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| www.QV500.com - McLaren F1 Part 3: The F1 LM |
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1995 was the year McLaren’s F1 GTR took its most significant victory - a win at the worlds most prestigious endurance race - the Le Mans 24 Hours. An exceptional result in its own right, Le Mans 1995 was made even sweeter when the winning car was followed home by GTR's in third, fourth, fifth and 13th positions. To celebrate winning first time out at Le Mans, McLaren built six F1 LM's. One was a prototype and the remaining five customer cars (one for each of the Le Mans finishers) this batch of cars boasting the most extreme specification of any F1 variant. |
| Based on the GTR ’95, McLaren modified the LM only where necessary to make it legal for road use. Full underbody ground effects were retained (albeit lacking the fan-assistance of the F1 road car) while the GTR's carbon brakes were exchanged for marginally smaller steel units. Other set-up alterations included some mild suspension geometry changes for road use, LM's keeping the GTR-spec 18-inch magnesium OZ Racing wheels. The steel brake discs and a handful of interior additions saw weight rise by 12kg over the GTR to 1062kg. Custom Type S70/2 GTR LM 60° V12 engines were fitted and rated as the most potent in any F1. No longer limited by the mandatory air-restrictors of the GTR, these free-breathing units kept a 6064cc displacement but power was increased to a quite incredible 680bhp at 7800rpm. Compression remained at 11.0:1 while TAG re-mapped the engine management. Straight cut gears were unchanged and the gearbox housed in an aluminium casing a la ’95 spec GTR's (these 1996 built cars not actually getting the GTR ’96’s light magnesium casing). Vast power ensured that although the GTR wing package limited top speed to around 225mph, acceleration figures were superior to almost every road-legal car in history. Visually, the six F1 LM's inherited GTR '95 bodywork with squared wheelarch flares and the redesigned front valance with boxier air intakes. |
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Other GTR parts included the ventilated front lid, adjustable rear wing and deep side sills. Supplementary cooling ducts were carved out from in front of each rear wheelarch, the bank of three vents located on each front wing having been a GTR ’96 feature that did make its way on. Like the competition version, LM interiors were stripped bare of almost every road car luxury and finished only slightly better than out and out racers. One prototype and five customer examples were constructed between late 1995 and early 1996, the chassis numbers of which are listed below: |
| XP LM | Prototype, Historic Orange, McLaren promotional car |
| LM1 | Black |
| LM2 | Historic Orange |
| LM3 | Historic Orange |
| LM4 | Black |
| LM5 | Historic Orange |
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