Delivery Mileage F1, Anyone?

[Mat-vhi1h]

Thankyou4calling said:

Quite remarkable that the F1 is so revered yet they only managed to sell about 60 road cars.

McLaren must've lost a fortune on the project at least until the prices went nuts.

From what I recall it was actually a very profitable car. I was at a talk by Peter Stevens who told the story that Ron Dennis was requested by Mercedes to finish production of the F1 as part of the contract for the Formula One contract at the time. Apparently Mercedes weren't happy at McLaren having road car that was better than anything Mercedes had.

Ron being Ron, he negotiated that Mercedes pay him the value of all the unbuilt F1s that he intended in the production run, so he got paid for a load of cars that actually never got built.

That made it an extremely profitable car, despite all the development costs etc.

[ali27]

Really sad to see such the greatest car that's ever been created in my lifetime anyway being abused and not being used like it was intended to be.

If I had the money to buy this car, I'd just take it out and give it a damn good spanking.

[mainline]

I've wondered, would I want to own this F1, on the basis that I had to do as per the original owner and keep it wrapped in its packaging unused, untouched and silenced. I've concluded I wouldn't. It's not pointless, because the point is that it has been preserved in this state (forever..?) but it is a joyless existence and it seems very sad.

[flemke]

406dogvan said:

Also - pretty sure Rowan Atkinson wasn't the first owner of his F1 and didn't pay anything like £1m quid for it?

I seem to recall a piece he wrote (for CAR I think?) about how he came to buy it

He's said he'd not been able to justify the cost of a new one but when he saw the one he ended-up buying he simply liked the colour and it was cheaper as it wasn't new!?

He also said we wanted to put another 100K miles on his after repair but I guess decided against that (or his insurers gently discouraged him via a premium which matched his phone number? )

Rowan Atkinson owned his car from new.

[flemke]

CSLchappie said:

WCZ said:

don't quote me on this but a figure of £150k springs to mind

I'm almost certain that my old gaffer had an invite to a private viewing of an F1 for sale through Graypaul in Nottingham around 2006'ish (he'd bought an F360 from them previously) I didn't bother going with him but a close colleague of mine did as he was/is a huge Maserati fan. IIRC the car was up for sale around the 375k mark.

I think your recollection may be slightly off. By 2006 the road cars were holding steady at $1.3-1.4m, which at the time was roughly £750k. As someone has indicated, there may have been a ropey GTR long-tail for sale well below that range, as they have always traded at the lowest price of the F1s.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

If I had the ability to buy a £20M+ car (assuming that is what it would be) I think I'd be quite happy buying this, sending it to McLaren for a full test and refresh and go drive the thing for ever more.

I'd probably ask them to repaint it in a more suiting colour (to my tastes) but as far as I'm aware this isn't a bad thing if done by McLaren.

OK, you might wipe £10M off the value but here's the important part-you simply cannot go and buy a brand new F1 any more. And if you live in the type of world where £10M isn't the be all and end all, I think it would be worth it. This is assuming it'll still be worth £15M once you come to sell it.

If McLaren suddenly opened the order books and said we will sell you a brand new F1 for £10M but when you sell, we get it back for free would you buy it? Kind of the same thing...

[rubystone]

flemke said:

These dealers that occasionally have very expensive cars on sale often do not pay for the cars out of their own pockets even when the car has been bought outright. They will get one or more wealthy backers to put up most or all of the money and then split the profits accordingly. I would not know if that happened in this case, but it is common with big-ticket motors.

Very astute. Whilst the likes of JD Classics get column inches when Di Montezemelo buys in, the fact that some of the ‘players’ in this market are backed by some of the highest rollers in the world often goes unnoticed.

Whilst thinking about these types of high profile car, it occurred to me that if you had a significant car collection, it’d make a lot of sense to back a player to ensure a route to market that wouldn’t raise suspicion and thus maximise the bang for your buck.

[flemke]

rubystone said:

flemke said:

These dealers that occasionally have very expensive cars on sale often do not pay for the cars out of their own pockets even when the car has been bought outright. They will get one or more wealthy backers to put up most or all of the money and then split the profits accordingly. I would not know if that happened in this case, but it is common with big-ticket motors.

Very astute. Whilst the likes of JD Classics get column inches when Di Montezemelo buys in, the fact that some of the ‘players’ in this market are backed by some of the highest rollers in the world often goes unnoticed.

Whilst thinking about these types of high profile car, it occurred to me that if you had a significant car collection, it’d make a lot of sense to back a player to ensure a route to market that wouldn’t raise suspicion and thus maximise the bang for your buck.

The owner of one very well-known dealer at the high end has told me that, starting about five years ago when the market began its major ascent, they simply could no longer afford to pay for all the stock that they used to carry as normal. That forced them to go to some wealthy clients for backing and partnership on a car-by-car basis.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Like Chris Evans?

[robm3]

Aes87 said:

imagine the agony of having this sitting in your drive in bank vault and never being able to drive it at all, forever, and having to pay 20 million pounds for the privilege

mind you, this will probably be bought by a bespectacled representative of a Swiss hedge fund - a clinical individual upon whom the thrills of driving such a magnificent specimen would be lost

Perhaps, but cars like this may have transcended actual use and become an object of admiration instead, much like a Giacometti sculpture or a Pollock painting.
We assume it would be locked away in a vault but it would also look smashing as the centrepiece of a top notch modern glass and concrete house (alongside the Pollock or Giacometti).

I think it would take a very brave and fiscally carefree person to buy it and drive it. There'd be other F1's available far more suitable for this end no doubt.

[robm3]

dunnoreally said:

For the price of this car is likely to fetch, you could have a large house in a desirable area of London, and a stately home complete with estate of 3 figure acreage in the Lake district, and a spare million pounds or so worth of cars to go between them. Yet the person who buys this is going to spend the money on a car they will never drive.

I can't even begin to imagine how rich you'd have to be for that to make sense.

Indeed, I never really imagined high wealth until I saw how value was created and watched people's net worth go from $1-2m to $500m plus in under a decade (and I knew them)!
20mill is pocket change.... incredible.

[Earl of Petrol]

At the end of the description the word ‘petrol’ appears. Not a TDI then.......🤣

[Earl of Petrol]

I agree with the majority here that it’s a travesty that such cars aren’t used. I too would prefer the RA car which could tell a few tales. And this is not the only hypercar to be salted away, the same dealer (who’s stock list is off the scale) regularly advertises very low or delivery miles exotica if you have the cash. Hats off to Simon George whose Lambo had covered over 250k miles the last time I read of it in EVO, and a lot of that was on track.

[phil121081]

"Financing Available"

Wander what the 3+23 will look like? One for the lease thread boys to ponder...

[thegreenhell]

Is this the first time that an F1 has been for sale at a dealer alongside a Renault 5?

[CSLchappie]

flemke said:

I think your recollection may be slightly off. By 2006 the road cars were holding steady at $1.3-1.4m, which at the time was roughly £750k. As someone has indicated, there may have been a ropey GTR long-tail for sale well below that range, as they have always traded at the lowest price of the F1s.

Quite possibly, but I am positive that it was lower than the original RRP as I remember at the time we talked about the price in light of what it cost originally and how that compared to the then current crop of super cars such as the CGT, SLR and Enzo. I had some interest in this as back in 1997/98 I had spent a good few months hand sculpting a highly detailed F1 (amongst many others) from photographic reference for use in a video game (way before we got access to photogrammetry or the actual manufacturers CAD files) and had a large archive of reference materials.

[suffolk009]

flemke said:

The owner of one very well-known dealer at the high end has told me that, starting about five years ago when the market began its major ascent, they simply could no longer afford to pay for all the stock that they used to carry as normal. That forced them to go to some wealthy clients for backing and partnership on a car-by-car basis.

I know a dealer who worked out that he would have made more money in 2016 if he had locked the door and just gone on holiday for the whole year. The value of the stock went up more than the profits he made on selling cars. Crazy world.

[CaptainRAVE]

Waste of a good car. Hope they have been looking after the internal parts of the engine after all this time...

[robinessex]

markj113 said:

Here is a vid of a previous owner that purchased the race version and running costs involved :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsKDGdcb6BQ

Well worth a watch.

Show wealth and intelligence/knowledge don't always go together

[robinessex]

406dogvan said:

Hmmm - so it's not been driven in 20 years - that'll have done it the world of good, NOT

Anyone looking to buy an F1 to use will, obviously, look elsewhere - buyers for this will be people who just want to look at it and hope that it's continued "paperweight" status doesn't lose them any money (I'd not bet on that myself - how many people want an F1 Paperweight? )

The idea of USING it not only ruins it's USP, it's going to break pretty quickly - I wonder what Mclaren charge to check-over and replace everything which is perished or corroded or seized?

I wonder what the actual effects of 20 years of standing are - was it drained of fluids? where was it kept?? - has ANYTHING been done to i?? If nothing else, tyres, brakes etc. are life-expired...

Cars don't like not-being-used - it's 80% of what makes people think their weekend specials are 'unreliable' (the other 20% is them being TVRs or MGs ;0 )

Edited by 406dogvan on Wednesday 18th October 21:15

It's quite likely any deterioration will be minor. Tyres probably, as they degenerate with age.