McLaren F1 still pimp

[TopGearNL]

Originally Posted by sameerrao Fuck the naysayers - the F1 is the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Couldn't have said it better

[philip]

Glad you liked the picture, here is a better one. I've only seen two in real life, the one in Monterey and this one on display in the *ucking Boston Museum of Fine Arts two years ago. It was about the car as art. I do n't think I need to say any more except:



It belongs to Ralph Lauren. He does n't own a Vector and never will and its still the fastest production car ever made.

[nthfinity]

Originally Posted by philip Glad you liked the picture, here is a better one. I've only seen two in real life, the one in Monterey and this one on display in the *ucking Boston Museum of Fine Arts two years ago. It was about the car as art. I do n't think I need to say any more except: It belongs to Ralph Lauren. He does n't own a Vector and never will and its still the fastest production car ever made.

You know that Ralf Lauren doesn't drive his cars, right?

And, who's to say that Ralf didn't place an order when Suharto took illegally took over the Vector Aeromotive coorperation

there are far more people who don't have a Vector then those who do... and each who does own one knows how special it is.

you think thats "beautiful" hehe... you should see JP's "mirror black" W8... the only one in that finish with arguably the greatest paint specialist of the 20th century creating the mix, and applying it personally.

[IMKAOS]

considering a service costs $75k I don't think u would get much for a $300k restoration....?

[philip]

Ralph when he was younger drove his Porsche, or at least I have a photo of him at the track with his Porsche with a helmet with his beautiful wife by his side both looking very fashionable. His 959 at the Museum looked carefully driven.

I would love to have a Vector, in the 80's they were the exotic car. I hear they are bad about self combustion and the build quality was rudimentary. Some where I learned about a government sale a year ago and two were sold there (owned by drug lords or something like that). I'll try and find the source, I don't think it was JW post.

Sports Car Market Magizine Price Guide list Vector W8's for only $130,000.00 with only 18 total cars made. Seems too low to me for a car with that much of a following and only 18 made.

There was a Sean Connery movie in the '80's that featured the car. My memory the car and sushi scenes were the best part.

[TNT]

ok maybe just because the Vector was made in low numbers doesn't mean its great. sure its a good car and has some speed. but its like comparing a Caterham to a Ferrari.... sure they are both fast but one is barn yard fast and the other is R&D fast.

[360modenalover]

Does anybody know how many mclaren F1's are on the road these days?

[pagani]

Originally Posted by sentra_dude Originally Posted by pagani I am all for the mclaren f1 Still the best supercar in the world. But it would like mine whit a updated suspension setup and maby some bigger and lighter wheels and new carbon ceramic braking setup. 8) 8) Its funny you say that, because there is an F1 owner (flemke from pistonheads) currently working on that right now. He is in the process of updating the brakes as well as updating the suspension. He is having wheels specially made that are lighter and larger than stock. In addition, so he will have a long and secure supply of tires, the wheels are made so the tires used on the Enzo (& CGT I believe) fit the wheels. 8) Its a long and involved process, but since the owner considers the car to be the greatest car in the world, he thinks its worth it! From flemke: "The manufacture of the new, final wheels is in motion. Some of the final suspension bits also. We've spent several months scoping out what to do about brakes. It is an extremely complicated area, and we could end up doing anything from improved unservo'd iron to unservo'd carbon/ceramic to servo'd carbon/ceramic to carbon/carbon." ---------- More background: "A substantial part of the handling, er, 'idiosyncrasies' stems from the F1's tyres. They are quite compliant, with that tall 45 aspect ratio and a surprisingly lightweight construction. That makes for a very comfortable ride but at the expense of stability. I wanted more of the latter. I'll spare you some (but not all) of my verbosity, but for a better tyre we settled on the Bridgestones designed for the Enzo. They satisfied all of the many criteria that we had. Unfortunately they are 3kg each heavier than the originals. That's extra weight in nearly the worst possible place, but such is life. The need for different tyres that fit on bigger wheels (19 v. 17) and which at the back are wider too created the need for different wheels. The F1 has centre-lock hubs with a bespoke diameter and pitch, so we needed to make new wheels from scratch. BBS made up the two-piece wheels that are in the photo. We needed them to test the tyres. Now that we know that the tyres are right, and what we want the rim widths to be (you might choose different rim widths for a single tyre width), I'll have permanent wheels made. I will start with some 19" replicas of the originals and may later get a set in a very simple, classical design. The originals are forged mag and very light. I have been informed that, because of the soundness of the original design, I can get 19" versions in forged mag, cast mag and 2021 aluminium that will weigh no more than the originals. Different wheel makers are recommending different materials. In each case, the material that they are recommending happens to be the same material in which they specialise - how amazing. Their extra weight notwithstanding, the new tyres are a huge improvement on the old ones." Pistonheads topic: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/t...&h=0&hw=flemke

Flemke is da man!!
I have huge respect for this sort of people.
And i posted that topic here i believe.
The mclaren f1 is still the fastest na production car in the world bar none.
8) 8)

[pagani]

Here are some pics of flemke's mclaren f1.
And some basics info on the car.
http://www.mclarenfreak.com/cardetail_4.html
8) 8)

[TopGearNL]

Hmm interesting Pagani 8)

[Stoopie]

Originally Posted by dani_d_mas Originally Posted by nthfinity Jay leno put it this way recently "I had the F1 in for service, and found out they changed the windshield wiper blade because it was old. I told them I don't take it out in the rain, EVER. That wiper blade cost $1,500. It makes me concerned to ever take the car out, as I know what the final cost will be; God forbid I get hit, or hit somebody." Ask Rowan Atkinson (aka Mr. Bean) - he crashed his Macca against a MG Metro

Just to refresh our memories:

[nthfinity]

Originally Posted by TNT ok maybe just because the Vector was made in low numbers doesn't mean its great. sure its a good car and has some speed. but its like comparing a Caterham to a Ferrari.... sure they are both fast but one is barn yard fast and the other is R&D fast.

Originally Posted by philip Ralph when he was younger drove his Porsche, or at least I have a photo of him at the track with his Porsche with a helmet with his beautiful wife by his side both looking very fashionable. His 959 at the Museum looked carefully driven. I would love to have a Vector, in the 80's they were the exotic car. I hear they are bad about self combustion and the build quality was rudimentary. Some where I learned about a government sale a year ago and two were sold there (owned by drug lords or something like that). I'll try and find the source, I don't think it was JW post. Sports Car Market Magizine Price Guide list Vector W8's for only $130,000.00 with only 18 total cars made. Seems too low to me for a car with that much of a following and only 18 made. There was a Sean Connery movie in the '80's that featured the car. My memory the car and sushi scenes were the best part.

http://www.jabbasworld.net/dload.php...e&file_id=1640
^^^
Full In Depth review of a Vector W8

There is so much misinformation on the Vector W8; and these two posts prove it.

The W8 is built impecibally to aircraft tolerances and standards... unherad of in the automotive world... so build quality is bar none best in the world until perhaps the CGT.
Those standards and tolerances weren't stipened to chassis, and body; but to powerplant, drivetrain, suspension, and guaging.
the W8 recieved the best EVER (even through today) side impact rating at the Ann Arbor US DOT testing facilities...
Sports Car Market has no idea what they are talking about... of all the W8's, only one is worth about $130,000... and he's not letting it go... The reason for the low price is due specifically to it being tuned aftermarket, and ultimately damaging the car quite severely. Right now, it is able to drive 25-50 miles at a time... or is so suspected; and is definately not safe to drive at speed thanks to its' "aftermarket" work.

There are 19 W8's, one W2 prototype, and two AWX-3's (one roadster)
all other Vector cars are not truly the same company; but rather, they were built by Hotumo (tommy) Suharto; He's currently serving a life sentence in Indonesia.

All "Vector"'s were either the M12's (rebodied Diablo's with a Getrag 5 speed... of kit car build quality) or the one SRV8 prototype.

a small video i made
http://www.jabbasworld.net/dload.php...e&file_id=1637

to call the Vector the supercar to have in the 80's is a little incorrect. The W2 was a prototype, while Jerry was gathering momentum to start production. Production started in late 1990; and ended with over 40 orders in wait in early 1993 in Wilmington California. There were enough parts, and rolling chassis to finish through no. 25 or no. 26 when the Indonesian's illegally took over the company (which was won back by Jerry somewhere around 2000 i think).

the W8 makes a guarenteed, and "claimed" power of 625 hp with its TT 6.0 liter Rodeck Y - Block... all the Vector's make more then this, and the white one in my review makes 749 BHP from the factory; and was the only "california emmissions car" even though each W8 would pass easily.

TNT
Low numbers because of Tommy Suharto; he never cared about building the W8. There were orders for over 40 more at the time of the takeover.

The fact it's so rare makes people want to believe it wasn't a great car... but you have your analogy a bit backwards... comparing a Ferrari to a Vector is like comparing a Porsche to a Caterham... where Vector is analogous to Porsche... fast, and reliable. one of the Vector's prime build objectives was to create a low maintainence ultra-high performance vehicle to last the lifetime of the owner. Vector succeeded with flying colors. The car had more then "some speed" The white one is capable of 3.5 0-60 launches, with 11.0 1/4 mile times, while also attaining over 1 G laterally on a skidpad... even the F40 on 1990 tires couldn't do that... although, the F40 is surely more nimble; where the Vector weighs in at 3200 lbs (Enzo territory)

Philip
The two "Vectors" sold at auction were M12's, nothing to write home about

about W8's combusting? Not one has had an engine fire. The W-2 overheated in a couple magazine tests in the 80's. both times due to a bubble in the anti-freeze lines; and once blead and refilled, the W-2 performed 'miricals' which the magazine journo's simply dropped thier jaws!
Andre Agassi (no. 5 aka "13a") was legally not allowed to drive his car; as it wasn't finished. you'd overheat too if you had no radiators installed... far from combusting.
no. 12 is another story.... aftermarket tuning
no. 8... I'm not allowed to tell that story in published form, sorry... suffice to say, for the better part of a decade, it was not in any condition to drive; by no fault of the manufactuerer.

[gucom]

All i've heard about the CGT's build quality was that it was: great!! but just slightly less than the McLaren F1's...