Iconic McLaren F1 GTR expected to fetch £26m
We know a thing or two about auctions - and Nick Mason's one-of-two XP GTR might take the biscuit
Anyway you approach chassis 10R, its pedigree is remarkable. Rare? Blindingly. McLaren only built two Short-Tail prototype (XP) GTRs; the other one won Le Mans in 1995. Special? Lord, yes - the manufacturer itself went to the trouble of converting the car for road use. Famous? The unique factory livery makes it arguably the most recognisable McLaren F1 of them all. Provenance? If that lot weren’t enough, the car has been owned by Nick Mason - he of Pink Floyd drum banging fame, but also one of the world’s preeminent car collectors - since 1999.
Even the car’s crashes and subsequent restorations are well known, a journalist (who else) guilty of putting K40 MCL into a field in 2009; and Mason himself coming a cropper at Goodwood Members’ Meeting in 2017. On both occasions, the remedial work was undertaken by Lanzante, which is another way of saying that the car probably ended up in finer fettle than it was before the damage occurred. Certainly it has had no impact on RM Sotheby’s valuation, which suggests that ‘The Pop Art F1’ ought to fetch in excess of $35m (or £26m) when it goes under the hammer at Monterey next month.
Why Mason is finally selling the car that he alone has privately owned since McLaren sold it to him nearly three decades ago isn’t immediately clear, though its availability is virtually guaranteed to attract the attention of every money-no-object collector. So much so that Sotheby’s clearly feels like the ground is sufficiently solid for its expectation to overshadow the most ever paid for an F1 previously. Achieving its guide price would see 10R comfortably into the top ten most expensive cars ever to feature at auction.
Which frankly doesn’t seem unreasonable. Speaking on the subject of its prospective sale, Gordon Murray, the man not just responsible for the F1 itself, but also the decision to go with the XP’s eye-popping livery, said: “It’s not just a motor car. It’s a one-off, basically, and it has a very important history… Anyone who ends up being the lucky owner is going to be the owner and custodian of something truly unique.”
Unique and not a little thrilling either. When he drove the car for an Autocar feature, Sutcliffe was sufficiently moved by the experience to write of it: “The GTR fired itself at the horizon, and the sense of acceleration was just about all I could take. Coupled with the huge and beautiful noise from the BMW engine and the howl from the exhaust, it really was almost too much.” PH was there that day and can testify to the ferocious sound made by K40 MCL - so all-consuming in fact, that Steve’s running commentary could not be heard from the passenger’s seat.
Naturally, the auctioneer is keen to highlight the car’s precise position in the F1 annals - it being the first GTR to receive the revised bodywork, improved aero and lightweight magnesium gearbox casing, and driven by David Brabham in testing at Circuit de la Sarthe in 1996 - not to mention Mason’s ‘open-checkbook’ approach to its subsequent maintenance. But you hardly need to have read the fine print to know instinctively why Mason’s F1 is hypercar royalty. Expect the response at Monterey to be appropriately reverential.
I do wonder if we will ever see classic car like love for a Tesla or a i4 like we do for old ford RS's and BMW M3's
Unlike the road car variants, no F1 GTR was ever given the “XP” designation in period. RM published this detail in their catalog description but it is not accurate.
A bigger issue with the article is that Nick Mason sold this GTR quietly in 2024, so it has not been continuously owned by him since 1999 and he is not involved in this auction effort. This is a fact that was not made clear with the listing catalog description which is carefully worded to say he was its one private owner. It is true that no private individual has owned it nor was it registered by anyone else in the two year period since leaving his collection, so a fair statement just not a transparent one.
>8^)
ER
>8^)
ER
Nick Mason had a McLaren M15 that he had spent a few years trying to restore which Ron Dennis claimed he wasn't that interested in buying and Nick Mason was of the opinion that he could manage without an F1 in his life so it took three years of too and fro with Gordon Murray acting the middle man before the deal was done.
Nick Mason had a McLaren M15 that he had spent a few years trying to restore which Ron Dennis claimed he wasn't that interested in buying and Nick Mason was of the opinion that he could manage without an F1 in his life so it took three years of too and fro with Gordon Murray acting the middle man before the deal was done.
I do remember they used an e46 m3 for a reference lap, so you could get a better idea of how fast some of the cars actually are, especially some of the older ones.
I do remember they used an e46 m3 for a reference lap, so you could get a better idea of how fast some of the cars actually are, especially some of the older ones.
It also notes that Nick had an early connection with the McLaren supercar project as an advisor, and loaned some of his own cars like his F40 for a Gordon to sample. Gordon credits Nick with suggested improvements to the F1 like its very usable ride height, the 10-disc CD changer, and an integrated battery tender connection point as things owners would prefer.
>8^)
ER
Nick Mason had a McLaren M15 that he had spent a few years trying to restore which Ron Dennis claimed he wasn't that interested in buying and Nick Mason was of the opinion that he could manage without an F1 in his life so it took three years of too and fro with Gordon Murray acting the middle man before the deal was done.
I do remember they used an e46 m3 for a reference lap, so you could get a better idea of how fast some of the cars actually are, especially some of the older ones.
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