[Video] Raw V12 F1 sound unleashed around Goodwood | GRR
Easily taking the cake for best sound of the 78th Members’ Meeting was Bruno Senna exercising Ayrton’s championship-winning McLaren MP4-6. Naturally, we had to pull the footage and strip it of commentary, for that unfettered raw V12 sound.
As Bruno trundles out of the assembly area the revs are fairly calm – it almost sounds like a normal V12. Then things get a little lairier as the revs climb toward five figures past Madgwick, as the car really starts to wake up. The Honda 3.5-litre V12 engine was actually critiqued by Senna early on in the 1991 season for not being as strong as the V10 from the year before. That’s what spurred Honda to develop the engine a little further and make it a stronger ally for the to-be triple world champion for the latter part of the season.
No such signs of any weakness were evident here, 30 years on from when it and Senna did the business. The Motor Circuit and its grounds were fully enveloped in the silky scream of the MP4-6 now getting properly wound out. Goodwood may not necessarily be a circuit conducive to the higher speeds this car is capable of but Bruno had his fun with it. An incredible car, an end of an era. For not only was it Senna’s third and final championship winner, it was the last to win with a V12 and the last to win with a manual transmission.