Whilst Gordon Murray envisaged the F1 as the perfect road car, with many believing it is, the F1 also proved to be very successful as a track weapon. Converted into race spec and christened the F1 GTR, the car placed 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995. Over the following years McLaren tweaked the GTR, culminating with the GTR ‘Longtail’, nicknamed so due to its extended body modifications.
To homologate the highly modified Longtail GTR’s, McLaren built 2 F1 GT ‘Longtails’ featuring very similar body modifications to the GTR such as an extended nose and tail, redesigned skirts and the removal of the twin luggage compartments. The Longtail extension, similar to that on a Porsche 917 reduced drag and increased downforce to such an extent a rear wing wasn’t necessary. Sharing many similarities with the F1 road car, the GT Longtail’s featured a gold lined engine bay enveloping the incredible BMW developed 6.1 litre V12 producing 627hp, a carbon fibre monocoque (the first of its kind) and the famous three seat central driving position. McLaren only had to build one F1 GT and didn’t even need to sell it to homologate the Longtail GTR, but customer interest led to the creation of 2 of these incredible machines.
Image credit:
topcarrating.com/1997-mclaren-f1-gtr-longtail
