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McLaren owns and maintains an impressive collection of almost all of their race cars and road vehicles. A group of highly skilled mechanics is in charge of working on these tremendous machines from the past.
Most of these cars are taken to the track on a regular basis. Not long ago, test and reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne took Ayrton Senna's championship-winning McLaren-Honda MP4/4 and MP4/6 for a spin around Silverstone.
[TD="class: caption"]A view of the stored historic McLaren Formula 1 cars (Photo: mclaren.com)[/TD]
Support operations manager Emmanuel Esnault provided details about the McLaren heritage collection.
“We have approximately 200 cars in the heritage fleet, including some non-F1 models such as Can-Am cars, Indy cars, and the McLaren F1 GTRs from the mid-1990s,” he told McLaren.com.
“There's a team of between five and seven people to look after them but we might also call on the skills of people from around the company with prior knowledge of a particular car. We're lucky in this team to have some people who worked on these cars when they were racing. On the other hand, we try to use this department as a stepladder for young mechanics doing their apprenticeship. It gives them the opportunity to learn about racing cars - even though these cars are far different to the current ones,” he continued.
Starting these cars is no turnkey procedure...
“Preparing a car from that period for a proper run is... tricky. For example, we have to use the right computers with hardware that's compatible with the embedded electronics. Before we can work on that car we first need to locate a computer with a working copy of Windows 3.1!” Esnault explained.
[TD="class: caption"]Former McLaren chief mechanic, Neil Trundle. (Photo: René Fagnan)[/TD]
Preparing a McLaren car
How long does it take to prepare a car for a track test?
“The more often the car is running, the less time it takes. The MP4/4 and M23 run so often you basically just push the button and do a minimum of preparation. For something that is rarely demonstrated, the process is much more complicated. If we are asked to run an MP4/17 from 2002 for example, that would be a lot of work. A regularly-run car can be prepared in only 20 man-hours, whereas a rarity may require anything up to 500 man-hours”, the Frenchman answered.
The cars that make the collection are simply outstanding.
“We've got certain cars that are iconic, and those ones are requested quite often: 1988's MP4/4 of course; M23 - the first championship-winning car for McLaren; the 1995 F1 GTR Le Mans-winning car; MP4/13 - the first World Championship-winning car with a Mercedes engine; Lewis Hamilton's MP4-23 from 2008... these cars all run quite often,” Esnault continued
“We have cars that are more exotic and more exclusive but it's often difficult to justify showing them off. For example, we have a very rare 1983 Porsche 911 TAG-turbo. This car has less than 2,000 miles on the clock and is in absolutely mint condition. It was only ever used for engine-mapping the F1 TAG turbo engine. There is nothing else like it”, he detailed.
[TD="class: caption"]The McLaren mechanics working on a McLaren-Honda of Ayrton Senna. (Photo: mclaren.com)[/TD]
Is it possible to keep at these cars in running condition?
“We certainly try to have everything in full running order but it's not always the case that all of them are capable of running at the same time,” he answered.
“One limiting factor is engines: we only have so many in the heritage fleet. I would say that at the moment perhaps 90 per cent of the fleet across all models is capable of doing a lap. We have a complete running car for every season from 1980 onwards but before that we have some holes in the collection.”
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Most of these cars are taken to the track on a regular basis. Not long ago, test and reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne took Ayrton Senna's championship-winning McLaren-Honda MP4/4 and MP4/6 for a spin around Silverstone.
|
[TD="class: caption"]A view of the stored historic McLaren Formula 1 cars (Photo: mclaren.com)[/TD]
Support operations manager Emmanuel Esnault provided details about the McLaren heritage collection.
“We have approximately 200 cars in the heritage fleet, including some non-F1 models such as Can-Am cars, Indy cars, and the McLaren F1 GTRs from the mid-1990s,” he told McLaren.com.
“There's a team of between five and seven people to look after them but we might also call on the skills of people from around the company with prior knowledge of a particular car. We're lucky in this team to have some people who worked on these cars when they were racing. On the other hand, we try to use this department as a stepladder for young mechanics doing their apprenticeship. It gives them the opportunity to learn about racing cars - even though these cars are far different to the current ones,” he continued.
Starting these cars is no turnkey procedure...
“Preparing a car from that period for a proper run is... tricky. For example, we have to use the right computers with hardware that's compatible with the embedded electronics. Before we can work on that car we first need to locate a computer with a working copy of Windows 3.1!” Esnault explained.
|
[TD="class: caption"]Former McLaren chief mechanic, Neil Trundle. (Photo: René Fagnan)[/TD]
Preparing a McLaren car
How long does it take to prepare a car for a track test?
“The more often the car is running, the less time it takes. The MP4/4 and M23 run so often you basically just push the button and do a minimum of preparation. For something that is rarely demonstrated, the process is much more complicated. If we are asked to run an MP4/17 from 2002 for example, that would be a lot of work. A regularly-run car can be prepared in only 20 man-hours, whereas a rarity may require anything up to 500 man-hours”, the Frenchman answered.
The cars that make the collection are simply outstanding.
“We've got certain cars that are iconic, and those ones are requested quite often: 1988's MP4/4 of course; M23 - the first championship-winning car for McLaren; the 1995 F1 GTR Le Mans-winning car; MP4/13 - the first World Championship-winning car with a Mercedes engine; Lewis Hamilton's MP4-23 from 2008... these cars all run quite often,” Esnault continued
“We have cars that are more exotic and more exclusive but it's often difficult to justify showing them off. For example, we have a very rare 1983 Porsche 911 TAG-turbo. This car has less than 2,000 miles on the clock and is in absolutely mint condition. It was only ever used for engine-mapping the F1 TAG turbo engine. There is nothing else like it”, he detailed.
|
[TD="class: caption"]The McLaren mechanics working on a McLaren-Honda of Ayrton Senna. (Photo: mclaren.com)[/TD]
Is it possible to keep at these cars in running condition?
“We certainly try to have everything in full running order but it's not always the case that all of them are capable of running at the same time,” he answered.
“One limiting factor is engines: we only have so many in the heritage fleet. I would say that at the moment perhaps 90 per cent of the fleet across all models is capable of doing a lap. We have a complete running car for every season from 1980 onwards but before that we have some holes in the collection.”
More...