THE TRUTH BEHIND THE HYPE

The McLaren F1 lays claim to being the greatest road car of all time. Three decades on, Octane calls two key witnesses, best placed to give evidence in its cause Photography Tim Scott 

- JOHN BARKER

 

IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON on our second day with the McLaren F1. I was in one of the passenger seats, the driver sitting centrally was someone I trusted completely, and up 'til then the pace was what you might call 'brisk but relaxed. We were exiting a small roundabout on a smooth, rural B-road in south Yorkshire when ahead of us the road appeared empty and arrow-straight for at least a mile. Well, it would have been rude not to...

The throttle was squeezed to the stop, the magnificent V12 dug deeper, the induction bark hardened to its distinctive staccato and then quickly ramped up to a glorious, slightly terrifying howl. The phenomenal acceleration moulded all three of us into our seats and there we stayed. Second gear became third, third became fourth, and almost as quickly, fourth became fifth. Now we were really motoring. We caught the limiter in fifth before our driver backed off. Wowzers. A day or two later I looked up the F1's gearing and discovered that it goes to 180mph in fifth...

When you have the world's fastest, most expensive, most powerful car for 48 hours it's pretty much a string of unforgettable moments. Yet it nearly didn't happen. A few days before, I was at my desk in the Performance Car office when the phone rang. It was Ron Dennis, the boss of McLaren Cars: 'I'm being asked to signoff a clutch change, which is very expensive, so I want to know what you're going to do with my car.' Gulp.

Autocar and Car had already published their slightly chin-stroking reviews so we'd come up with a different angle, but I baulked at telling Ron that I was going to take his car up to Cleethorpes so I could take my mum, my brothers and a load of mates out in it. 'We want to take the world's best car to the people to see what they make of it, I said. There was an excruciating silence as Ron ruminated.