Book Review: McLaren MP4/4 Owners’ Workshop Manual by Steve Rendle

As pre-season testing concludes with question marks over the new McLaren MCL60, McLaren fans might be pining again for the glory days of past McLaren championship cars like the MP4/23, MP4/13 and the legendary MP4/4. Fans of the McLaren MP4/4 have a number of books to choose from including Ian Bamsey’s “McLaren Honda Turbo” or for pictography Joe Honda’s “MP4/4 In Detail” but the best all round book is the Haynes Owners’ Manual for the MP4/4 by Steve Rendle published back in 2018.

The author had access to many in the McLaren factory and also key personnel involved with the MP4/4 including Steve Nichols (Chief Designer), Mathew Jeffreys (Design Engineer) and Michio Kawamoto (Honda F1 engine design head).

The chapter on the MP4/4 design covers the predecessor MP4/3, interviews with Steve Nichols on the design process, design of the Honda RA168E engine and the development of the chassis.

Chapter 3 documents the development and the race results from each of the races during the 1988 season.

Like all books on F1 cars in the Haynes Owner’s Manual series, there is a chapter dedicated to the various parts of the race car. In this book, there’s Chapter 4 which is a solid 55 pages of content covering chassis, fuel systems, aero, suspension, steering, brakes, Honda engine, tyres, electronics and cockpit alongside plenty of close up photos. Its great to see comparison race photos of the MP4/4 with high, mid and low downforce specification and sidepod variations (eg. British GP and Mexican GP). The suspension section is highly detailed including settings and detailed cross section photos of both front and rear suspension configuration.

The photo collection is a big plus for this book, with many race photos from John Townsend’s library, LAT’s archive, Sutton Images and John Colley for photos of the workshop car.

Aside from Senna and Prost, other drivers to have driven the MP4/4 are also profiled including Emanaule Pirro the McLaren test and development driver at the time and the current McLaren drivers at the time of book publication – Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne.

Steve Rendle’s book aside from containing great historical research of the MP4/4’s 1988 season actually looks and feels like a genuine owners workshop manual with the inclusion of intricate engineering design drawings and close up photos of the most of the key components of the workshop race car. It’s not surprise that this book (just like Rendle’s other Haynes owners manual on the Williams FW14B) has long been sold out and now sold at book collector prices.

Wow Factor/Money shot: Lots to choose from including actual in-house engineering diagrams to 23 March 1988 pre-season testing notes.

Suitable for: Engineering buffs but also McLaren and 1990’s F1 fans