McLaren F1 'XP4' - Monterey, CA - August 20th, 2005

This is the fourth prototype of the McLaren F1 road car which, thanks to its owner, I was incredibly fortunate to see and photograph in a BMW display at the 2005 Monterey Historic races at Laguna Seca Raceway.

This is easily one of my favorite F1s ever built. Mostly because of the chosen paint color and interior combination, but also because as a prototype this car is a real piece of F1 history. XP4 was used for suspension and gearbox development testing, was used to set the performance numbers in the original AutoCar F1 road test, and also should be familiar to many as the car Tiff Needel drove in "Top Gear"s original segment on the F1 filmed back in the mid-1990s.

If you've already read the story of my day you'll know this part, but the only reason I managed to find this car there at the track was because a kid in the paddock was looking at the same grey Ferrari Enzo that I was, and I overheard his friend say to him "This isn't as cool as that Blue McLaren we saw". I stopped them immediately and asked where they had seen a blue McLaren (knowing exactly which car it should be), and one of them explained where to find it, but said "It's really far away." I told him that wasn't a problem, and that I would walk as far as I needed to in order to see this car.

I live in the Los Angeles area and had just missed seeing this car the weekend prior down at the weekly "Crystal Cove" car show held each Sunday in Newport Beach when it showed up unannounced. To find it there at the track only one week later was just fantastic luck, because with the F1 it can be quite rare to get a second chance to see them.

I've peppered some of the images here with additional descriptions to read as you flip through the album.

Enjoy!