McLaren F1 GTR: What Happens When a Retired racer turns Show car?

17 million dollars.
Let me say that again. 17 million dollars!
Hmmmm… What could I buy for $17 million?
Let’s see, I could have exactly 8,994,709 burgers from the McDonalds value menu, I could probably take Kim Kardashian out for a night, or…. I could have myself one of these.
A McLaren F1 GTR.
Hmmm it’s a tough decision… Sorry Kim, I’ll take my chances with the McLaren.

To put this whole price thing into perspective, a traditional McLaren F1 would sell for much less, with an average price of around $11 million. British comedian Rowan Atkinson’s McLaren was sold for around $12 million despite being crashed. Twice.

So, this means that the McLaren F1 GT-R just so happens to be the rarest of a rare-er version, of one of the rarest cars in the word.
Therefore, purchasing this ultra-rare car is sure to put a rather large dent in your bank account, even if you are Richard Branson.

And for $17 million, you don’t get any luxuries. There’s no air conditioning, no GPS, no radio, not even an automatic transmission. As far as interior goes, you get bits of scaffolding, a back-breaking seat, a tricky racing harness and a panel littered with buttons that do many… things.

So for $17 million what are you really getting?

Well I can tell you one thing, you’ll get bucket loads of carbon fibre, as well as something that I didn’t pay much attention to when I was in High School…

History.

Back in 1995, Gordon Murray created the original McLaren F1. He intended to make this car the “ultimate road going machine” and had no intention to make his creation into a racing car. However, shortly after it’s creation, the Global BPR GT series had been created, and many manufacturers were joining the league and racing modified versions of their cars. Seeing the opportunity for McLaren in racing, Gordon finally gave into modifying his creation and had several chassis built for competition in the 1995 season.

A total of 9 chassis were built for that season, with a one-off chassis going to Kokusai Daihatsu Racing, who took first place at the 24 hours of Le Mans that year.
Moving along to 1996, McLaren set out to make the car even better. They did this by upgrading the gearbox, front and rear body work, and a new front splitter for added downforce. The modifications reduced the weight of the GTR by 38kg. Despite losing Le Mans that year, the McLaren F1 GTR still managed to place 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th and even clocked the fastest speed set on the Mulsanne Straight at 330km/h.

Fast forward to 2016, the old race horse is now retired, but the glory of it’s racing days are still visible to everyone. Nowadays, it occasionally likes to spend its time being driven softly around a track, by an owner who wants to relive old times. However, it’s main purpose is puffing out it’s chest at car shows, to put on a display that showcases McLaren’s rich racing history. And that’s where I first laid eyes on this beast.

A race car turned show car. It’s not something that we see very often, it’s a shame. I’ll give you this though: most show cars tend to be clean enough to cook on, have more subs than a Quiznos and are more attention hungry than your ex-girlfriend’s Instagram selfies.

Not this McLaren though…

Despite it’s faded colour and a lack of an audio system, the McLaren managed to attract more attention than any other car in that room.

Why?

How was this worn out old race car the crowd favorite?

The wheels were scratched, the paint had many imperfections, there was no reason to believe that this was the nicest car there, but a part of me thinks the reason was just that!

The car had a sense of character about it. It wasn’t like the others. It stood out from the crowd.

Every scratch on the wheel had a story behind it, every small chip in the paint had a memory. Memories that had lived on all these years from it’s racing days.

I feel they had a good reason to not repair any of these battle scars when they finally pulled the car off the track. Those imperfections carried the memories and the history of the designers, engineers, drivers, the race crew, everyone who slaved over building and running these cars to put on a show at Lemans that year.

Hell, those scratches on those wheels are probably more valuable than the car that I drive today.

And that says something about show cars today. You can buy your air suspension, polish the engine bay, an expensive wrap and fit some big nitrous canisters in the trunk. But it’s all been done a million times, it’s not very special anymore.

So, despite the scratches, age, stickers, dents and the abuse, the car still retains its value at $17 million.

Is it worth it? Absolutely.

Because you can’t put a price tag on specialness, you can’t buy character.

To many people, that’s a lot more valuable than #hellaflush.

That’s my time, I’ll talk to you guys later.

Bennett Cook (PerformanceandLuxury)

IG: @performanceandluxury

Automotive Student. Automotive Enthusiast.