In 1990, McLaren was developing the F1 road.car in secret. Two mules from kit car company Ultima called Albert and Edward were used. Then destroyed.

Now, Edward has been recreated...

- OLLIE MARRIAGE

There's a butt coming. Soon it will be going, and I can't decide if that's better or worse. The front is an ode to 1970s fibreglass, the back is...well, significantly prolapsed. The square, rheumy headlights lift as it accelerates, then fall like a sigh under braking, the bodywork leans into the corner like it's about to flop off the chassis beneath, and it exits in a complicated flurry of wheelspin, lock and lurch, displaying a back end of prodigious ugliness. Makes a divine noise, though.

Meet Edward. He’s not the best-looking chap, bless him. But he does have a story to tell. Because buried behind the mesh rump is a 6.1-litre naturally aspirated, BMW created V12. That’s right, this tale digs deep into the history of the legendary McLaren F1.

Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Here’s how it goes. The year is 1990 and the Fl's carbon chassis is still two years away from being finalised. But the car’s engineers and designers really need a platform to test the driving position, brakes, clutch, gearbox and cooling. It needed to be light, mid-engined and able to take a big engine. A Ferrari Testarossa is briefly considered, but dismissed as too extravagant by the head of the F1 road car programme, one Gordon Murray.

Instead McLaren ends up buying an Ultima kit car, which is then fitted with a 7.5-litre Chevy LS6 V8. It’s a botch job with a cut down sump and butchered chassis, but it meant McLaren had a running prototype to test its components, including the transaxle gearbox, carbon brakes (quickly abandoned), central driving position (the seat, pedals and wheel shifted to allow it to be right hand drive on road, centre seat on test track) and a cockpit window that got sucked out at 160mph. The first ever F1 mule is born. It’s named Albert after the road outside the workshop the car is being built in.