Walter Röhrl has done a lot. He’s set Pikes Peak records, competed in 24 Hours of Le Mans races, enjoyed WRC victories, and so much more. He also helped test out the Porsche Carrera GT, having taken the car through many laps of the Nürburgring Nordschleife due to his familiarity with the course. In a new video from Alte Schule, Röhrl talks a little bit more about benchmarking the legendary P-Car.
“I don’t think there was anything comparable – the Ferrari F50 was the only car we got back then,” he starts. “We always had it with us. Of course we also wanted to have other cars, for example the McLaren F1, but that never happened.” Apparently, any time Porsche moved to get their mitts on one, it broke or became otherwise unavailable. Röhrl laments – now, even 30 years later – that he simply never had the opportunity to even look at one up-close, let alone drive the car.
Getting Behind the Wheel of the McLaren F1
Röhrl finally has his wish granted by getting behind the wheel of one very special F1. Specifically, a model on loan from BMW Group Classic that happens to be the “Pischetsrieder car” – famously crashed by German BMW and VW exec of the same name. Anyway, the video recaps the specs of the car – RWD, 618-or-so horsepower BMW V12, manual-shift, etc – and Röhrl straps in.
As is often the case with particularly aurally-pleasing videos, YouTube captions the roar of the McLaren F1’s V12 as “[music],” which is always entertaining – and in this case, pretty accurate. Röhrl reflects on the driving experience and how it compares to the Porsche. The considerably more analog features of the F1 – i.e., no power steering or assisted brakes, a heavier clutch, vastly different seating position – come through in his quips, serving as quite the reminder that they don’t make them like they used to.
Röhrl also makes history, as he’s quite likely to be the first person in history to draw a parallel between the McLaren F1 and a VW Bus. Don’t worry, he later compares the F50 to the McLaren F1, too. If that doesn’t encourage you to give the video a watch, I’m not sure anything else I write will. Check it out.