First pics of the McLaren

pixelboy · Post by **pixelboy** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:29 am

Interesting...

Its got the Sauber sidepods and obviously the skinny nose of the past few years is gone.

I like it.. best looking McLaren since the Marlboro days IMHO

matticooper · Post by **matticooper** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:43 am

They had to fatten up the nose so Montoya could fit in LOL

Exar Kun · Post by **Exar Kun** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 8:15 am

matticooper wrote:They had to fatten up the nose so Montoya could fit in LOL

Have you seen recent pics of Monty? He must have lost 10kgs already!! Must be on some psycho workout regime.

As for the car - side pods are Sauber-ish at the front like pixelboy said and then waste away very quickly. I was always a fan of the narrow nose so don't like this one as much. In general, the cars are becoming much more complicated aero-wise this year. Hope this car can put up a fight to Ferrari in at least some races this year.

w00dsy · Post by **w00dsy** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:04 pm

Exar Kun wrote: Have you seen recent pics of Monty? He must have lost 10kgs already!! Must be on some psycho workout regime.

yeah and he had a swipe at Williams because they didn't do enough to get him fit and Ron Dennis has given him trainers etc to drop some lard. If he can't keep himself fit, then he aint even remotly dedicated enough to win the championship.

w00dsy · Post by **w00dsy** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:12 pm

thin monty

Bacchulum · Post by **Bacchulum** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:22 pm

Maybe the nose is wider to give Kimi's lap dancers more room to work.

Montey · Post by **Montey** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:38 pm

Something of note on the new Mclaren...

At the rear of the side pods is an upward sweeping wing which guides wind up and over the rear tyres. Mclaren have designed the inside edge of this piece of bodywork to sweep quite high and have attached an extra wing component from the inside edge of this sweep to the main cowling cover.

Effectively this gives the Mclaren an extra 3rd wing (i.e. 1 full front wing, 1 full rear wing, and a FULL MIDDLE WING). Whethe this wing falls within the new regulations for wings is unknown to me.

An additional piece of interesting observation of this wing is that in the photographs above the leading edge is high, whilst the trailing edge is low (this is the reverse of a normal front and pack wing). My only conclusion then is that this wing is not designed so much to aid with the downforce of the package but to aid with its stablity by smoothing the flow of air down and around the rear of the car.

w00dsy · Post by **w00dsy** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:38 pm

Maybe the nose is wider to give Kimi's lap dancers more room to work. Tongue
rofl rofl

lol

Exar Kun · Post by **Exar Kun** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:56 pm

Montey wrote:Something of note on the new Mclaren...

At the rear of the side pods is an upward sweeping wing which guides wind up and over the rear tyres. Mclaren have designed the inside edge of this piece of bodywork to sweep quite high and have attached an extra wing component from the inside edge of this sweep to the main cowling cover.

Effectively this gives the Mclaren an extra 3rd wing (i.e. 1 full front wing, 1 full rear wing, and a FULL MIDDLE WING). Whethe this wing falls within the new regulations for wings is unknown to me..

The middle wing is known as a 'shelf wing' and was run by several teams last year. McLaren's shelf wing this year is of note as it has gained a more '3D' shape like Renault used on theirs last year.

And you're correct in your observation - these wings aren't there to create downforce but to smooth flow to the rear wing.

w00dsy · Post by **w00dsy** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 1:10 pm

When you look at it side on, the top of the nose and the way it drops down the sidepods is getting even closer to the profile of the tear drop. A lot of teams haven't had that effect to the same extreme that McLaren have. One thing i like about McLarens is they never look like any other car out there.

Scottie · Post by **Scottie** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:08 pm

The rear mirrors are so wide appart!

I like the design... but the nose looks wierd...
just the flatness of it just throws me off. But it looks like a good progression from last year

Exar Kun · Post by **Exar Kun** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:59 pm

Scottie wrote:The rear mirrors are so wide appart!

The mirrors on the F2004 were like that too. A couple of people remarked at the start of last year how restricted visibility must have been from them - and that it could have contributed to the Schumi-Montoya accident at Monaco.

spoonsports · Post by **spoonsports** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 11:32 pm

nose reminds me of last years pherrari
but overall nice car
GO McLaren