1995 was the debut year for the race prepared version of the McLaren F1, the GTR. The F1 was never intended to be a racecar, but was instead designed as the ultimate supercar for the road. However, McLaren felt the car could be adapted to suit the new GT1 category for sportscar racing which was intended for highly adapted roadgoing cars.
Prior to the main endurance sportscar racing event of the year (the 24hrs of LeMans) the F1 GTRs broke their gearboxes after only a few hours of testing conducted at racing speeds. They had the speed to win outright, plus they were more fuel efficient than the specialised Prototype sportscars, a huge advantage in endurance racing as they had to stop less often, but even Gordon Murray (the designer of the F1) did not expect them to last the full 24hrs. However, shortly before the '95 LeMans race, McLaren engineered a "fix" for the gearbox which they hoped would greatly increase it's reliability, but the modification was untested. Changes to the fragile gearbox included a new dry sump for the gearbox oil and a new oil supply pump.
As it turned out, the reliability fears proved unfounded, as out of 7 F1 GTRs entered in 1995, 4 finished, in 1st, 3rd, 4th and 13th place. This particular Harrods sponsored F1 GTR was driven by 5 times LeMans winner Derek Bell partnered by his son Justin Bell and 1988 LeMans winner Andy Wallace. Derek Bell was very keen to win his sixth LeMans, in order to equal the record for the most LeMans wins for a single driver set by his former driving partner Jacky Ickx. Until the 22nd hour of the 1995 race he was looking good for his sixth win, having led the race for most of the previous 10 hours, but as Andy Wallace tried to leave the pits after a routine stop, the clutch refused to engage any of the forward gears. By the time the problem was sorted, the yellow car had been passed by the black "Ueno Clinic" McLaren (which went on to win the race) and Wallace rejoined in second place. The car continued to suffer clutch problems and he was unable to hold onto 2nd place, being passed by the Courage-Porsche C34 prototype driven by Bob Wollek, Mario Andretti and Eric Helary. 3rd place was where the Harrods car finished, an impressive result but disappointing considering how close they came to overall success.
This model was one of several 1:18th McLaren F1s released by UT models, a company which ceased trading in 2000 after being taken over by Gateway Global, the parent company of AUTOart. Several UT models have been upgraded and re-released as AUTOarts, but to date (January 2006) the F1s have not been re-issued. A shame as they are superb looking cars, especially in race trim. When first released (around 1996 I believe) these models were close to the state of the art in 1:18th scale. Compared with the latest in 1:18th models today (2006) they lack detail in certain areas. There is very little brake detail (no callipers for a start!), the headlights do not look realistic and the engine detail is quite basic. However, the body shape is accurate and on scale plus the paintwork and graphics on the model still look good today.
Due to their rarity (as they are no longer made), UT 1:18th McLarens can command a high price second hand (through speciality model dealers and eBay mostly) hence I'm very glad I bought mine years ago when they were readily available! Despite their lack of fine detail, I think these McLarens are great models and worth trying to get (at least one!) to add to any 1:18th race car collection!
