The McLaren M18 is an

open-wheel An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have their wheels below the body or inside fend ...

Formula 5000 Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an Open-wheel car, open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel ...

racing car designed and made by

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

in 1971.

Development

The car was conceived to participate in the 1971 Formula 5000 season to replace the M10.

Design

The car was powered by a 470-hp Chevrolet V8, which drove the rear wheels through a five-speed

manual gearbox A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canadian English, Canada, British English, the United Kingdom and American English, the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed ...

Racing history

The car, entrusted to the driver

Brian Redman Brian Herman Thomas Redman (born 9 March 1937) is a British retired racing driver. Racing for Carl Haas and Jim Hall's Chaparral Cars, Brian Redman won the 1974, '75 and '76 SCCA Formula 5000 series and has raced in nearly every category of ...

, did not have the hoped-for success and won only two of the 16 championship races.

References

External links

{{McLaren McLaren racing cars Formula 5000 cars