Woking Wednesday - Speed Twins Edition

#53 Franck Muller Watch McLaren F1-GTR, 1/43 from High Speed
#53 Franck Muller Watch McLaren F1-GTR, 1/43 from High Speed

So I get to show off my twin McLaren F1-GTRs twice in three days! Both 1/43 scale from High Speed, these were the cars that got me into this hobby. I had bought a few other models casually while in the US, but did not do much with them after moving to India in 2009. Until I found both these cars listed for sale on AliExpress.

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The first one I bought was this #53 car.

The #53 Franck Muller Watch car raced in the BPR Global GT Series in 1996, ultimately finishing 11th overall in the championship that year. At LeMans though, the car scored a DNF. At the end of the season, McLaren leased the car out to Mercedes-AMG where... well I will leave that story for another day because I have another special car that I need to post here to complete the story.

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And You’ve already met the other F1 GTR from my stables. Today I found out that the #38 FINA livery was actually on 2 different McLaren chassis - 16R and 18R. 16R finished 11th at LeMans in 1996. 18R was a spare that was raced just twice (Nelson Piquet was one of the drivers) and was also the last short tail F1 GTR that McLaren ever built.

(L) the Team Bigazzi FINA #38 and (R) The Franck Muller Watch #53, both 1/43 models of the 1996 McLaren F1-GTR
(L) the Team Bigazzi FINA #38 and (R) The Franck Muller Watch #53, both 1/43 models of the 1996 McLaren F1-GTR
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(L) The Franck Muller Watch #53 and (R) the Team Bigazzi FINA #38, both 1/43 models of the 1996 McLaren F1-GTR
(L) The Franck Muller Watch #53 and (R) the Team Bigazzi FINA #38, both 1/43 models of the 1996 McLaren F1-GTR

P.S: I know the lighting looks dull. This was on the roof of my apartment building on a muggy evening just as the sun was setting.