McLaren F1: The Record Even Bugatti COULDN'T Beat

In 1988, four men from McLaren were stuck in an airport after the Italian Grand Prix when a conversation began that would change road cars forever.

McLaren dominated Formula One. Gordon Murray believed that knowledge could be used to build something completely different: not a racing car with number plates, but the greatest road car ever made.

There was no top-speed target. No turbochargers. No traction control. No power steering. The driver would sit in the middle, the chassis would be made from carbon fibre, and almost every component would be designed around one obsession — removing weight.

Then BMW built an engine that completely overshot the brief.

The result was the McLaren F1: a car developed partly inside two British kit cars, benchmarked against a Honda NSX, powered by a 627-horsepower naturally aspirated V12, and eventually capable of 240.1 mph.

And somehow, a road car Gordon Murray never wanted to race also went on to win Le Mans outright.

This is the story of the McLaren F1 — and how a car designed without chasing records ended up setting some of the most extraordinary ones in automotive history.

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🏁 IN THIS EPISODE

We uncover how the McLaren F1 began during a delayed flight home from the 1988 Italian Grand Prix, why Gordon Murray wrote the philosophy of the entire car down on four sheets of paper, and why he insisted on putting the driver directly in the centre.

We look at how Murray benchmarked the Ferrari F40, Porsche 959, Bugatti EB110 and Lamborghini Countach — only to decide that the Honda NSX was the car McLaren should really learn from.

We explore the F1's revolutionary carbon-fibre monocoque, the obsessive weight-saving that led to magnesium wheels, titanium components and even ultra-thin badges, and why McLaren lined the engine bay with genuine 24-carat gold.

Then there is the engine.

After Honda rejected Murray's request for a bespoke naturally aspirated V12, and McLaren passed on an experimental Isuzu Formula One engine, BMW Motorsport's Paul Rosche agreed to take on the project. Murray asked for at least 550 horsepower. BMW delivered 627.

We also tell the strange story of Albert and Edward — two Ultima kit cars McLaren secretly used to develop the F1's gearbox, central driving position and BMW V12 before destroying both prototypes to keep the project hidden.

Then came the race Gordon Murray never wanted to enter.

McLaren customers effectively forced the company to build the F1 GTR, and in 1995 seven of them arrived at Le Mans. In torrential rain, JJ Lehto produced one of the great endurance-racing drives, and the McLaren F1 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright on its first attempt.

Finally, we follow XP5 to Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien test track in 1998, where Andy Wallace had the rev limiter raised to 8,300 rpm and pushed the F1 to a two-way average of 240.1 mph — a naturally aspirated production-car speed record that has never been beaten.

Plus, the F1 LM, the ultra-rare Longtail, Rowan Atkinson's famously crashed and rebuilt example, the extraordinary maintenance required to keep one alive, and why Gordon Murray spent the next three decades trying to build a spiritual successor to the car that defined his career.

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