January 10, 2005
McLaren F1
Introduction:
The design brief for the McLaren F1 was a refreshingly simple one: to create the greatest supercar ever built. For the team led by design director Gordon Murray money was, effectively, no object - McLaren wanted to make a car to draw clear parallels with the company's F1 heritage and take a share of the then-booming supercar market. The statistics say it all: 627 bhp, a top speed of 231 mph and a pricetag (including VAT) of £634,500. Unfortunately, by the time the F1 went on sale in 1994 the extreme supercar market had crashed and volumes were only a fraction of those anticipated: just 100 road-going cars were sold before production finished in 1997.