If you recall how the original F1 of 1992 used a bespoke V12 built by BMW you might be surprised by the fact that the MP4-12C of 2011 had to do with a redundant Nissan engine.
Ahh, engines! Wonderfully complex machines that can add or detract from the car they are actually powering. Or indeed make it, if the engine is great enough. Such an engine was the absolutely fabulous powerhouse of an engine fitted to the McLaren F1 of 1992, the large 6-liter naturally aspirated V12 of over 600 horsepower.
In any other car that engine alone would have stolen the limelight, but as the rest of the F1 was pretty special too it emphasized the greatness of both instead. And even the fact that the engine was not an in-house effort but designed to a brief by BMW did nothing to detract – on the other hand in certain ways it highlighted the synergy of great engineers on a mission. In short: If you are not deeply moved by 1) the F1 2) its engine or indeed 1) AND 2) you are probably deeply mechanically insensitive.
The F1 ended production in 1998 and only 106 were made. The project was famously driven by the Formula One-proven Gordan Murray and even though the final car was by quite some margin the most expensive road car ever the project as a whole was probably quite crippling for McLaren economically. So it would be several years before McLaren returned to producing road cars, this time in a new set-up more isolated from the racing cars. But the new car would still need an engine and again McLaren looked to outside suppliers instead of designing and building their own – and ended up with a redundant Nissan engine from the late Nineties.
Sort of. At least the engine traced its roots back to Japan, and to be fair it was probably one of the finest engines Nissan has ever made: The twin turbocharged V8-engine from their Le Mans-racer Nissan R390 GT1 certainly was no slouch. Nissan used this car in Le Mans in 1997 and 1998 and while they were certainly fast, they like many, many others before them had to learn that speed was not enough at Le Mans: One should have the staying power to be able to complete 24 hour races and that was more of a problem for Nissan. Only one in three cars managed to finish in 1997 and although they managed much better in 1998 (the best car was fourth overall and three more cars finished further down) Nissan had had enough, and left Le Mans again.
But not before they had sold the engine design to an upstart of a small British car brand: McLaren. Exactly how this came to be is probably a lot more complicated as Tom Walkinshaw Racing was involved in the Nissan-project as well as a new version of the engine for American CART-racing, but anyway: Not least the compactness of the Nissan-engine was found most interesting as well as its potential to develop big power. It was, of course, redesigned thoroughly before it became a road engine in the new McLaren Automotive’s MP4-12C sports car – which was, by the way, not done by McLaren either but by Ricardo, another British company specializing in engine development.
One may well ask how much is left of the old Nissan engine – and McLaren owners will probably hope “nothing”. Because it just doesn’t sound very good, does it: “The engine in my McLaren? Well, yes, that is an interesting story as it is actually out of an old Nissan”. On the other hand, the latest McLarens now have more power than the 650 horsepower that Nissan had at Le Mans back in the day. And as far as I am aware, they can also last more than 24 hours. Most importantly though, McLaren has now made do with this single engine in all of their road cars for ten years now – not bad for an old Nissan lump.
