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Alps McLaren F1 Marlboro Texaco Racer Smoking! *SOLD*

McLaren F1 Marlboro-Texaco Racer by Alps- Smoking!

There are just too many terms and details about this car!  It is an F1 car.  It was driven by Emerson Fitappaldi and sponsored by infamous Marlboro.  It has a winning record, and the toy is made by loved Japanese toy company Alps.

Our battery op is near new old stock and just does a bit of “smoke”.  What an odd feature!  It is battery operated and can scoot across the floor with its rubber tires.

Size is quite impressive at about 12″ in length.  See the tape measurer picture, and note the zippo lighter for reference too.

The box and all the inserts are included too.  The box orange on the racer’s nose has been retouched.  Chrome is good, but there is some fade on one side’s engine headers.  Also, the toy has some heavy dust on it from storage.

Borrowing a write-up from McLaren.com :

“The M23 had plenty of development left in it for 1974, and the really significant change was the creation of the Texaco-Marlboro McLaren superteam, as 1972 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi quit Lotus to join Denny in M23s that were now painted red and white. It was a major coup for McLaren that brought in the sponsorship dollars to stage a major title assault, but a high degree of juggling was needed to placate Yardley. In the end, agreement was reached to run a third works car in its livery. Teddy Mayer’s initial plan was to run Peter Revson in it, but the American finally lost patience with the ongoing negotiations and left to join Shadow in a decision that would ultimately cost him his life when he was the victim of suspension failure during testing at Kyalami, in his place, Phil Kerr would run the M23 for Mike Hailwood.

Prolonged winter testing by the enthusiastic Fittipaldi at Paul Ricard led to changes to the car, such as a longer wheelbase and wider track, based on his considerable experience of the Lotus 72. Years later, historic racer Willie Green would call it “easily the best” of the many 1970s Formula 1 machines he had driven round Brands Hatch. Good aerodynamics, he contended, “were one of its strong suits and the lack of buffeting in the cockpit at high speeds bears this out.”

Gordon Coppuck described the car as a decade and a half on as, “The best F1 car for three years. Yes, it was a good design, but it also benefited from a lot of good development. The chassis changed very little, but we did a great deal of suspension work to keep it competitive. The chassis was much stiffer than those of our rivals’ cars, but it was pretty flexible by modern standards.”

Additional information

Weight 3 lbs
Dimensions 16 × 12 × 12 in
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