Originally posted by macoran on 'The cutaway drawing and its artists' thread
A stand alone tech thread on these models,.....or will it be merged with
1974 McLaren M23
1977 McLaren M23
McLaren M26
Trimmer M23
de Villota M23
??
Ref the M26 and the 'bollock cooler' in the floor - yes i spotted that too and would like to know a little more, but i think what Marc is refering to is the plain unducted nose - oil coolers at the rear - in the cutaways. i am sure that he is right, and the the m26 made its debut in holland in 1976 in this format, and that it also appeared in this guise at the kyalami tests in early 1977. it was after James had his accident there in the prototype m26-1 that it was rebuilt in front oil rad format and reappeared at the british gp. chassis 2, which james ran in the spanish gp, was in the original format there, but appeared at the belgian gp - having not been taken to monaco in between - with the first front oil rad - the cars definative trim.
incidentally, can anyone think of a contempoary car to the m26 that took a full calender year to 'come good'? i was once told, by someone who was there but may not have had the full story, that there breakthrough came when the ride height was dropped by a massive amount allround and the car stiffened - looking at the razor edged side pontoons and the flexible skirts that grew from them about this time, i can only think that the car suddenly gained significant downforce along the 'blat' principle we have discussed here before...?
over to the rest of you , i will post some of my recent shots from tgp , up close and personal, as soon as time permits.
peter