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The Only McLaren F1 Technician in North America
- owenversteeg 9y agoSo Wikipedia seems to indicate that the famous 3-seat configuration was removed in the American version in order to make it road legal. But the pictures don't indicate that. Anyone know why? Were the seats not really removed? Or did the owners have them put back in?
- gaadd33 9y agoOnly a few were legalized that way, once the Show and Display act was passed, they could be imported without going through that process.
- msantos 9y agoAnother McLaren F1 funfact: McLaren used to buy a bunch of old Compaq laptops for spare parts almost 20years after that laptop had reached EOL. https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2016/5/3/11576032/mclaren-f1-compaq-laptop-maintenance https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2016/5/3/11576032/mcla...
- nasredin 9y ago>The reason we need those specific Compaq laptops is that they run a bespoke CA card which is installed into them," explains a McLaren spokesperson to Jalopnik. "The CA card is an interface between the laptop software (which is DOS-based) and the car." If you've never heard of a CA card, then Jalopnik commenter Mike Herbst helpfully explains it's a Conditional Access card. Modern PCs use smart cards or USB keys with special access codes to access sensitive systems, and the CA card was used as custom hardware as part of an integrated system for security and copy protection.
- sebm9 9y agothis is steings:gate brought to life
- raverbashing 9y agoSeems it would be cheaper to circumvent that and run it on a VM
- MrFoof 9y agoThey do. However they maintain the laptops still as a backup.
- M235i 9y agoWe also used a special 6-Pin DIN connector that hooked up via serial to the CA Card to program and access each and every McLaren.
- PascLeRasc 9y agoI came here to ask what that cool laptop was in one of the photos. I bet that keyboard feels really nice.
- teh_klev 9y agoThis was the HN discussion from a couple of years back about this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11604922 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11604922
- pryelluw 9y agoI've had to buy old ThinkPads with WinXP to work on Porsche and News. It's rather common for certain models.
- neurostimulant 9y agoIt seems McLaren doesn't need those old laptop anymore though. > Today, McLaren uses a modern Windows computer running a software emulator for day-to-day computer maintenance. Hines keeps the vintage Compaq around just in case.
- 2sk21 9y agoWhats interesting about this car is that even if its not driven a mile, many parts have to be changed as per a timetable. Merely changing the tires on this car costs $50k! https://youtu.be/EsKDGdcb6BQ https://youtu.be/EsKDGdcb6BQ
- cyberpunk0 9y agoPoor design if you ask me
- bigdubs 9y agoYou should absolutely change your tires regardless of use by age (this isn't just a McLaren thing). Tires dry out over time and become unsafe.
- flexie 9y agoYou seem to know about this. Am I risking anything driving my 6 year okd old winter tires for 3 years non stop (winter and summer, 15k km yearly)?
- nugi 9y agoThe winter compound will harden and perform worse in freezing temps. The overly soft compound is ok in summer for non agressive driving. If, however, they are 'all season tires', it is time to replace. If you see ANY checking between tread, or on sidewall, it is also time. 6 years is about my cutoff personally, 4 for winters stored out of the sun (for use in winter) and 2 years for r compounds/<200 treadwear tires. These are all ballpark values I have found by experince, and hersay at the track and on the street. I personally find Blizzak and Nokian to fare best in the winter tire niche. They are both good snow/ice hybrid design now, and often used in rally/rallycross.
- neurotech1 9y agoThere have been multiple fatal crashes caused by old tires on high performance vehicles. Notably, Paul Walker[0] died in a Porsche Carrera GT crash. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Walker#Death_and_legal_repercussions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Walker#Death_and_legal_re...
- DanCarvajal 9y agoWorking on one of the greatest cars every made for a job doesn't look half bad.
- tbrock 9y agoAll the new lambos / f-cars are great and Tesla is making exciting things go fast but this... the F1... this is the car to end all cars. No compromise: engine bay is lined with gold, the v12 designed by bmw’s m division is a smooth fucking monster, driver seat in the center, damn, you need a steel set of balls just to look at this thing. I’d love to have this job, this is a mechanic dream.
- nugi 9y agoI might argue konigsegg is quicky eclipsing them in both tech and construction. Freevalve engines, transmissionless, hybrid, and bugatti stomping power. They went 0-250 then back to 0 in the time it took the previous record holder just to make it to 250. Truly next level tech. That said, the mclaren is still much better tuned for actual racing, for now. Not to be minimized.
- tbrock 9y agoWholeheartedly agree! There is something about the McLaren though, you could use it to pick up groceries and the kids but still look civilized in a way that you can’t do with the konigsegg.
- torpfactory 9y agoTo be fair to the F1 it was released in 1992 for goodness sake! It’s still a no question beast and it’s 25 years old.
- blt 9y agoI've had the privilege to tour the McLaren Formula 1 team production facility in Surrey. One of the best "engineering tourism" moments of my life. It's amazing what you can make with an unlimited budget :)
- flyinglizard 9y agoThat was transcendental, thank you. I was just thinking to myself a few days ago that the overlap between tech workers and car nuts is quite narrow. Not many people I know from my professional environment are really into cars. Sure, some can say "this is better than that" or tell a car story or say how some Mini they drove "handled like a go cart" but nearly none of them is a hardcore car nut (e.g. they're more interested in the tech of a Tesla than what a Ferrari V12 feels like). I'm sure there's a good reason somewhere.
- macintux 9y agoRandom thought, to which I don't give a lot of credence but can't rule out entirely, is that tech work and car fandom often grow out of childhood/teenage obsessions, and most kids would only have one such obsession. Related, it's also possible that it's a class thing. Many kids who grew up working on computers did so in a white collar household, many who worked on cars did so on a blue collar family. Both mostly off-the-cuff speculation based in no small part on clichés.
- WalterBright 9y agoAs a teenager I spent much time working on muscle cars. I was very disappointed at Caltech to find nobody interested in cars. None of my engineering coworkers since, either. I've always missed working on cars with my friends.
- cglace 9y agoMost of my friends in college worked on their jeeps for rock climbing all the time. It definitely was not a cheap hobby.
- anabis 9y agoSomewhat countering your >most kids would only have one such obsession Train nuts and computer nerds seem to have higher overlap. MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club being a prominent example.
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- rurban 9y agoI've worked with the newer F1 variants of such engines. So I'm not impressed at all. "The problem with this car is that it never stops accelerating. Most other cars feel like they start to hit a wall. This car just keeps accelerating at the same rate" And then I see max 7500 rpm and 231mpH. A normal F1 engine is limited at 19.000 rpm but goes up to 25.000 rpm. How can such an V12 engine provide enough dynamics within 240mpH? Ridiculous. A race engine goes 3x higher. This is a completely different experience. You cannot compare Le Mans with a real F1 race car.
- walshemj 9y agothen 1980's turbo monsters absolutely now adays the engines are so limited probably not
- jdietrich 9y ago>A normal F1 engine is limited at 19.000 rpm but goes up to 25.000 rpm. A normal F1 engine of the 1990s had a lifespan of about 500 miles. Not many road car owners are willing to replace their engine after every tank of fuel. What the McLaren F1 lost in revs, it made up for in capacity. The contemporary McLaren racing car to the F1 was the MP4/6, which had a 3.5L V12 with a nominal power output of 710bhp. The F1 had a 6.1L V12 with a substantially lower redline, producing about 620bhp. The F1 had a considerably lower drag coefficient, because it had a closed-wheel body and produced much less downforce, meaning it actually had a far higher top speed. The highest speed achieved in the 1991 Formula 1 Championship was 210.2mph, achieved by Senna at Hockenheim. The McLaren F1 wasn't directly equivalent in performance to a Formula 1 car, but it's about as close as you'll get in a road-legal car.
- pibefision 9y agoI think dhh can add his two cents about cars here ;)
- telesilla 9y agoAn interesting documentary came out recently on Bruce McLaren https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/mclaren-2017 https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/mclaren-2017 Same director as The Worlds Fastest Indian, another fascinating story about a home-made motorbike. Along with the Britten bike, New Zealand has a handful of tech innovators to be proud of.
- gregpilling 9y agoThe Britten is amazing http://www.britten.co.nz/ http://www.britten.co.nz/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rjJQUnq5Js https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rjJQUnq5Js I was on track with the first version at Westwood, in BC when it was ridden by Gary Goodfellow and Steve Crevier. 88-90 era.
- eggy 9y agoI am glad to have found and read this. My parents never finished high school, and soon after the trade schools were closed down around NYC. Most lower-class, working-class people in my neighborhood in Brooklyn were trades people, but they taught their children to avoid the trades, well some of them. The children eschewed the trades, but if intellect or the family's economics didn't allow them to become doctors, lawyers, or teachers, they became policemen (law enforcement officers), garbage men (sanitation workers), or firemen (firefighters). Juxtaposing the old terms with new to put a sense of generation here! The parents still had respect for the trades, but they wanted their children to make more money, to climb out of poverty. In the article, he states, "My dad always had some classic cars. I’d help him in the garage," Hines says. "He actually told me I shouldn’t work on cars professionally. He said keep it as a hobby. I wish he was still around so I could call him and say, guess what I’m doing now. I think he’d be proud." I really think this is why it is hard to find a good electrician, plumber, you name it, since the trade schools and apprenticeships in the trades have dwindled, or just plain disappeared. I will not speak to the unions; I am speaking of the neighborhood master who plied his trade and then passed it on to an apprentice - plumber, electrician, machinist (I did this), welder (this too), iron worker, carpenter, steam fitter, boat builder, etc... I grew up working with my hands, landed a job doing computer backups at a NYC law firm at night (learned to code, play Doom when it first came out and started learning expert systems and neural networks). I quit that job and gave my wife at the time anxiety to take a job as a welder making 60% of my cushy night job salary. Best decision ever, since it led me to a lot of different and interesting jobs all around the world, and without a college degree, yet with a dotcom bubble salary before the dotcom bubble. Now the curse has come to bite me back. I have had mechanics tell my daughter she needs new rotors and pads when I know the rotors were fine, but I didn't have the time to replace the pads. Another mechanic in a different state told her she needed a new $150 O2 sensor when she brought it to him to look at when her engine light came on. A friend hooked it up and it was something totally unrelated, and cost a whopping $25 dollars to fix. My ex-mother-in-law went in for an oil change, and they left the filler cap off, and her engine was sprayed with oil. A different place overtightened the oil drain plug crushing the o-ring on my ex-wife's car, and as a result she leaked a lot of oil out, and fortunately she stopped driving when her engine temperature started soaring. A lot of ill-trained and incompetent people taking care of life-critical machinery. It is the number one reason I am starting to fear flying. If the trend goes towards plane maintenance, it is just a matter of time before accidents increase due to human incompetency or negligence, not just fatigue or cheap parts or manufacture. The story gave me hope that there are still people who will value such things, and carry the torch to future generations and show the worth in an honest day's work done right.
- userbinator 9y agoThe manual once belonged to the team at BMW responsible for the 6.1-liter V12 at the heart of the F1. Despite the fact that I'm unlikely to ever own one, I'd love to read the service manual.
- M235i 9y agoThis article is not true. There are still two other McLaren certified technicians who worked with BMW NA under their program, and both are completely able to work on F1. I should know, as I know one of them, and he was the last BMW/McLaren certified F1 technician trained under Panis personally, yet he or the other guy is not mentioned in any of the R&T articles, whom are still able to wrench on these vehicles as long as they have the tools, which they had to hand back in.