Mercedes GP display car - what is it?

[megz]

I went to a recentish Formula 1 exhibition at my national museum in New Zealand and the big draw card was supposed to be a McLaren MP4-21. It was in all actuality an MP4-20 tub and rear end, the front wing from the MP4-18A (by the looks of it) and Lewis Hamilton labeled as the driver on the side. A little misleading but I guess if it can be done there's nothing stopping them throwing their names on things.

Thankfully the Ferrari F2004, McLaren MP4-4 (which looked to be in full working order) Williams FW14 and others all looked the genuine article and one was actually leaking oil backing up the claims that most were actual working vehicles and not show cars. The F2004 and "MP4-21" we're certainly just rolling bodies.

http://img202.imageshack.us/i/dscf1029eb.jpg/ to begin with there are other images should you want to see the show MP4-21.

[Miguel]

Heh, this reminds me of all the fake F1 cars I've seen out there. I remember seeing a mixed FW14B/FW16/FW whatever in a Renault showcase a long long time ago. The last fake F1 car I saw was a Ferrari in the Ferrari shop in Venice, a month ago. The thing is, the front wing did resemble that of a F2004. I don't remember which car was advertised. Was it an F2004? An F2002? The engine cover was either F2000 or F399.

This all reminds me of the McLaren at the Science Museum in London. Has any of you seen it? I reckon it's the most "originalish" of the showcase F1 cars I've seen, although I'd say it's more a -22 than a -23 (IIRC, it's labelled as such). Also, being hung from the ceiling, it has less problems with close ups and people trying to touch it and mount on it. I may post a pic of it.

[mep]

Don't they have the McLaren anymore on display which Hakkinen crashed during 1999 Hockenheim GP?
After I saw that crash tt was the only time when I switched of the TV during a F1 race. Hehehe I still remember how pissed I was. Well some race situations I probably will never forget. I could name a couple of them. It's really nice to display such a car because there are really big emotions related to it. Not to mention that it is a real car.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Don't they have the McLaren anymore on display which Hakkinen crashed during 1999 Hockenheim GP?
After I saw that crash tt was the only time when I switched of the TV during a F1 race. Hehehe I still remember how pissed I was. Well some race situations I probably will never forget. I could name a couple of them. It's really nice to display such a car because there are really big emotions related to it. Not to mention that it is a real car.

Fair Point, if its a particular car with particular incident attached then it has Kudos and doubles the shame of what is being done.

[mep]

I don't understand what you mean by shame.
Do you mean the shame of displaying a car which in fact is a Honda or are you talking about the Hakkinen McLaren?
Not that you get me wrong I was very angry when I saw that tire to blew up but I have high respect of them displaying this particular car in a London Museum.

Eeeh If you are going to Stuttgart one day to visit the Museum you can give me a call. It would be nice to accompany you there.

[andrew]

Maybe it's the 2011 car after all the mythical untested updates have been fitted!

Sorry, cheap shot.

[Pandamasque]

As far as i know this is normal practice for F1 teams.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

I don't understand what you mean by shame.
Do you mean the shame of displaying a car which in fact is a Honda or are you talking about the Hakkinen McLaren?
Not that you get me wrong I was very angry when I saw that tire to blew up but I have high respect of them displaying this particular car in a London Museum.

Eeeh If you are going to Stuttgart one day to visit the Museum you can give me a call. It would be nice to accompany you there.

Hakkinens McLaren has history, Buttons Honda does not. Both worthy of their own heritage but I think some are more worthy than others, if you get my drift.

Oh the pilgrimage to Stuttgart has already been done. I want to go to the secret halls were they keep all the REAL Mercedes...

[feynman]

Rolling out a repainted year-old show-car if that is all you have available, for a sponsor's marketing photo-op, just about scrapes by.
Rolling out a cut-and-shut of various vaguely related models from the same manufacturer is a bit worse but depends how it was sold ... if they explicitly said this car model will be present, and something else shows up then that's a problem. If it's just a space-filler called a 'McLaren F1 car', then it too scrapes through.

But for a museum exhibit, which I presume this to be, to have a basically dishonest and confusing piece of airbrushing like this on display, in broad daylight, that makes no sense at all.

That car was a Honda, that's how it raced, that's a legitimate historical fact, that's how it should be displayed, as a Honda. You can't just go and repaint it and say it's something else. If I went to the Natural History museum to see a dinosaur, and they displayed a dinosaur, and I went home and later found it was an elephant with some bits of extra spare bone stuck on it, I'd feel had.
You can't just make a display from some spare Roman coins cos you don't happen to have any Greek ones, there has to be some degree of proper authenticity here, and this exhibit rides a coach and horses through all that.

No, I say that photo is clearly way, way over the line for what is acceptable.

(Although Merc have a fair bit of form when it comes to playing fast and loose with the actualities ... mechanics scraping paint of heavy cars to make them silver ... Norbert please).