McLaren F1 for sale....one not-so-careful previous owner

[RobM77]

suffolk009 said:

danp said:

SHutchinson said:

I like his attitude. It's become so valuable that it's more like a museum piece than something to use and enjoy. I doubt he needs the money and tearing about the country roads can't be as exhilirating as his many track outings in some often quite exotic metal.

If you don't need the money and still enjoy it not sure why you'd sell it, surely the value is irrelevant? (it's insured after all ;-). For me it'll probably be the ultimate car ever, no chance I'd sell unless I really, really had to.

I'm certain that if he wasn't going to get (rumoured) £10,000,000 for it, then he would not be selling it.

It's funny, my wife and I were only having this conversation last week over dinner. It's the perfect car in so many ways and I very much doubt anyone will ever better it, but when something's worth £10 million, could it really be better than the combined might of the cars you could buy for that money? For £10 million you could buy an F1 car and have enough left to run it off your investment income, and then still have enough left to buy a 458 Italia, an M5 Touring and a Caterham or similar. Even then youd probably have enough left for a nice house. The F1 is my dream car, but I think I'd be doing what Rowan's doing if I was in his situation - I'd just need a much bigger garage afterwards

[danp]

suffolk009 said:

I'm certain that if he wasn't going to get (rumoured) £10,000,000 for it, then he would not be selling it.

Perhaps once Syriza get elected in Greece, Europe and then the world meltdown and everything crashes in price he (and I) will be able to get into one at substantially less ;-)

[MrBarry123]

Surely it'd make sense for McLaren to buy it back?

[SHutchinson]

MrBarry123 said:

Surely it'd make sense for McLaren to buy it back?

Why?

[Monty Python]

Perhaps Mr Leno might buy it....

[danp]

SHutchinson said:

He may have found that his usage of it has dropped off to such an extent that it's simply become an ornament. Maybe he's not a big keeper of ornaments.

He didn't imply that, but who knows:

‘I bought it for the quality of the thinking behind it. Now it has become a thing of value, it is time for someone else to enjoy it.’

[EskimoArapaho]

It's cursed. It nearly killed him. It lurks in the garage taunting him. He wants shut of it.

(Joking, of course, but I still wonder about that accident. Did he ever explain what happened?)

[Dapster]

I wonder if one can ask McLaren to rebuild this to the exact spec and colour of the 5 existing LM road cars, or whether they would refuse in order to maintain the integrity and exclusivity of the LM? If I had limitless pots of cash, that's what I'd be doing.

[MrBarry123]

SHutchinson said:

MrBarry123 said:

Surely it'd make sense for McLaren to buy it back?

Why?

Because it's a bit of history with all the press coverage it's had, the crashes it's experienced and ownership by Rowan Atkinson etc.

[RobM77]

Dapster said:

I wonder if one can ask McLaren to rebuild this to the exact spec and colour of the 5 existing LM road cars, or whether they would refuse in order to maintain the integrity and exclusivity of the LM? If I had limitless pots of cash, that's what I'd be doing.

Surely the LM's just another racing car though? For purely track use, an old F1 car for the same money will be much faster. The unique thing about the Mclaren F1 road car was that it's quiet at a cruise, has luggage space, air con, CD player, comfortable seats, seats three etc. At least that's how I see it?

[SHutchinson]

MrBarry123 said:

SHutchinson said:

MrBarry123 said:

Surely it'd make sense for McLaren to buy it back?

Why?

Because it's a bit of history with all the press coverage it's had, the crashes it's experienced and ownership by Rowan Atkinson etc.

Surely they're in the business of selling cars, rather than buying them.

I think the Cars of the stars museum in Keswick would be a better venue for celebrity owned automotive memorabilia, they could perhaps put it next to the Mr. Bean Mini.

They might need to rattle a few collection tins in order to fund it though! ;-)

[RobM77]

SHutchinson said:

MrBarry123 said:

SHutchinson said:

MrBarry123 said:

Surely it'd make sense for McLaren to buy it back?

Why?

Because it's a bit of history with all the press coverage it's had, the crashes it's experienced and ownership by Rowan Atkinson etc.

Surely they're in the business of selling cars, rather than buying them.

I think the Cars of the stars museum in Keswick would be a better venue for celebrity owned automotive memorabilia, they could perhaps put it next to the Mr. Bean Mini.

They might need to rattle a few collection tins in order to fund it though! ;-)

They've systematically bought up an example of every Mclaren ever made - they've all disappeared from the historic scene because of it. They already have an F1 road car though

[J4CKO]

suffolk009 said:

danp said:

SHutchinson said:

I like his attitude. It's become so valuable that it's more like a museum piece than something to use and enjoy. I doubt he needs the money and tearing about the country roads can't be as exhilirating as his many track outings in some often quite exotic metal.

If you don't need the money and still enjoy it not sure why you'd sell it, surely the value is irrelevant? (it's insured after all ;-). For me it'll probably be the ultimate car ever, no chance I'd sell unless I really, really had to.

I'm certain that if he wasn't going to get (rumoured) £10,000,000 for it, then he would not be selling it.

Ten million quid, wow, that is amazing.

[Bonefish Blues]

Did Rowan perhaps just get his insurance renewal quote

...which, seriously, must be truly horrific, mustn't it (I hadn't realised he'd had 2 big shunts in it).

[Conscript]

DonkeyApple said:

Sorry, I meant at this level. I agree completely that in conventional terms the premium being offered can be worth paying. It normal terms it has a specific value. Ie the car costs £500 more than market but you are hedging that it will save you more than that over your ownership in maintenance and residuals etc.

In the normal market is has a market value.

What I meant was at this level it begins to look crazy when you drill down. The majority of F1s are going to be in remarkably similar condition whether they have one or five names assigned to them as they will have all been stores the same way, maintained the same way and have similar mileages etc.

On top of that, the article was alluding, to me at least, that the single ownership fact was worth a £million plus. So when you think about it, you are paying £9m for the car and then paying on top £1m for something that no longer exists the exact second you buy it. You are buying something that you not only can never own but the act of you buying it causes it to cease to exist.

I can comprehend paying a premium due to who the previous owner was. You can see that this does have a value. But I am referring to the specific premium asked for their only being one previous owner. When you drill down and look at it with clarity you can see that it is one of the craziest things to spend money on in mechanical terms.

Ahh, gotcha. Agree, it's not relevant to the super car market

[Dave Hedgehog]

lauda said:

Interesting that the article suggests the fact that it's a one owner car might offset the impact on value of its well-publicised crashes. To be honest, I'd rather it had been through more owners and less scenery.

I have no problems with it being crashed, Mclaren pretty much built him a brand new F1 after its last incident so its pretty much a 2/3 year old F1

[Steven_RW]

Of all the crash repair jobs in the world, this is one that I couldn't careless if it was crashed. The fact McLaren have repaired it to the highest standards means it is better than ever as far as I am concerned.

I'd like someone to put a finger on the actual negative point of it having being crashed previously.

Is it pure emotion rather than logic?

Formula 1 cars are crashed and repaired to a good enough standard to win championships of the toughest competition in the world.

It just doesn't stack that this wouldn't be at least as good as new.

Cheers
Steven RW

[EricE]

The crashes weren't small shunts, from what I have seen the car hit a tree hard enough to rip the engine and rear axle out of the car. This car is most likely a completely new car that shares a few components with the car it originally was. I look at it as a complete restoration instead of an accident repair.
I'm curious to see how the market views this.
Personally I don't buy the whole "this car is now too valuable for me to drive" statement, I suspect he wants to sell it now for a nice 12 million and buy it back for a tenth of the price in a few years when the whole car bubble has deflated a bit.

Edited by EricE on Friday 23 January 13:18

[andburg]

Bonefish Blues said:

Did Rowan perhaps just get his insurance renewal quote

...which, seriously, must be truly horrific, mustn't it (I hadn't realised he'd had 2 big shunts in it).

The forum i linked to, someone mentioned its an estimated £60k

its £10-15k to have a Mclaren F1 parked in the garage and another 20-40k if you want to use in the road.

Take into account his 2 crashes and its got to be around the upper end!

[Dave Hedgehog]

EricE said:

The crashes weren't small shunts from what I have seen, from what I have see the car hit a tree hard enough to rip the engine and rear axle out of the car. This car is most likely a completely new car that shares a few components with the car it originally was. I look at it as a complete restoration instead of an accident repair.
I'm curious to see how the market views this.
Personally I don't buy the whole "this car is now too valuable for me to drive" statement, I suspect he wants to sell it now for a nice 12 million and buy it back for a tenth of the price in a few years.

or maybe be wants a classic ferrari to race with