[9] Notable past and present McLaren F1 owners include Lewis Hamilton,[10] Elon Musk,[11] Rowan Atkinson,[12] Jay Leno,[13] George Harrison,[14] Ralph Lauren,[15] Nick Mason,[16] and the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah.

[17] In the April 2017 issue of Top Gear Magazine, the McLaren F1 was listed as one of the fastest naturally aspirated cars currently available in the world, and in the same league as more modern vehicles such as the Ferrari Enzo and Aston Martin One-77 despite being produced and engineered 10 years prior to the Ferrari Enzo and 17 years prior to the Aston Martin One-77.

When Murray was waiting for a flight home from the Italian Grand Prix in 1988, he drew a sketch of a three-seater sports car and proposed it to Ron Dennis.

He pitched the idea of creating the ultimate road car, a concept that would be heavily influenced by the company's Formula One experience and technology and thus reflect that skill and knowledge through the McLaren F1.

Although it's true I had thought it would have been better to put a larger engine, the moment I drove the Honda NSX, all the benchmark cars—Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini—I had been using as references in the development of my car vanished from my mind.

Later in the year, the second prototype (XP2) was specially built for crash testing and passed with the front wheel arch untouched.

The existence of such a test mule was revealed when David Clark, the director of McLaren road and race cars from 1994–1998 disclosed this fact to motoring journalist Chris Harris in a podcast.

[27] The McLaren F1 was an early example of a production road car using a complete carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) monocoque chassis structure.

[31] The overall drag coefficient on the standard McLaren F1 is Cd=0.32,[32] compared with Cd=0.36 for the faster Bugatti Veyron, and Cd=0.357 for the SSC Ultimate Aero TT, which was the fastest production car from 2007 to 2010.

The standard McLaren F1 road car features no fixed wing to produce downforce (compare to the LM and GTR editions); however, the overall design of the underbody of the McLaren F1 in addition to a rear diffuser exploits ground effect to improve downforce which is increased through the use of two electric Kevlar fans to further decrease the pressure under the car.

From inception, the design of the F1 had a strong focus on weight distribution by extensive manipulation of placement of, among other things, the engine, fuel and driver, allowing for a low polar moment of inertia in yaw.

The distance between the mass centroid of the car and the suspension roll centre was designed to be the same front and rear to avoid unwanted weight transfer effects.

Computer controlled dynamic suspension was considered but not applied due to the inherent increase in weight, complexity and loss of predictability of the vehicle.

[23] The standard McLaren F1 has a transverse 6-speed manual gearbox with an AP carbon triple-plate clutch contained in an aluminium housing.

This is done in order to decrease rotational inertia and increase the responsiveness of the drivetrain, resulting in faster gear changes and better throttle feedback.

[citation needed] Further comfort features included SeKurit electric defrost/demist windscreen and side glass, electric window lifts, remote central locking, Kenwood 10-disc CD stereo system, cabin access release for opening panels, cabin storage compartment, four-lamp high performance headlight system, rear fog and reversing lights, courtesy lights in all compartments, map reading lights and a gold-plated Facom titanium tool kit and first aid kit (both stored in the car).

[8][23] Each customer was given a special edition TAG Heuer 6000 Chronometer wristwatch with its serial number scripted below the centre stem.

[31] The metal plates fitted to improve the aesthetics of the cockpit are claimed to be 20 thousandths of an inch (0.5 mm) thick to save weight.

Each car's audio system was specially designed to tailor to an individual's listening taste; however, radio was omitted because Murray felt it wasn't necessary.

They wrote: "Had we enough tarmac, we have no doubt that it would finally stop accelerating at its rev-limiter in top which, taking tyre growth into account, would be somewhere the far side of 230 mph (370 km/h).

"[46] Car and Driver wrote in their August 1994 issue ("Courtesy of Autocar & Motor" written in the box with performance numbers): "Top speed?

"[35] On 31 March 1998, Andy Wallace drove the five-year-old XP5 prototype at Volkswagen's test track in Ehra-Lessien, setting a new production car world record.

[56] Following its initial launch as a road car, motorsports teams convinced McLaren to build racing versions of the F1 to compete in international series.

By adding mufflers, and passenger seats, adjusting the suspension for more ground clearance for public streets, and removing the air-restrictors, the cars were able to be registered for road use.

The F1 GTR would go on to take its greatest achievement with first, third, fourth, fifth, and 13th places in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans, beating out custom built prototype sports cars.

The weight was reduced to around 37 kg (82 lb) from the 1995 GTR but the engine was kept de-tuned at 447 kW (599 hp; 608 PS) to comply with racing regulations.

The car also had a different transaxle, various aerodynamic modifications, specially designed 18 in (457.2 mm) magnesium alloy wheels and an upgraded gearbox.

[60] The LM was once the holder of the 0–100–0 mph record, which it completed in 11.5 seconds when driven by Andy Wallace at the disused airbase RAF Alconbury in Cambridgeshire.

Two of the chassis were painted in Black with Grey trim similar to the Ueno Clinic sponsored Le Mans 24 Hours winning car.

The engines were upgraded to unrestricted GTR specification resulting in a power output of 500 kW (671 hp; 680 PS) and had the High Downforce Kit (HDK) added to them.