McLaren F1 GTR – The Definitive History

Over the past ten years, the McLaren F1 has become one of the most expensive cars in the world. There are plenty of reasons for this. With its seating concept for three occupants, it is a unique car. It is still the fastest road car with a naturally aspirated engine and the racing successes of the GTR variant in the BPR/FIA GT series spoke for themselves, as did the overall victory in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. Porter Press International in Great Britain published a book at the end of last year that deals specifically with the history of the F1 GTR and all the racing events it has driven in. This provided enough material to split ‘McLaren F1 GTR – The Definitive History’ into two volumes, which come to the buyer in a decorative slipcase.

Volume 1 highlights the journey from road car to racing version. This wasn’t originally planned for the McLaren F1. Only the preservance of a few customers finally made the conversion and the subsequent successes possible. The McLaren won 41 of 131 races and two international championship titles. Data and pictures of these can be found on the pages, as well as the failures, breakdowns and accidents. After all, these things are also part of the complete history of the F1 GTR. In the second book, author Mark Cole deals with each of the 28 cars built individually. In total, the work comes to 648 pages with 775 illustrations.

Porter Press offers ‘McLaren F1 GTR – The Definitive History’ in two versions. The Limited Edition is limited to 1,000 copies, numbered and signed by the author. It costs £ 450. Only 50 numbered copies exist of the Collector’s Edition, which is additionally signed by Ray Bellm, Thomas Bscher and Gordon Murray. Here the price is £ 1,500.

Images: Porter Press International