Fifth Gear Sets Speed Record With Mclaren F1

All I can say is I’ve got to get me one of these (not likely). The sound from this thing screaming around the track is amazing. Back in 1999 Fifth Gear attempted to set a speed record using a Mclaren F1, check out the video after the jump and see how they did.

The design brief for the McLaren F1 was a refreshingly simple one: to create the greatest supercar ever built. For the team led by design director Gordon Murray money was, effectively, no object - McLaren wanted to make a car to draw clear parallels with the company’s F1 heritage and take a share of the then-booming supercar market. The statistics say it all: 627 bhp, a top speed of 231 mph and a pricetag (including VAT) of £634,500. Unfortunately, by the time the F1 went on sale in 1994 the extreme supercar market had crashed and volumes were only a fraction of those anticipated: just 100 road-going cars were sold before production finished in 1997.

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