MCLAREN F1 240MPH

The Mclaren F1 was never conceived to be the world’s fastest sports car but simply the best.

In 1989, Mclaren technical director Gordon Murray convinced company chief Ron Dennis to let him build the ultimate road-going sports car. With his team assembled, a three-seater carbonfibre tub was designed, placing the driver centrally between two passengers, with the powertrain located behind; BMW built a bespoke atmo 6.1-litre V12 producing an astonishing

627bhp.

Performance was immense: 0-60mph took 3.2sec, with 100mph arriving 3.1sec later, topped by a barely believable 240mph maximum. I didn’t drive the F1 GTR you see here, but colleague Matt Prior drove the original road test F1, called XP5, not so long ago.

“The V12 starts without the histrionics of so many of today’s supercars,” he says. “Its response is pure and linear and matched by the other controls. The gearshift is positive, the steering picks up weight as cornering forces build, and it’s engaging and involving like precious little else.

“In its immediacy and compactness, the F1 feels not unlike a Lotus Elise – only with a frankly preposterous amount of shove behind it.”

At the time, we speculated that a road car would never go so fast again. It turned out that we were wrong…

TECH SPEC

Engine V12, 6064cc, all-alloy, DOHC per bank, electronic fuel injection Power 627bhp at 7000rpm Torque 479lb ft at 4000-7000rpm Gearbox 6-spd manual, RWD 0-60mph 3.2sec Top speed 240.1mph Price new £634,500 (£1,342,885)

In August 2019, Bugatti’s Chiron Super Sport 300+ hit 304.77mph. The £3.1 million car has still yet to attain European type approval, but forgive us this small transgression for the sake of a headline figure. Replacing the Veyron, the Chiron had beefed-up engine internals and its four turbochargers increased in