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I just saw this car tonight - there is a very long story surrounding how I knew it was nearby, but I won't bore everyone with it.
Surprisingly for a guy who knows nearly everything there is to know about the McLaren F1 - this was my first time ever seeing an F1 roadcar. I had seen the long-tailed race versions at Laguna Seca in 1997, but never a standard F1. There are about 20 of them in the US now and I can ID nearly every car and every owner. Even with my gobs of info, seeing one in person had just never materialized for me.
I could tell who the owner was because I have seen him in photos before with the car. His name is Elon Musk. He's a dot com millionaire who made most of his fortune as the co-founder of PayPal. He has since left the company when Ebay purchased them and is trying to start a privateer effort to explore and colonize the planet Mars. Some hobby! Tonight he was at a fundraiser for Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign to be governor. I guess that makes him a republican.
Anyway - I'm more excited about seeing this car than I have ever been about anything else. Nothing else compares at all. As he braked for the 90-degree right to get on the freeway, the rear diffuser which comes up to aid in downforce and direct air to the rear brakes popped up exposing it's gold foil covered underside. That sent a chill up my spine - go ahead - laugh all you want. When he decided he'd had enough of me tagging along beside them (he was with a moderately attractive female) he practically disappeared down the FWY. Considering he's got about 5x the power of my little PZEV, I just let him go.
BTW: Sorry the pics are so crappy - that's not usually my style, but I was trying to drive and take long exposures without the flash and that just doesn't work.
>8^)
ER
Surprisingly for a guy who knows nearly everything there is to know about the McLaren F1 - this was my first time ever seeing an F1 roadcar. I had seen the long-tailed race versions at Laguna Seca in 1997, but never a standard F1. There are about 20 of them in the US now and I can ID nearly every car and every owner. Even with my gobs of info, seeing one in person had just never materialized for me.



I could tell who the owner was because I have seen him in photos before with the car. His name is Elon Musk. He's a dot com millionaire who made most of his fortune as the co-founder of PayPal. He has since left the company when Ebay purchased them and is trying to start a privateer effort to explore and colonize the planet Mars. Some hobby! Tonight he was at a fundraiser for Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign to be governor. I guess that makes him a republican.

Anyway - I'm more excited about seeing this car than I have ever been about anything else. Nothing else compares at all. As he braked for the 90-degree right to get on the freeway, the rear diffuser which comes up to aid in downforce and direct air to the rear brakes popped up exposing it's gold foil covered underside. That sent a chill up my spine - go ahead - laugh all you want. When he decided he'd had enough of me tagging along beside them (he was with a moderately attractive female) he practically disappeared down the FWY. Considering he's got about 5x the power of my little PZEV, I just let him go.
BTW: Sorry the pics are so crappy - that's not usually my style, but I was trying to drive and take long exposures without the flash and that just doesn't work.
>8^)
ER