Mysterious signature

.

Daniel9902 wrote:I have seen it here:

http://jalopnik.com/the-not-so-secret-history-of-mclarens-ties-to-tobacco-1247507605

"MP (of MP4-xx fame) used to stand for Marlboro Project. Although they now say that it stands for McLaren Project..."

All McLaren's before Ron Dennis take over were calles M##, like famous M19, M23, M26 etc... There M standed clearly for McLaren.

Then Ron dennis came and added P4 for his own structure. If Marlboro had something to do with it, it could have occured any time before, as they were main sponsors (and IIRC shareholders) since 1974. Bu it did not. With the addition of authorized source quoted by Rob Ryder, there is no single doubt on this. And the author of your link, Daniel, wants to make a point about Marlboro, but this is not fact based.

What I DO remember is that Philip Morris did mingle often with the management of the team. Having a word on some strategic décisions and pilot choice. But MP4 never meant Marlboro.

.

I have certainly heard of MP4 standing for "Marlboro Project 4" before. A number of websites confirm this, e.g. Wikipedia cites Schlegelmilch, Rainer W.; Lehbrink, Hartmut (1999). McLaren Formula 1. Könemann. p. 98. ISBN 3-8290-0945-3 in this respect.

From http://primotipo.com/tag/project-4-racing/ :

Dennis and Barnard pitched the MP4 ‘Marlboro Project 4’ design to Hogan, initially on the basis that Marlboro dump McLaren and provide the funds to them to build the MP4. Hogan, impressed, to his credit chose not to ‘shoot McLaren’ in whom they had much invested, but with little to lose, engineered a ‘shot gun wedding’ of Dennis/Barnard with McLaren in September 1980.

So Marlboro was in MP4 before McLaren even entered into the story!


Quoted in http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=960680 :

Doug Nye's 1988 McLaren history for Autocourse has it as Marlboro Project 4.

http://ollief1.com/the-meaning-behind-mclarens-mp4-designation-2/ including a short discussion of this matter


PS: The internet says it's not a very clear-cut story - see http://www.googlefight.com/%22marlboro+project+4%22-vs-%22mclaren+project+4%22.php

.

If you had read the same website 20 years ago, it would have said "Marlboro Project Four". They are changing their own history as they please... Remember how they keep editing all explicit Marlboro references out of their gallery (as is also the case for the photo you included in the citation)?

Inappropriate comment removed...
Rob