Yahoo Autos The Story Behind the McLaren F1's Stunning 1995 Le Mans Victory
A huge part of the McLaren F1's legend is its shock victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995. We once described the F1 as "the road car so good, they detuned the engine and won Le Mans." What's funny, though, is that the F1's victory was highly improbable at best.
The F1, while damn quick, was well off the pace of dedicated sports prototypes like the Courage-Porsche driven by Mario Andretti. In qualifying, the quickest McLaren started at ninth on the grid. What swung things back in McLaren's favor was a long, rainy night and a Finnish driver by the name of J.J. Lehto.
You'll learn this and more in this fantastic documentary called McLaren at Le Mans: Pursuit of Perfection. Produced by McLaren, this film follows the development of the F1 LM, and focuses on three cars in the race–two fielded by David Price Racing, and the winning car of Lanzante Motorsport, shown above.
The story of the Lanzante car is incredible for two reasons–team leader Paul Lanzante was a Le Mans rookie, and the car itself was a McLaren development chassis entered into the race at the last minute. If any F1 were to have a shot at victory in 1995, it would have been the Harrods car driven by Derek Bell, Justin Bell, and Andy Wallace.
A lot of luck, smart decision making, and a blistering performance by Lehto brought the Lanzante car to victory and into the history books. It's one of the greatest tales in Le Mans history, so you owe it to yourself to watch the full film. It's 40 minutes well spent.
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