These McLaren F1s and Bugatti EB110s were the stars of Car Week

Now there’s a sight you don’t see very often.

Jonathan Gitlin

Now there’s a sight you don’t see very often. Jonathan Gitlin

With only 106 ever built, a McLaren F1 is a rare thing. But this bright orange one is rarer than most.

Jonathan Gitlin

With only 106 ever built, a McLaren F1 is a rare thing. But this bright orange one is rarer than most. Jonathan Gitlin

McLaren built five F1 LMs (plus a prototype) during the winter of 1995-1996 to celebrate winning the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans (McLarens also came home 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 13th).

Jonathan Gitlin

McLaren built five F1 LMs (plus a prototype) during the winter of 1995-1996 to celebrate winning the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans (McLarens also came home 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 13th). Jonathan Gitlin

With only 106 ever built, a McLaren F1 is a rare thing. But this bright orange one is rarer than most. Jonathan Gitlin

McLaren built five F1 LMs (plus a prototype) during the winter of 1995-1996 to celebrate winning the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans (McLarens also came home 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 13th). Jonathan Gitlin

The interior is stripped out compared to one of the “normal” F1 road cars, but still a bit more comfortable than one of the F1 GTR race cars. Like the GTR, the LM’s gearbox uses straight-cut gears so you have to wear ear defenders when you drive or ride in it.

Jonathan Gitlin

The LM weighs just 2,341lbs (1,062kg) thanks to a lighter rear wing, no sound deadening, no audio system, and the removal of the ground effect fan. That makes it 132lbs (60kg) lighter than the normal F1 road car.

Jonathan Gitlin

The F1 LM’s 6.1L V12 engine. Unlike the GTR race cars that it celebrates, it does not have to breathe through regulation air restrictors, which makes this the most powerful F1 variant at 680hp (507kW) and 520lb-ft (705Nm).

Jonathan Gitlin

Three of the five F1 LMs were painted Papaya Orange. Two of them live in the US, and I think this is the one that isn’t owned by Ralph Lauren. Maybe it was a surprise addition to the show because it’s not mentioned in the program.

Jonathan Gitlin

With less weight and so much more power than the normal F1 road car, the LM is the fastest-accelerating F1 variant, but the high-downforce bodywork creates much more drag so it actually has a lower top speed (225mph/362km/h).

Jonathan Gitlin

It’s meant to be a track day variant, and that means it could end up in a gravel trap, so there’s a tow strap.

Jonathan Gitlin

Center-lock 18-inch wheels were actually a size up on those used by the normal F1 road car or the F1 GTR race cars. Yes, back in the 1990s we thought 18-inch wheels were massive.

Jonathan Gitlin

The McLaren F1 was the work of many people, but none more so than this man, designer Gordon Murray. Yes, of course I embarrassed myself talking to him.

Jonathan Gitlin

McLaren actually had a couple of spare LM engines floating around toward the end of the ’90s and offered F1 owners the chance to have their cars upgraded. This is chassis #73, one of those two upgraded cars.

Jonathan Gitlin

It also features an extra-high downforce kit for the nose and rear wing.

Jonathan Gitlin

F1 road cars other than the LM got a much more comfortable interior.

Jonathan Gitlin

Yes, the F1 really does use gold foil to line the engine bay.

Jonathan Gitlin

This white McLaren F1 is chassis #14. It has the high downforce kit but the regular 618hp (461kW) 6.1L V12.

Jonathan Gitlin

I saw this car driving around Carmel Valley the day before the Quail, which was a treat in and of itself, considering how rare these cars are.

Jonathan Gitlin

This is an F1 GTR race car from 1997. By this time, the competition had reacted to the all-conquering F1s by creating cars that were meant to race from day one. To stay competitive, McLaren designed the longtail GTR; the longer bodywork on the nose and tail created more downforce.

Jonathan Gitlin

Murray first sketched the idea of a three-seat sports car with the driver in the middle back when he was a schoolboy in Durban, South Africa.

Jonathan Gitlin

The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren is an actual Gordon Murray design, and so I have included it in this gallery.

Jonathan Gitlin

CARMEL, Calif.—Quick question: what’s the greatest car of all time? If, like me, you got into cars in the 1990s, that’s an easy one to answer—it’s the McLaren F1, of course. By the late 1980s, the McLaren Formula 1 team had won almost everything there was to win, and its head designer Gordon Murray was getting bored. To keep him on the payroll and entertained, McLaren approved his plan to build a road car without compromise. It would have three seats, with the driver in the middle. There would be a naturally aspirated V12, a six-speed manual transmission, and no driver aids at all. Along the way, Murray and co. created a car that managed to be leagues faster than anything that came before it, and almost everything that has come since. It even proved to be a pretty good racing car, winning Le Mans on its debut in 1995.

So you can imagine the size of my grin when I discovered not one but four McLaren F1s were basking in the sun at this year’s Quail Motorsports Gathering, which took place last Friday as part of Monterey Car Week. As you’ll see from the photos above, I even ran into Murray himself.

And as you’ll note from the photos immediately below this text, the F1s weren’t the only megastars of the mid-90s in attendance. There were also four Bugatti EB110s, a car that were it not for the McLaren would have worn the supercar crown throughout the decade. The EB110 also featured a carbon-fiber monocoque chassis, a V12 engine, and a six-speed gearbox, but the V12 was a 3.5L affair with four turbochargers, and the transmission sent power to all four wheels. It’s a part of the marque’s history that modern Bugatti has shied away from in the past, but as you’ll see that’s beginning to change. Did I mention there were a ton of photos in this post? You should definitely scroll through all of them because that’s where I’ve hidden the story.