Some time ago, Gary Faules took us on a tour of Infineon Raceway in Lucky, the GT350R. I just stumbled across this video that puts things into a completely different perspective. Vintage racer Gary Sheehan takes us for a few laps of the legendary Sears Point track in the McLaren M6B Can Am car originally driven by Jo Bonnier. While I get the feeling that Gary S is far from flying in the beast, this video gives a pretty good idea what the view was like from the cockpit of one of the Can Am monsters.
Oh yeah, you might want to crank the speakers for this one!
It is apparently the largest sporting penalty ever handed down against a team. 100 million dollars!
I don’t care if it is McLaren, that’s a big chunk of change and it’s gotta hurt.
For those who haven’t been following things, let’s condense it a bit. Disgruntled, ex Ferrari engineer, Nigel Stepney provided now suspended McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan with a 780 page document. Call it “How to build a Ferrari F1 car”. Mister Mike claimed he didn’t use any of the info, but eventually it came out that he had passed some key info on to test driver Pedro De La Rosa. Pedro in turn shot those little secret gems to reigning World Champion Fernando Alonso. De La Rosa and Alonso have received impunity for their cooperation, but there doesn’t seem to be any info on what will happen to Stepney and Coughlan. Suffice it to say that Mr. Dennis is not impressed.
Let’s see now. Young, talented, rich, about to become World Champion and the biggest schwantz in racing since Willy T. What more could a rich girl want?
Over at Full Throttle, there are reports that young Mr. Hamilton may be dating a certain Sara Ojjeh, the daughter of team boss Mansour Ojjeh. With European Paparazzi snapping these images of Lewis and Sara cavorting on the Ojjeh’s 235 foot yacht, it seems like there could be some truth to the story. If so, and Hamilton does win the WC, Alonso’s days at McLaren might be numbered.
Nelson, welcome to The Garage and I just wanted to say I am looking forward to your future articles with great interest. I have been involved with racing in one form or another since I was a little boy but my path took a very different road (no pun intended) than most. On the other hand is there such a thing as a “normal” means of a passion for the love of racing? I think not and I am sure each persons chain of events that led to their passion or involvement of racing is as much of an interesting story as any other.
In my case I grew up in a small town in southwestern Oregon back before the muscle car era when anything that had a set of mag wheels or a hole in the muffler was classified as a hot rod. My racing bug started with my buddies and me racing our bikes down hills in something similar to what today is called Mountain Biking. Later on it was go-carts and that eventually led to me lying about my age so I could drive an old beat up “Hobby Stock Class” car in the dirt stock car races. I can remember one of my father’s friends had an old Corvette stored in my dad’s garage. For hours at a time I would set behind the steering wheel making tire screeching sounds as I yanked the shifter around pretending to bark off the gears. I am sure that even with a dead battery I probably wore out the tires on that car without ever leaving the garage. Continue reading →
These are just some of the families where the Formula 1 bug bites more than one generation. Perhaps we are about to see the scion of yet another famous name move up the ranks. Freddie Hunt, son of the late James Hunt has decided, like so many others to begin his racing career in the British Formula Ford series. Both his World Champion father and his not so famous uncle began their driving careers in Formula Ford, so it’s a good place for a sentimental teenager to start off. Now let’s just hope that he doesn’t become Hunt The Shunt version 2.0
There are few cars that are more sensual than a 58 Mercedes 300 SL, but the new McLaren SLR 722 is definitely sexier. If you were to make a good comparison, then the SL might be in the same league as Sophia Loren, while the SLR 722 is more like Anjolina Jolie. One purrs like a kitten, while the other will rip you to pieces if you finish first.
While one might question whether the hand built SLR 722 is worth the price of a house, there is always the consideration of relative value. In 1958, the average household income in the United States was $5,100, while the average home cost was just over $12,000. The 1958 SL had a sticker price in the neighborhood of 11 grand. In the current decade, household incomes are in the $70,000 ballpark, while the median home in the states costs $227,000. The SLR 722 is close to half a Million. Wait a minute…in relative terms…this thing is worth the price of well over 2 homes!
Not only is the price out of this world, I’m pretty sure I’d finish first! The ripping would be a blast.
The young driving team of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton will tear up the streets of Valencia today in a pair of McLaren MP4-21’s for the launch of the new McLaren MP4-22. This must be a dream come true for Mr. Hamilton, while it should be mildly amusing for Alsonso. One thing is for certain, the spectators had best bring ear plugs.
We’ll have pics as they become available.
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes press release after the break Continue reading →
Back in the golden days of road racing, it was all about the special. Racers and fabricators would cobble together all sorts of sports racers, at home in their garage. Most of them were one offs, and many of those went on to become winning machines that are part of the fabric of motor racing history. Others were so successful that they launched their builders on to winning careers. It is in this spirit that Dick Bear has built the McBearen.
