True 'dat. However that was the last street F1 produced and it had delivery miles only: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/10/41-million-for/ "So why did this particular Magnesium Silver F1 fetch so much coin? Well, for starters, it is immaculate and only has 300 flippin miles on the odometer. It is also the last roadgoing F1 ever produced and was the factory’s flagship car for many years. Regardless of condition though, F1s are super rare - just 69 examples (including the 5 prototypes) were built for road use by the time production ended." Image Unavailable, Please Login
There are a couple of problems with your theory. For starters, the fire originated in the engine bay, not the passenger compartment. Also, the owner later corrected the portion of the original story relating to monetary value versus insured value. The insured value is the smaller figure at $2M, an unfortunate reality for him, especially if the cost to repair the car exceeds that. It really doesn't take long to sell a McLaren if someone needed to cash out, even in this economic climate, and likely for as much or more than the insured value in this case. The owner also loved the car tremendously and is sick over the loss according to close friends. Suggesting he would be responsible for the incident, and essentially accusing him of trying to commit insurance fraud without all the facts, is terribly irresponsible of you. Almost all the McLaren F1s that were built still exist today. Only a small handful have been written off completely. In most cases the factory is able to repair even fairly heavy damage and return an F1 to like-new condition, including this particular car, which had been damaged in a crash back in early 2000 with a previous owner. After seeing photos of the fire damage on this F1, the second article from the PressDemocrat states the even the McLaren factory has given this one a 50/50 chance of being repaired again. Finally, as for your claim of F1s overheating at slow speeds, that's a pretty rare occurrence according to owners I have spoken with, usually only occuring in very hot weather. The car can be fitted with larger radiators by the factory in order to minimize or eliminate the issue. A lot of truth in your post. The F1 road car that sold for $4M had a unique history and was still essentially still brand new, even though it was built almost 12 years earlier. Reports from folks who were there in London, and from watching the video of it crossing the block, clearly show that a bidding war between two parties who both seemed committed to take this particular F1 home developed, and that led to the record sale price. Standard McLaren F1 values have been in the $2M-$3M range for the past couple years (barring a few notable exceptions in need of work) and the London sale by RM definitely served to reinforce those figures. The perceived future value of the F1 and the fact that it is seen as a modern day version of the 250 GTO will continue to elevate their prices over time. Unfortunately, though that has been widely reported, it's most definitely an inaccurate statement. Even RM has corrected it in their auction description after being informed that detail and a few others they had weren't completely correct. A portion of their addendum reads: "The McLaren F1/065 was not the last road-going F1 ever produced." The facts: Chassis #065 was 52nd in the overall F1 road car build order of 64 production F1s. It was 5th in order of 11 F1 road cars McLaren built in 1997. Then they built the final six F1 road cars in early 1998. The cars were completed out of order based on chassis number in many cases, and there are also gaps in the chassis number sequence. That explains why the last F1 road car chassis number is #075, even though only 64 were built. The five prototypes of the F1 road car had chassis numbers XP1 through XP5 and were not included in the production sequence. >8^) ER
Just came a crossed these photos of the damage that was done http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/exotics/2mclarenf1_20090610_001.jpg http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/exotics/2mclarenf1_20090610_002.jpg http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/exotics/2mclarenf1_20090610_003.jpg
Jonny As far as i know not yeat it's being shipped over to McLaren so there guys can do a over hall on the car and find out what went wrong I'm sure as they fine thing it will get leaked to sites or the owner him self will post what happened since it's all over the net Nick
Just an update for this old thread - a story that was published in SCM in October 2010: A McLaren F1s Rise from the Ashes >8^) ER Image Unavailable, Please Login
Wow!! That is great news. Thanks for the update. I heard the owner is VERY down-to-earth and very nice. I was at the Sunriver car show and he actually gave some rides. mike
I've seen other people say very nice things about the owner. It was also conveyed that he was rather sick over the whole incident, less so because of the financial implications, but more because of just how much he loved the F1. I'm so glad to see him able to get his car back, good as new. >8^) ER
I was just thinking the same thing. If I'm a big time collector, I'm paying a lot of attention to this story.