This week’s Wednesday Want is a little different from usual. Normally it involves our team will plucking a car from our thousands-strong Car Suggestions forum and giving it some time in the spotlight, but this week we’ve found something truly special in the classified adverts and thought it really deserved some attention. You can check out past Wednesday Want entries right here.
It’s not every day a super rare car comes up for sale. It’s even rarer when that car is still factory fresh. But this is exactly what a recent McLaren F1 offered up for sale features.
Tom Hartley Jnr is a dealer in Short Heath, Derbyshire, UK that specializes in catering to the ultra-wealthy with some amazing vehicles. Browsing through its stock, it has a 1965 Ferrari 275 GTS, a 1955 Maserati 300S, and a handful of modern supercars. The crown jewel though is a McLaren F1 that’s still in its factory wrapping.
This is akin to finding some super rare antique toy still in the package. It just doesn’t happen every day — if ever.
The 1997 McLaren F1 sports chassis number 060, making it the 60th F1 built and the car immediately preceding Rowan Atkinson’s chassis number 061. Unlike Atkinson’s car though, this McLaren never saw the road. It has only endured the McLaren test team’s certification process – for a total of just 148 miles on the clock.
In addition to the low miles and original factory packaging, the McLaren also comes with plenty of other goodies. It includes a Facom tool chest, along with a tool roll that contains gold plated titanium tools. It also comes with a specialty set of luggage, made for the car. Not surprisingly, this is also still in its original factory wrappings.
Perhaps the rarest treasure to come with the already priceless car is a TAG Heuer watch. The custom timepiece comes with the chassis number on it, and even at the time was super rare. Like the rest of the car, the watch is also unworn. It does probably need a good servicing though after sitting for 20 years.
In addition to the accessories, the car also comes with a number of unique options. These include a spare LM exhaust and steering wheel, along with passenger carpets and a windscreen visor. None of these options were ever installed and all come with the car upon purchase.
The price is on request and we don’t think we meet their qualifications to buy such a rare car. However, a fairly pristine 1995 McLaren F1 with 9,600 miles on it sold back in August for $15.6 million at Bonham’s Pebble Beach. We’d wager this McLaren is sporting a higher price tag than that, probably in the $18 million range, if not more.
It’s rather a shame to own a car of this magnitude and never experience it, especially as so many reviewers at the time (and since) called it the finest driver’s car ever made. That alone would make us want to at least take it for a spin around the block — but we realize there is a collectors’ market out there for everything under the sun.
We do hope whoever buys this McLaren F1 though is doing so to relive the delivery experience from when the car was new. We can only imagine what getting the keys to the fastest car on Earth at the time must have felt like.
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