Of all the cars, none is more revered than the McLaren F1. Sure, people generally love Porsches. BMWs. Ferraris. Subarus! But I can’t think of a single one that will grab the attention of the McLaren F1. Even we have a full article on his dedicated laptop. There is nothing more to say about it, nothing more to see. And then I found that!
A brief bout of Covid consumption led me to order a fairly large batch of car styling magazines straight from Japan, which increased my collection from “dangerously large” to “potentially fatal if it fell on me”. I’ve bought issues of this out of print magazine before, but never directly from Japan. Hell, when I was at the last Tokyo Motor Show in Japan, I bought an old copy of MotorFan and put an end to it.
I’ve loved car styling for years. I remember finding a handful of copies in the Cal Auto Museum reference library when I was there this summer … ’07? ’08? Something around then. Each page seemed to reveal new and exciting treasures. How happy I was to see the design of some of the 1970s Alfa Romeos carefully analyzed, detail by detail. Then I’d turn the page and see the design suggestions that didn’t quite make it into production. Past futures that were never fully realized.
With that zeal, I opened Car Styling 90, the September 1992 issue, with the early version of the McLaren F1 on the cover. The high-mounted exterior mirrors showed great promise.
G / O Media can receive a commission
And when I opened the page there was what I could only expect from car styling: a design sketch I’d never seen of F1. The car is longer, more peppy, more contemporary. If you had told me this was an Isuzu or Mitsubishi concept car from the same era, I would have believed you. A full-width rear wing sits over the rear of the car that the production F1 so boldly did without.
There are deeper vents and a chunkier look for the whole car. The series F1 is a little computer mouse thing, short and low and abrupt. It’s a classic 1960s sports car, with the 1990s technology and style. This concept is a little more elongated and dreamy.
We get a few more insights into different ideas of what the F1 could look like. A vent springs from behind the door in one. It touches the bottom of the car in another. You have something that looks almost like a clear bumper panel, blocky and sharp. Another almost melted. In any case, they all have the same incredibly low nose that sniffs the sidewalk. There is no big grille on the car, no angry face. It has a simple, almost honest look. That’s his trademark, and that’s what I’ve been happiest with the F1 through to production.
The post McLaren F1 early design sketch that I had never seen before first appeared on monter-une-startup.
