Here's A McLaren F1 Engine Just Sitting There Looking Amazing

By  Máté Petrány

The S70/2 is BMW M GmbH's 627 horsepower naturally aspirated V12 that you only take out of your McLaren F1 if you know your stuff. At the McLaren Technology Center in Woking, they certainly do.

The F1's engine represented the pinnacle of powerplant technology in 1991. After Honda fell out of the contest, BMW approached Gordon Murray with a chain-driven 6,064 cc V12 that had 4 valves per cylinder, VANOS (variable-valve timing) and dry sump lubrication. 627 horsepower, 480 pound feet of torque and a redline at 7,500 rpm in a package that weigh less than 500 pounds including the gearbox.

That package ended up in front of Richard Tipper, who is a London-based automotive detailer who's been in the business since 1989 and gets to work on all sorts of exotica on a daily basis. His latest trip took him to Woking to McLaren Special Operations, where he worked on the S70/2 while the rest of the car got a new clutch and some love and care.

It makes me want to see what they'd done to the rest of the car. As you all know, the last Special Operations F1 we saw was upside down in a ditch...

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