Back in 2010, McLaren offered (and still offers) an upgrade package for the 1992-1998 McLaren F1 that increased power, enabling this 90’s supercar to hit a theoretical top speed of 250 MPH and above.
Update: It’s a hoax.
When the McLaren F1 was introduced back in 1992, Gordan Murray, its main designer, actually had to dial back on some of the performance of the F1 because the metallurgy and engine technology just wasn’t there to support what he wanted with durability and reliability. But in 2010, after a reevaluation, technology caught up with Gordan Murray’s vision resulting in an upgrade package for the McLaren F1 that raised horsepower by 12 percent, shaved .3 seconds off its 0-60 MPH time down to 2.9 seconds and raised its top speed to above 250 MPH from 241 MPH (among other improvements to overall performance.) The exterior aero still remained as functional as ever so no improvements were made to its looks.
The core strengths of the McLaren F1, it’s layout, dimensions, carbon monocoque and engine still are state of
the art even today, yet lot of technologies that now allow us to work around a few design decisions we had to make
with the original design, have only recently become available. Offering this package at this point in time also
allowed us to share a lot of development work with what was already planned for the F1’s successor. In fact without
the shared development approach it wouldn’t have been possible for us to offer this upgrade package.
At the heart of the improvements was the engine upgrades. Stock, the NA BMW V12 made 618 HP and 480 lb-ft, nothing to scoff at today.
- Displacement increased slightly from 6,064cc to 6,121 cc thanks to a .4mm increase in bore size.
- larger and lighter pistons
- lighter conrods
- raised compression to 12.0:1 from 11.0:1
- redesigned cylinder head
- new inlet and exhaust valves
- new camshafts with variable valve timing on the exhaust too
- a reprogrammed ECU
This netted 73 HP and 11 lb-ft. The transmission remained untouched
Brakes were improved to a carbon ceramic composite brake compared to the pure carbon brakes on its original design.
Surprisingly, McLaren does remove the automatic brake and balance aerofoil system as well as the active underbody air management system which strips more than 138 pounds increasing this improved McLaren F1’s power to weight ratio by 18 percent to 478HP/ ton. Now weighing in at 2374 pounds, this McLaren F1 weighs about as much as a four-door economy Japanese import. In other words, it’s really, really light.
There’s no word or videos circulating the internet whether someone actually took McLaren’s offer to heart and brought their F1’s in for this upgrade that I could find. With only 64 road going McLaren F1’s ever made, chances were pretty slim off the bat to find an owner to bring their McLaren F1 in for an upgrade. Out of that handful of F1’s, you’d be hard-pressed to find one that’s even driven that much anyways.
If any McLaren F1 owner ever comes across this article, do consider doing humanity a favor and dropping some factory-backed upgrades on your rare McLaren.
