lambodiecast

It has been a little over 30 years now that the legendary Ayrton Senna got behind the wheel of a McLaren MP 4-8B, a bespoke F1 car that had a lengthened chassis so the massive Lamborghini V12 engine would fit, replacing the original 700 hp Ford V8 engine for the 750 hp Lamborghini LE3512 V12 unit.

Apparently, the testing went really well, and Senna even contemplated having the McLaren fitted with a Lamborghini engine for the 1994 season, the idea materialized during the summer of 1993, to have the engine ready for competition the next year, remember this V12 engine was designed by Mauro Forghieri.

In the end, the MP 4-8B prototype had a 4.875" longer chassis, mostly behind the bulkhead, to fit the larger V12 engine that also happened to be about 18 kg heavier than the Ford V8, it took McLaren about two months to complete all the required modification for this test mule.

In the end, McLaren went with a Peugeot engine for their 1994 season, a rather disastrous decision that lasted only one year, so the McLaren MP 4-8B with a Lamborghini V12 remains one of the F1 biggest 'What if' questions to date, in 1995 McLaren raced with Mercedes engines.

Sadly there is no 1/18 scale model of this all-white McLaren MP 4-8B F1 car, there have been a few modified MP 4-8 cars around that had the Marlboro livery removed to look like this prototype, but none of those had the longer chassis to really make it the 4-8B model, which is why I went with the 1/43 scale model from Minichamps.

It is an older model, relatively hard to find these days, and it sure isn't the most detailed model out there either, but it's an F1 car, you can't really see the engine on this specific model anyway, so right now I am quite happy with it.

our RATING

Exterior		9/10
Interior		8/10
Engine	Not visible
Accuracy		8/10
Overall rating		8/10

Original price on February 27, 2024 : € 69