‘ON A YORKSHIRE B-ROAD, WE CAUGHT THE LIMITER IN FIFTH BEFORE OUR DRIVER BACKED OFF. IT GOES TO 180MPH IN FIFTH…’
JOHN BARKER
The former Performance Car road test editor on living with a McLaren F1 for two days in early 1995 – and what followed
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 sign-off a clutch change, which is very expensive, so I want to know what you’re going to do with my car.’ Gulp.
and had already published their slightly chin-stroking reviews so we’d
