This new set of regulations gave birth to epic cars like the Mercedes CLK GTR or the Porsche 911 GT1. However, some connections to the road cars remained, as homologation rules required manufacturers to build street-legal counterparts of the racing machines. This category, where the McLaren F1 thrived, was also included in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.įollowing the success of the BPR, FIA took the reins of the competition in 1997, renaming it, and the GT1 morphed into a class for purposely-build racing machines. For the next couple of years, it brought back top-level endurance racing to the motorsport world and introduced the iconic GT1 class for heavily modified versions of road-legal supercars.
#Gtr evolution supra series
The P1 GTR is 50kg lighter than its road-faring sibling thanks to extensive use of lightweight materials.įrom the factory the P1 GTR rolled on slick tyres, with an 80mm wider front track, and sitting 50mm lower to the ground compared to the standard P1.In 1994, following the downfall of the FIA World Sportscar Championship, the BPR Global GT series was founded by Jürgen Barth, Patrick Peter, and Stephane Rate. They were built, maintained and run by Woking’s McLaren Special Operations (MSO), with the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 and electric batteries and motors tuned to produce a combined system output of 735kW. Each of the 58 P1 GTR’s cost A$3.3 million initially, and were only offered to customers which already owned a road-legal P1. The P1 GTR was not built to the restrictive specifications of a racing category, instead it was an exhibition of McLaren capabilities. With the P1’s road car production run finishing in 2015, McLaren unleashed a GTR-badged track-only iteration on the world. That car came in 2013 with the P1, a hybrid hypercar that formed a part of the holy trinity (along with Porsche’s 918 and Ferrari’s LaFerrari) and defined fast for a new generation of enthusiasts. Both were transformed into GT3 racers, but McLaren waited for the right car to live up to the F1’s legacy to break loose the GTR badge. McLaren didn’t produce road cars for much of the intervening period, returning to the supercar-building business in 2009 with the MP4-12C, followed by 650S. In the transition from road to race car, the F1’s stock gearbox remained unchanged. The F1 actually didn’t require extensive modifications to became a race car, and earn the GTR badge, apart from the obligatory rollcage and aerodynamic modifications, along with stripping the interior of all unnecessary luxuries, and adding new cooling ducts.Ĭarbon brakes replaced standard-issue steel unites, while regulations meant the F1’s BMW S70 6.1-litre naturally-aspirated V12 engine was required to breathe through an air restrictor which limited power to 441kW. Murray initially resisted the requests, but relented in time for a racing-version of the GTR to be homologated for the 1995 series, following a rushed three month development.
Soon after the F1’s launch in 1994 Stephane Ratel (who later went on to popularise GT3 racing around the globe), and two of his mates, started the BPR Global GT Endurance Series, whose debut season saw homologated racing versions of the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 911 Turbo do battle.įor the following season teams started looking for alternatives, and several turning to Murray in the hope of convincing the F1’s creator to let them race factory-backed versions of his car. Instead he envisioned his creation as the ultimate road car.īut it’s hardly a coincidence that one of the greatest road cars in history turned out to be a pretty handy race car as well. When McLaren’s first road car, the F1, was built, its creator Gordon Murray never intended for it to go racing.
Sometimes (just three times in over two decades), McLaren will unleash the GTR badge on the world, and combine those two skills to transform a road-faring piece of exotica into bewinged beasts destined for track dominance. THE men and women of Woking are great at two things, exquisite supercars for the road, and blindingly fast race cars for the track.
0 kommentar(er)
