You can almost hear the telephone conversation that autumn…………… The problem was that the costs of this form of racing was huge, massive and completely out of proportion to any measurable marketing return, so after one year Alfa and Opel said goodbye, leaving Mercedes holding the baby. During 1996 it had 26 races at 13 events and was arguably the fastest FIA Championship outside of F1. The ITC was an amazing competition with purpose built high-tech tin-top racers from Opel, Alfa Romeo and Mercedes Benz featuring a star studded line up of drivers. Running parallel to the BPR/911 GT1 saga was the issue of what to do with the 1997 FIA International Touring Car Championship or ITC. To their credit both Jurgen and Stephane later admitted I was right at the time and we all get along fine now. I did not think anyone would actually bother to read my article, much less care what an obscure photographer thought. It was clear to all on the inside that the BPR could not continue in the existing format, indeed I wrote an internet column at the time saying just that and a bit more, and got banned from the final race of the season in China for my pains. In fact Jurgen had been the first to drive the 911 GT1 on Porsche's test track at Weissach.
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He was a former factory driver (as was his father, Edgar) who won Le Mans driving for them with Jacky Ickx in 1977. It did not help matters that Jurgen Barth was also working for Porsche Kundensport (Customer Sport). There were pretty strong disagreements between Barth, Peter and Ratel (BPR) about letting the 911 GT1 run in the series. It appeared first at the 1996 Le Mans 24 Hours, then at the BPR rounds at Brands Hatch, Spa and Zhuhai, dominating all three events. Unlike the cars from Woking and Maranello this was a race car from the getgo ( SpeedHunters has an article on the car ). There were other external pressures and forces at work too.ĭuring 1995 and the early part of 1996 the BPR Challenge was dominated by McLaren F1s and Ferrari F40s with Porsche pretty much nowhere……….at that time the management of Porsche would have considered that an unacceptable situation, so the Porsche 911 GT1 was conceived. Looking on from the outside, the BPR Challenge in 1996 seemed to be gaining strength as fields grew ever larger (53 cars at Silverstone) but from within there were several problems that loomed large, making it almost impossible to continue on the same course. The informality and relaxed nature of the BPR paddock made it a friendly place with hard racing being seen as a counterpart to good living or 'ambiance' as it was called. What had started as a place where Stephane Ratel's mates could race their Venturis against Jurgen Barth's Porsche customers, aided by historic event promoter, Patrick Peter, ended as being the springboard for a new FIA Championship.
Whether in the BMW Corporate livery of Team BMW Motorsport or the evolution of iconic Gulf Oil Blue & Gold colours, now transformed into Gulf Team Davidoff with the addition of the upmarket tobacco brand, the revised McLarens looked even better than the originals.īack some dozen years ago we all wondered what would the new "and improved" FIA GT Championship would bring as it succeeded the BPR Challenge that had revived the fortunes of GT Racing in Europe since its inception in 1994. But before tacking that thorny issue, let's just admire the lines of the final evolution of the greatest GT car ever built. Why? The answers to this question will tell you why the 1997 incarnation of the FIA GT Championship arrived so quickly and why it died with almost as great a speed. However the dictates of competition meant that 'something must be done' so remarkably Gordon Murray sat down and produced a sketch that formed the basis of the road car. The original McLaren F1 GTR was a thing of beauty and as such normally should have been left alone and not "improved", at least that would be conventional wisdom. One such instance was back at the beginning of 1997 when the McLaren F1 GTR "Longtail" appeared. It happens only rarely but when it does you know, just know, with absolute certainty that a car is right when you first look at it.
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