The McLaren F1 set the world on fire when it came out, boasting incredible performance specs and offering no compromises, not even on driving position.The star of the show is undoubtedly the engine, commissioned by McLaren from BMW, who the racing firm knew would take the projects details to the nth degree.Of course, the engine would have to be tested before being given to the supercar manufacturer, but BMW didnt really have a mid-engined car that it could use for the application, save for the classic M1.Enter the E34 M5 Wagon, an extremely unlikely donor for the 6.1-litre V12 but. nevertheless, the car that would be the mule used to develop this insane engine.The existence of the wagon was revealed in talks with David Clark, former director of McLaren road and race car programs from 1994 through 1998, on Chris Harris Collecting Cars podcast; the vehicles otherwise remained a total mystery until now. Clark says hes driven the car, and that its an outrageous thing.It isnt hard to see why. In the McLaren F1, the 627-horsepower engine helped the carbon-fibre-bodied supercar reach 240.1 miles per hour (386 km/h), which is still the current record for a naturally aspirated road car. Of course, the car was built for racing, in which it achieved great success, even scoring an outright victory at Le Mans in 1995.While 627 horsepower doesnt seem like much these days, in 1995 it was more than double the 311 horsepower the M5 would have made stock, making for a wild ride,
Origin: BMW’s secret M5 wagon mule hides McLaren F1 power