McLaren F1?

Can anyone tell me where in So.Cal can I possibly run into a Mclaren F1. Has one ever been at crystal cove? I must see this thing before I die!

 

There was one there two months ago and another one more recently than that. I was only able to find the thread from August. It's really a crap shoot. You never know what is going to show up from week to week. I think we have seen 95% of the world's supercars there at one time or another. Anyway, here is the link to one of the McClarens at CC:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70576

 

Read the recent Crystal Cove threads- there's been one there in last month or so. Supposedly there is one here in South Bay that is driven a few times a week, but I have yet to see it. Viper 10 (Brad) knows the guy and says he might be able to get him to show up at an event.

I'm with you- I'd love to see one in person...

 

Elon Musk of SpaceX has one and he brings it to the SpaceX parking lot in El Segundo once in a while. Once his assistant brought out the keys and let people sit in it.

 

A McLaren F1, Enzo, and an F40!! How did I possibly miss that day?!?! Damn that sucks! Maybe it's a good thing I didn't go that week, or else I would have been passed out on the street next to the F1 lol

 

If I'm not mistaken, there were three Enzo's and two CGT's that weekend.

G

 

That was by far the best CC gathering ever. As Cig 1 said ... there were multiple supercars in attendance that day. You didn't know which way to look!

 

The only thing that hasn't shown up is a Pagani Zonda, AFAIK.

 

"only" and "Pagani Zonda" can only be used in the same sentence here in southern california. theres definitely others, such as a koenigsegg or a spyker if i recall correctly. still southern california is the place to be

 

There are only two F1s located in SoCal right now.

One of the most well known F1 owners is Jay Leno. He owns chassis #015, built in 1994 - a black F1 with a small red stripe on the ventlines of the doors. He drives it, but not often - most of the time it is stored in his "Big Dog Garage", a set of old hangars just outside the Burbank Airport. He even has one of those inflatable bubbles to keep the car in.

In July of this year he brought it out to display the ArtCenter Car Classic show where Gordon Murray (the F1s creator) was giving the keynote speech. He's also driven it out to the Rock Store off Mullholland and Kanan on more than one occasion to share with his motorcycle buddies. Unfortunately though, your best chance of seeing his F1 is to get a tour of his garage.

The other F1, as previously mentioned, belongs to Elon Musk. It is chassis #067 - a silver F1 like so many others. It was the last F1 built in 1997, with just a handful more following in 1998. Musk is the Founder/CEO of SpaceX - a company with aspirations of privatized space travel, and ultimately the colonozation of Mars (so I read). Prior to SpaceX, Musk was the CEO of PayPal and left the company when it was sold to Ebay for about a Billion dollars. He lives in Bel Air now, and commutes on the 405Fwy in the F1 sometimes as often as once a week to the SpaceX office in El Segundo just South of LAX.

Musk's F1 is kind of a special car as F1s go, as it was one of the 7 F1s that were imported to the USA as an "Ameritech F1" in 1997 - prior to there being a true legal method for importing the cars. The Ameritech F1s were kind of snuck in under the radar, coming in through a free trade zone, with the importer claiming they were the vehicle's manufacturer and that all the cars were 1995 model year vehicles in order to bypass the EPAs OBD-II standards. Some would argue what was done to get these cars in to the US was illegal and say that there was insider help at the DOT and EPA to sneak these cars in. It's probably true, but I would argue "who really cares" as having these 7 F1s in the US doesn't put anyone at risk when looking at the bigger picture. So far all 7 cars are still here and to my knowledge no one has been prosecuted for breaking any laws related to them being here.

Musk wasn't the original owner on his car. It was imported by a German emigrate named Gerd Petrik who lives in Florida. He actually owned 2 of the 7 Ameritech F1s, but sold both within about 2 years. One ended up in Musk's hands, and the other (chassis #045) ended up with Armen at Newport Autosport for a while. Musk also had a bad crash in this car shortly after his purchase while showing it off for the original CEO of PayPal. The car was sent back to the factory in England to be fully repaired to "as new" condition.

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As for the two F1s that have been spotted at Crystal Cove, one of those cars has left the country and the other is not locally owned. The first car was there sometime around July 2003. It was a silver F1 - chassis #037, owned by Peter Manelis. He moved to Arizona not long after the Crystal Cove visit and has since moved back to South Africa, taking the car with him unfortunately.

The other car which was there in early August of this year was XP4. It's one of the five original F1 prototypes built in 1993 during the development process of the F1. This car is owned by Larry Blair, who I believe lives in teh Bay Area. It was reported that he had the car down in SoCal to have the rubber bladders inside the fuel tanks replaced - something the F1 needs done every five years. One week later he had the car on display in a BMW tent at the Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca, where thankfully I finally got to see it. With it's Electric Blue paint, it's one of my favorite F1s.

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One of Official McLaren Service Centers is located at the BMW Port of Entry/Vehicle Delivery Center in Oxnard/Port Hueneme, CA. This is one of only two in the USA and seven in the world with a staff of trained technicians capable of performing work on the F1. The facility is not open to the public unfortunately, and even when tours are given of the VDC, the McLaren section is kept off limits. Still some F1s have been spotted in that area, and also on an abandoned section of the runway at the Camarillo Airport which they apparently use for testing the cars when the service is completed.

>8^)
ER

 

Yup, plus we got the Bugatti Veyron to look forward to sometime as well....

 

There is a picture of a guy with a Mclaren in today's paper. It said he is a real esate agent in Bakersfield. Buy a house from him and he might give you a drive.

 

A Spyker showed up once, cross that off the list.

 

wanna buy one?

http://www.siliconvalleyautogroup.com/marques_stock/mclaren_9999/photo_page.html

for u all Veyron fan, look in my site:

http://homepage.mac.com/arlingwang/PhotoAlbum118.html

http://homepage.mac.com/arlingwang/iMovieTheater117.html

enjoy!

 

You beat me to it ... I was just going to post that ... call me crazy, but I think it's kinda' ugly

G

 

if you find the guy with the mclaren, please invite him to the toys for tots....i have a bet with one of my employees that there will be at least one there.
d

 

Do you know his name?

 

Arling, when is your build date?

 

Erik thanks for the great information. The Red McLaren F1 at Los Gatos belonged to who? Anybody know how much they are asking for that car?

 

I keep wondering could a Merc clk gtr , or a porsche 911 gt1 turn up there, would they be legal in California under show and display? Any one know?

 

The red car being sold through SVAG belonged to Clifford Meltzer - a former Cisco executive. He has a pretty impressive car collection - some photosfrom his garage can be found here:

http://www.chadm.net/photo/thumbnails.php?album=19

Along with the F1, his Yellow Enzo was also sold through SVAG - both apparently to fund the purchase of a Bugatti Veyron. Not sure why, unless the Veyron's will be dramatically more expensive than what I have seen quoted. The Enzo reportedly sold for $1M and the F1s price was somewhere between $1.7 and $1.9M. The latest info says that the F1 is coming to SoCal which would be great news for us.

>8^)
ER

 

Both the 911 GT1 (1998) and CLK GTR street version (1998-1999) and CLK GTR roadster (2002) are elligible for "Show or Display" exemption.

There was a roadster here in SoCal for a while, but I never saw it being driven. If you bring one into the country, you could register it in another state it wouldn't be a problem to drive it here. You could also run it on a Dealer plate as many people do. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to get either car to meet CA emissions, but almost anything can be done for the right price.

>8^)
ER

 

thanks allot peleton25! finally some one has answered my long term querey, ive wondered about this for years, I knew they were both on the show and display nhtsa lists, but wasnt sure about the California emissions laws.Seeing as no one seems to have either in California i always assumed they wouldnt meet requirements.
But as you say i guess anythings possible if you have the cash (under or over the counter!)So why doesnt a rich Californian car freak have either of these cars? Thats the real question i guess.Any way thanks again for the info

 

Someone here in SoCal owns this one, but I believe he may be trying to sell it. It showed up at the Gooding Auction in Monterey this year, but failed to meet whatever the reserve was.

When I saw this car, he also had an XJ220 S, 959, 962LM, 917-10 LM, 360 Challenge, and a 1954 Porsche 550 Spyder on display. He owned an F50 at the time (that's not his in the photo) and several other nice cars as well. This shot was taken at the AutoGallery Grand Opening party in 2003 btw.

>8^)
ER
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Nope - it isn't stored in a bubble. In fact, none of his cars are.