This well is remarkable in history. Since Nikki passed away. And in a way to give a tribute to his technical achievements, Mark Huges moved over to look into the car which confirmed his win in his third and final world championship. Nikki and his team won the 12 of 16 races in the championship with the 1984 McLaren MP4/2-TAG Porsche. This car was some revolution and some of it was evolved. It bears the appearances of Ferrari, Lotus, and Brabham.
It was McLaren’s first pukka turbocharged F1 beast head. This beat the normally aspirated Cosworth DFV but only after several years. The car was designed by John Barnard. Talking of the superior quality of the car, its brilliant efficiency of the Porshe engine is the main cause for the high competition it offers. Along with this, the great effectiveness also gets into motion with the exceptional aerodynamics of the car. This is too, the result of some architecture from Barnard himself.
Talking of Barnard’s success stories and his efforts, he was able to integrate a great car out of his skills. The engine was devised as a consultant engineering with Porsche and according to his own requirements. Thus, this took him far ahead of his competitors in the advancement race.
The basic of the car is very much derived on Barnard’s original ‘wonder car’, the 1981 MP4/1. It was the same car that introduced carbon-fibre chassis to F1, giving a vastly superior stiffness to weight compromise to the previous generation aluminum tubs – which Williams was still using in 1984.
