Race Car History FINA #39 Mclaren F1 GTR

The # 39 Fina Mclaren made its rounds at my work and I was instantly interested in the car. It is such an exciting vehicle and has so much history. I will break down a bit of the history and share some photos I took. Mclaren is a name that is well known to most car enthusiasts. Mclaren is really the pinnacle of the car world. From their early cars like the MP-412C to their more recent vehicles like the Senna. This small vehicle builder from Woking Surrey England truly builds some of the most mental cars around.

This car #39 is a Mclaren F1 GTR which is one of 29 race cars built. This specific chassis was dubbed Chassis 17R and was built to showcase what the full on race cars would do. The Mclaren F1 GTR is spec'd exactly as one would figure a no holds barred race car to be built. These cars were all built with the 6.1 Liter V12 from BMW that was similar in architecture to the BMW 850i but fully redone. The McLaren S70/2 is a 6.1L, 48-valve DOHC engine with 12 individual throttle bodies, producing ~618 hpThese cars had an amazing F1 like sound as noted in this video here.

This specific car was campaigned in the 1996 24H of Lemans and was Raced by Bigazzi Team SRL with drivers Nelson Piquet, Johnny Cecotto, and Danny Sullivan. The car finished 8th overall and 6th in GT1 Class. The car is a well known endurance car that has been displayed at multiple events since its retirement. BMW has placed the car on a US based tour and it has frequented many high class car shows like the Pebble beach car show. It looks like now that the car has completed it's show circuit BMW decided to keep it here at the Zentrum in Greer, SC for the time being to showcase the race car's history and heritage.

It's really amazing that BMW has such a strong race car heritage and that they not only can create such amazing vehicles for every day consumers but their engines are built so well that other company's use them just for their racecars. In order for a car and engine to stay alive during the grueling 24 hours of Lemans there has to be hours of research and testing put into building these heavily engineered cars and engines. Having a motor constantly take the punishment of 24 hours of grueling sustained high rpm driving just further points to the testament of BMW's engineering and reputation of building high quality parts and further cars.

Thanks for the read!,