The F1 in question is not a Formula One car but is the McLaren F1 sports car (you probably know this). I believe the first car Gordon Murray means was actually the first production car and so the comparison stands as two cars to production readiness and with strong similarities. VW would have saved a lot of money with more work up front (which is typically the case). The secrecy means that we'll never know the exact numbers from VW but there is such a massive mismatch in budgets that even though your point about the difficulty of comparison is excellent, the underlying difference is still both incredible and shocking. Thanks for reading the article Jim. Richard