McLaren F1 GTR Longtail FIA GT Gulf Racing Team Davidoff 1997

[JR98]

In 1997 The BPR Global GT Series was reformed as the FIA GT Racing Series with new regulations and the McLaren F1 GTR had to undergo serous modifications to stay competitive with the Porsche 911 GT1 and Mercedes CLK GTR. Firstly, the bodywork went under a major redesign in order to achieve as much downforce as possible. The car recieved a longer nose, tail, a brand new rear wing, and widened wheel arches. The engine was also significantly modified with the engine brought down to 6.0 while still maintaining 600HP. 10 GTR's were built, along with 3 McLaren F1 GT's for homologation purposes. At the 1998 24 Hours du Mans, the McLaren reached a top speed of 196MPH. During the 1997 FIA GT the F1 GTR did well, winning Rounds 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7. In 1998 BMW left McLaren to build their own race car, the BMW V12 LMR and, due to the rapidly evolving CLK GTR, McLaren stopped factory backing in 1998. Team Davidoff however, continued to race in the F1 and were the only McLaren to score points that year. After the 1998 season, however, the FIA abolished the GT1 class due to the dominance by Mercedes-Benz and McLaren F1 never raced in the FIA GT again. There are currently 3 of the Team Davidoff cars still running today, chassis numbers #20R, #22R and #25R. Car number #25R raced at the 2000 and 2005 Super GT under Hitotsuyama Racing.

After Racing:
#19R: Original test car, now back in the UK and back in the original test livery.
#20R: Owned by McLaren, finished first in class at the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gulf livery.
#21R: Auctioned last year by Gooding Co. FINA livery.
#22R: Owned by the ROFGO collection of Gulf livery cars. Same owner has #15R
#23R: Owned by Lawrence Stroll, owner of the Mont Tremblant circuit in Canada. FINA livery.
#24R: Owned by Paul Knapfield. EMKA livery from 1998.
#25R: Owned by Hitotsuyama Racing and currenly in plain white.
#26R: Owned by BMW AG. FINA livery.
#27R: Owned by a family in the UK, Parabolica livery
#28R: Auctioned last year, Gulf livery.

 

[OneMantaco]

Yes please!

 

[Kingofweasles]

Voted because you can never have enough McLaren F1 GTR "Long-Tails" and this would be a fine replacement for the BMW Motorsport one featured in GT4/5/6.

 

[JR98]

Voted because you can never have enough McLaren F1 GTR "Long-Tails" and this would be a fine replacement for the BMW Motorsport one featured in GT4/5/6.

Yeah. I think the Gulf livery looks far better than the BMW one

 

[matherto]

There are currently 3 of the Team Davidoff cars still running today, chassis numbers #20R, #22R and #25R. Car number #25R raced at the 2000 and 2005 Super GT under Hitotsuyama Racing.

Not strictly true as #28R is also a Gulf/Davidoff car and still very much alive and well...

As shown here in your photos, these are all from when #28R was recently for sale.

After Racing:
#01R: Stored at McLaren Cars
#06R: Owned by David Clark, Sales Director at McLaren Cars
#07R: Owned by Andrew Pisker
#09R: Owned by Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah
#10R: Owned by Nick Mason
#12R: Owned by Aaron Tsu
#16R: Owned by Chris Palmer - Tested by Tiff Needel on Top Gear
#17R: Owned by BMW North America
#18R: Owned by BMW AG

These are all short-tailed GTR's so not relevant to the suggestion. Chris Palmer sold #16R and it was Fifth Gear not Top Gear that Tiff tested it on. It's recently been returned to it's FINA livery to match #17R and #18R

#24R: Racing in the GT90's Revival Series
#27R: Sold at the Goodwood Festival Of Speed

There is no GT90's Revival Series anymore and #27R wasn't sold at GFoS, it was featured there but that was a long time ago. It's been seen since and has a new owner and it's original livery.

The Longtailed car list is as follows.

#19R: Original test car, now back in the UK and back in the original test livery.
#20R: Owned by McLaren, finished first in class at the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gulf livery.
#21R: Auctioned last year by Gooding Co. FINA livery.
#22R: Owned by the ROFGO collection of Gulf livery cars. Same owner has #15R
#23R: Owned by Lawrence Stroll, owner of the Mont Tremblant circuit in Canada. FINA livery.
#24R: Owned by Paul Knapfield. EMKA livery from 1998.
#25R: Owned by Hitotsuyama Racing and currenly in plain white.
#26R: Owned by BMW AG. FINA livery.
#27R: Owned by a family in the UK, Parabolica livery
#28R: Auctioned last year, Gulf livery.

It would be nice if we had a choice of all the liveries.

 

[JR98]

Not strictly true as #28R is also a Gulf/Davidoff car and still very much alive and well...



As shown here in your photos, these are all from when #28R was recently for sale.



These are all short-tailed GTR's so not relevant to the suggestion. Chris Palmer sold #16R and it was Fifth Gear not Top Gear that Tiff tested it on. It's recently been returned to it's FINA livery to match #17R and #18R



There is no GT90's Revival Series anymore and #27R wasn't sold at GFoS, it was featured there but that was a long time ago. It's been seen since and has a new owner and it's original livery.

The Longtailed car list is as follows.

#19R: Original test car, now back in the UK and back in the original test livery.
#20R: Owned by McLaren, finished first in class at the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gulf livery.
#21R: Auctioned last year by Gooding Co. FINA livery.
#22R: Owned by the ROFGO collection of Gulf livery cars. Same owner has #15R
#23R: Owned by Lawrence Stroll, owner of the Mont Tremblant circuit in Canada. FINA livery.
#24R: Owned by Paul Knapfield. EMKA livery from 1998.
#25R: Owned by Hitotsuyama Racing and currenly in plain white.
#26R: Owned by BMW AG. FINA livery.
#27R: Owned by a family in the UK, Parabolica livery
#28R: Auctioned last year, Gulf livery.

It would be nice if we had a choice of all the liveries.

Thanks for the correction, OP updated.

 

[Cowboy]

Legendary car? Most definitely gets my vote 👍

 

[StarLight]

Wonderful choice!