McLaren selling the last F1 from it's "vault"

Chassis #069. It looked better before with the high downforce kit. It was originally silver, too...

 

There is a thread on mclarenlife.com about this sale. The car itself has quite a back story if the info provided is accurate.

http://www.mclarenlife.com/forums/mclaren-p1-f1/51281-most-expensive-item-sold-mso-mclaren-f1-up-sale-now.html

 

Should be a tasty car.

Anyone care to summarize the backstory for those of us who are not on Mlife?

T

 

Probably never be a better time to sell.

 

Doesn't belong in Ferrari supercar Thread. Not worthy!!!

 

From one of the first post in the thread over there...

"The glowing articles for this one gloss over the fact that neither the paint or interior are original to the car. It also used to wear the High Downforce Kit which a previous owner chose to remove.

Early ownership history is dodgy with the first owner purchasing the car with embezzled funds from his company, McGraw Hill, where he served as an accountant. He also owned an F1 GTR and had a race team that was active in the British GT series until his bubble burst and he was arrested.

The next owners were a pair here in the USA who imported the car without proper certifications and then tried to sell the car in violation of the terms it was imported under. This caused them to be arrested as well and the car was seized pending forfeiture by US Customs for a period of nearly five years while they were tried. This gives partial explanation for the low mileage.

This article and others make mention of MSO maintaining the car at all times, but that's not accurate either. After returning to the UK following its legal entanglement here in the USA it was serviced by specialist Lanzante Motorsports for several years who look after most of the F1 GTRs and a couple of other F1 road cars. I wouldn't discount their work at all as they have a long history with the cars, but lets be factual at least.

It's not really a buyer beware situation, but a buyer unaware is never a good thing I don't think"

 

^^^ I wrote that.

Continuing on in response to the original post here...

It is completely FALSE that this F1 has never been sold. McLaren's press release was not perfect on every detail (as noted above), but I have no idea where certain news outlets came up with such nonsense as it certainly did not suggest that.

McLaren sold this F1 to its first owner in 1998 and since then it has had at least 5 owners. One of them even owned the car twice after selling it to a friend and then later buying it back from him.

This time around MSO were simply brokering the car for its current owner. That is a practice they often engage in with far less fanfare and something they have been doing at owner's request since the F1 was released.

Also, the car is actually already sold - it took McLaren just 7 days to find a buyer and complete the transaction. The car has been delivered to its new owner as of last week. He happened to be an existing F1 GTR owner so now he has the ideal pair.

>8^)
ER

 

^ Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Erik. That's quite a history...T

 

It is true that McLaren have retained possession of 6 McLaren F1s, but chassis 069 was never one of them.

The 6 F1s that McLaren do own are the last F1 road car prototype, XP5; the F1 LM prototype, XP1 LM; the F1 GT longtail road car prototype, 56XPGT; the 1995 Le Mans winning F1 GTR, #01R; the 1996 Japan GT Championship winning F1 GTR, #04R; and one of the longtail Gulf-livered GTRs which finished 1st in the GT1 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1997, #20R. A photo of them all together is included below.

Also the two principles in the company, Ron Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh, also have one F1 road car each. Ron's is the silver car with the high mirrors, chassis 050. Masour owns the very last chassis produced, 075, in a paint color called Yquem which is similar to their current "Volcano Orange". That car was originally built for his brother.

>8^)
ER
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Hopefully he never pairs the two!

 

I feel like there is a picture of the advertised car already out and about on the streets? Peloton25 do you know where it ended up going?

 

Yes, it was spotted on the street in London by several people May 20th. I believe that was the day the new owner took possession. It will be staying in Europe - I also expect the odometer will spin more freely now than it has in the car's first 18 years of life.

One of the better street shots by @henryjmw.

>8^)
ER
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Wow that is an orgy of alcantara if I have ever seen one.

 

Still the king of all super cars.

 

I agree. There are faster cars now, but nothing that changed the landscape like the F1 did.
My favorite car.

 

You still can't resist taking shots at McLaren huh? I wonder why

You should know by now this wasn't McLaren's car and it wasn't from their "vault". They simply acted as broker which they do quite often. They also sold the car, for an eye-watering price, within a week!

 

You're probably right...it's faster, better looking, and appreciates in value much quicker. lol

 

ag512bbi is a former McLaren F1 owner so I think he's pretty well acquainted with these cars.

Anyway he was right, the thread was originally posted in the wrong section.

>8^)
ER

 

Erik, how many McLaren's have you ridden in/driven to date?

 

Here's the link...

McLaren has an F1 for sale, which is a big deal | The Verge

 

Still for sale?

 

Sorry to have overlooked your question.

I have not driven any F1s - the closest I've gotten was starting one and giving it a few quick throttle blips. Given the tremendous values I don't anticipate the offer of a drive coming my way and that's okay.

I've had the extremely good fortune of riding in three F1 road cars and one road converted F1 GTR. One of those road cars I spent a considerable amount of time in, covering a couple of hundred KMs over two days, including some great mountain roads in the Dolomites and some runs above 200 MPH on the Autostrada.

The GTR was 07R, which placed 5th at Le Mans in 1995 and while it was just a quick 10 minute blast, the ride occurred less than an hour after climbing out of an F1 road car so it was easy to see what a substantially different experience they offer.

Of course I still have you to thank for my very first ride - a day I won't ever forget.

>8^)
ER

 

Have you ever asked if you could drive it?

True, they are incredibly valuable, but I'm sure it's a drop in the bucket for some of the owners, relatively speaking.

 

Brilliant plan, but...

Typically I'm not the type of person to even ask someone if I can sit in their car, so I'm never going to ask anyone to drive it. My hesitance in this category did rob me of the chance of riding shotgun with Nick Mason for a whole day in his F1 GTR [] so it's certainly not always the best practice. In addition to the four I've ridden in I've actually only sat in one other F1, despite seeing 40 of them so far. The request of a drive is just not something I'd ever impose upon someone.

For a long time I also would have actually found the opportunity of an F1 drive far too intimidating. I can say that after spending more time in the cars as a passenger - seeing the limits they are capable of has certainly reduced that apprehension. At this point I'd be more concerned about anyone else on the road doing something silly. Maybe if there was a chance in a controlled environment like a private circuit, but I'm not holding my breath.

>8^)
ER