This 1995 McLaren F1 is the most expensive example of the iconic supercar ever to be auctioned off, reaching a record $ 20.465 million (around RM 86.8 million) at Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach auction last Friday.
The amount dwarfs the amount set by another 1995 F1 in 2017 that sold for $ 15.62 million (around RM 66.3 million) while holding an F1 LM specification unit of 1994, which traded for $ 19.805 million (around RM 84 million), surpassed two years ago. So what makes this record-breaking Formula 1 worth more than the $ 15 million Gooding & Company was expecting?
For starters, chassis 029 is the only one to get a Creighton Brown paint job that isn’t shared with any other F1. The color has a certain history as it honors the name of the then commercial director of McLaren Cars who, together with Gordon Murray, Ron Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh, attended the famous Linate airport meeting in Milan in 1988, which served as the basis for the F1- Road car project.
According to the official auction listing, chassis 029 was the 25th F1 built at the McLaren plant in Woking and the last to be built in 1994 and completed on December 23. After completion, the car was delivered to its first owner in 1995, who is a private collector in Japan who kept it in a static museum exhibition for 17 years.
The car was later sold by Art Sports to Shinji Takei in 2012 before being sold to an American owner in 2013. Until last Friday’s auction, the car has only 387 km on its Ta F1 with very low mileage and has never been on public display.
As a result, this car time capsule is in exceptional original condition, with the factory paint, nameplates, labels and even the Goodyear Eagle F1 tires intact. The same applies to the interior, which is upholstered in light brown leather and Alcantara, with contrasting accents of Brazilian leather and brown carpeting.
In addition, there are all the original accessories and objects that came with the car, including the service booklet, a FACOM tool box, a titanium and gold-plated tool set, the operating instructions, a tailor-made suitcase set, a Tag Heuer 6000 chronometer wristwatch, mechanic’s gloves, emergency and first aid kits, fuses and even a deluxe edition of Driving Ambition: The Official Inside Story of the McLaren F1 book.
Also included are the car’s original catalytic converters and heat shields, which were removed by JK Technologies during the federalization process to ensure it complied with U.S. regulations when it was first introduced into the country.
The combination of pristine condition, low mileage, rare spec, a full kit of accessories, and a full vehicle history all add up to the insane price tag of this F1. However, there is also the fact that McLaren only built 106 units of the F1 when production ended in 1998, of which only 64 were in the original specification for road vehicles. The rest of the cars were either prototypes, tuned LM versions, long-tail versions, and racing cars.
The road vehicles had a 6.1-liter V12 mid-engine with 627 hp (618 hp) and 650 Nm of torque. The mill was developed exclusively for McLaren under Paul Rosche of BMW Motorsport, with the power being transmitted to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual transmission.
At the time, it was the fastest production car in the world, beaten only by the Bugatti Veyron, which hit the stage a few years after the model was discontinued. Even so, the F1 remains the fastest naturally aspirated road car in the world, traveling at 386.4 km / h (240.14 mph), a record set in 1998.
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