McLaren Uses a 20-Year-Old Computer to Maintain the F1 Supercar

What could be called an interesting bit of information, it has been reported that British supercar maker, McLaren apparently needs a 20-year-old computer to maintain its popular supercar - F1.

By Seshan Vijayraghvan

1 mins read

Published on May 5, 2016

Highlights

McLaren F1 needs a Compaq laptops from the early 1990s to be maintained
McLaren only produced 106 F1s between 1992 to 1999
Special CA card used to access the system for security & copy protection

It has been reported that British supercar maker, McLaren, currently uses a 20-year-old computer to maintain its popular supercar - F1. Apparently the computer that the company uses while servicing these special supercars is a Compaq LTE 5280 laptops from the early '90s that comes with a special Conditional Access (CA) card that connects the interface of the car and the laptop. McLaren F1 Supercar was in production from 1992 to1999 and in these eight years the carmaker only manufactures 106 models. Currently 100 vehicles out of the initial 106 units are still in use and McLaren handles the servicing of these 100 F1, which can only be done by these old Compaq laptops. It has been revealed that the reason why McLaren needs those specific models of laptop to maintain the F1s is because currently only these tailor-made CA cards can be used to access the custom hardware as part of an integrated system for security and copy protection. In fact McLaren has been sourcing Compaq LTE 5280 laptops to facilitate the servicing process of the F1s. McLaren F1 Rear Profile All that said, this is not the case for every manufacturer, today's modern supercars can be accessed by PCs that uses smart cards or USB keys with special access codes to access sensitive systems. It has been reported that McLaren is working on a new interface which will be compatible with modern laptops so it won't have to keep hunting for these vintage machines. That said, as of now a 20-year-old Compaq is the key to servicing one of the world's fastest production cars. Coming to the car itself, the popular McLaren F1 cars are powered by a 6.1-litre V12 engine that has been built by BMW called BMW S70/2. The engine is a 6,064 cc, 60-degree V12 that churns out a maximum of 618bhp at 7,400 rpm and develops a peak torque of 651Nm of peak torque at 5,600rpm. Transmission duties are taken care of by a 6-speed manual gearbox. Source: Verge / Images: NetCarShow