over forty years in F1 Ron would rather put his feet up for a well-earned retirement rather than start a new racing project from scratch.

[Aslak Vind]

Originally Posted by Sarthe82

The way I understood it the whole '95 LM effort was instigated by Ray Bellm and Thomas Bscher with enthusiastic support from Gordon Murray, very little encouragement came from Ron. Also can't see another McLaren supercar getting off the ground, especially with Mercedes pushing ahead with their Gullwing for the new millenium and certainly in the current economic climate.
Sorry to be negative but I'm sure after over forty years in F1 Ron would rather put his feet up for a well-earned retirement rather than start a new racing project from scratch.

I think you are right.

McLaren was very upset, when Bscher wanted to race the F1, and Tomas and Ray basically told McLaren, that they was going to do it anyway. So in the end, McLaren and most of all Gordon Myrray saw it as a great opportunity to market the F1.

[Sarthe82]

Originally Posted by Aslak Vind

I think you are right.

McLaren was very upset, when Bscher wanted to race the F1, and Tomas and Ray basically told McLaren, that they was going to do it anyway. So in the end, McLaren and most of all Gordon Myrray saw it as a great opportunity to market the F1.

Indeed, people also tend to forget that it wasn't exactly a storming sales success. Obviously for such a rareified and fabulous design you're not going to do Corvette-like volumes but even so total production of 107 (of which 65 were road-going) must have been well short of expectations.

[Aslak Vind]

I am told, that Lewis Hamilton was promised the #0001 car exhibitioned at The technology Center, if he won the worldchampionship in F1.

[wheadon]

Mclaren had gordon murrey design an LMP around 97-98 I think. I have seen drawings and wind tunnle models and it loked way ahead of it's time even back then. But mclaren didn't get the backing from merc and they pulled the plug. What was interesting was that it was to be a customer car and not a works effort. Bit like the 333sp

[GT6]

Originally Posted by Sarthe82

Indeed, people also tend to forget that it wasn't exactly a storming sales success. Obviously for such a rareified and fabulous design you're not going to do Corvette-like volumes but even so total production of 107 (of which 65 were road-going) must have been well short of expectations.

For Mclaren a good deal of money would have come from non car sales related to this model. The value of the car for them would have also come from sales of associated goods and licenced merchandising, think of how many models etc were sold.

[Sarthe82]

Originally Posted by GT6

For Mclaren a good deal of money would have come from non car sales related to this model. The value of the car for them would have also come from sales of associated goods and licenced merchandising, think of how many models etc were sold.

Good point, I wonder how much Ferrari and Porsche have made from that over the years.

[andy_b]

ok few things, without me getting in trouble....

Wheadon is correct. McLaren Cars did work on a LMP around 98. Very much a customer car. Never saw the drawings, but its public knowledge

F1 - In reality, McLaren didn't make much (open for discussion) on the F1 roadcar. However, it did make money on the race cars, partly the cars themselves, but as GT6 says, mainly on the parts, particuarly bodywork and other parts. This was part of the reason that DPR ended up doing their own bodywork and updates for 1996. DPR have their own (very good) composites company)

As GT6 says, there were some licencing tie-in's with McLaren too.

I've heard a number of stories about how the GTR came about, but Aslak was correct in that Bscher and Bellm apparently approached McLaren. The car was never designed to race, and in some respects it was a little compromised. I ended up working on some of the liveries (Gulf, West and a few others that didnt see the light of day), before I made it to McLaren, before it was announced in 94

Last thing. There were many talented engineers and designers at McLaren Cars at that point like Gordon Murray, Barry Lett and a number of people from GT racing like Jeff Hazzell. All have departed now, so it will be interested to see what happens.

[duke_toaster]

That is how motorsport development can be profitable : lose money on the cars, make it on the spares. I wonder how much Jonny Palmer makes from his empire and what a Ron-style lower level single seater would be like ...

An in-house McLaren LMP programme would be a mouthwatering thing to see. As would McLaren trying any other form of motorsport.

[Aslak Vind]

A bit offtopic: Loved Bscher´s story about the servicecall from McLaren, from a baffled McLaren engineer, who asked Tomas if he had noticed something wrong with the datalogger and telemetri in the car?

"Why?," asked Tomas. Well, we have recorded several sprints above 370 km/h. That must be wrong...?

Tomas answered the poor engineer.. "No, nothing is wrong. I am using the F1 as a mean of transportation between my home and the bank where I work. The Autobahn is free and almost without bends.. It has to run"

The engineer hung up

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by Aslak Vind

A bit offtopic: Loved Bscher´s story about the servicecall from McLaren, from a baffled McLaren engineer, who asked Tomas if he had noticed something wrong with the datalogger and telemetri in the car?

"Why?," asked Tomas. Well, we have recorded several sprints above 370 km/h. That must be wrong...?

Tomas answered the poor engineer.. "No, nothing is wrong. I am using the F1 as a mean of transportation between my home and the bank where I work. The Autobahn is free and almost without bends.. It has to run"

The engineer hung up

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Aslak Vind

I am told, that Lewis Hamilton was promised the #0001 car exhibitioned at The technology Center, if he won the worldchampionship in F1.

I beleive it is if he wins it three times...

[duke_toaster]

Yes, three times. They have presented him with a scale model though

[lukebarcelos]

I would like to see Mclaren back to Le Mans!!!

Imagine a possibility of Lewis Hamilton run at Le Mans...

[JAG]

Murray always seemed to be the driving force behind the F1 GTR, and now of course he is an adviser to the ACO.

[deggis]

I wonder what did he exactly do in the process with ACO. I don't want to believe the 40 cm shorter rear wings idea came from a guy who designed best looking car ever