McLaren F1

Supercar Sunday – the McLaren F1 – designed by Gordon Murray with input from Peter Steven’s @fosgoodwood 2013. At its launch in 1993 this car set a very high benchmark. Ultra exclusive – only 107 cars were built, of which 65 were road cars – between 1993 to 1998.

The car featured here – P380GJM - is chassis 61 and the 49th road car built. First registered in March 1997, it was delivered new to one very famous celebrity, petrol head, amateur racer and actor - Rowan Atkinson of Mr Bean fame, a few months before the release of the movie “Bean”. From the moment he took delivery, his intention was to use it as a daily driver, and records show that he was covering 3,000 miles a year. He recounts one of his first journeys was a drive from Oxford to Cornwall taking his two young son’s on holiday. They were strapped into their child seats, and all their luggage fitted into a supercar that was capable of 240mph.

The list price in ‘97 was £540,000 – McLaren were reportedly selling them at a loss – and apart from the dark burgundy paintwork, Rowan specified white on black dials – the only F1 with this spec. Fitted with a 6.1 Litre BMW V12 developing 618bhp and 6 speed manual gearbox, the F1 completed the 0-60 dash in 3.2s. So obsessive was Gordon Murray about weight saving, the selected supplier of the in car entertainment, Kenwood, had to manufacture an ultra light weight system, and the leather for the seats was shaved to make it thinner and therefore lighter.

In 2011, Rowan topped Top Gear’s Star in a Reasonably Priced Car leaderboard with a 1’42.2s lap – the fastest ever time. He regularly competes in historic races, and is a regular at the Goodwood Revival driving cars like a ‘64 Ford Falcon or Aston Martin DB2.

Prior to his purchase of the F1, Rowan was known as a big Aston Martin fan – he has owned a V8, V8 Vantage and a V8 Vantage Zagato – which he also raced – amongst many other cars.

Probably because he used the F1 regularly, he was also involved in two well reported crashes. The first, which was described as “minor”, happened in 1999 when he hit the rear of a Rover Metro. Pictures show the entire front of the car in pieces with one front wheel exposed – it looks slightly more than minor.

The second crash happened in 2011, and it is probably testament to the strength of the F1’s carbon fibre construction that he survived. He hit some standing water, spinning a number of times before hitting a tree and a lamp post. The crash was so violent, the engine was ripped from the chassis and ended up 20 yards from the safety cell of the car. Fortunately, Rowan could walk away with nothing more than a broken shoulder. The car then burst into flames.

The repair bill from McLaren Special Operations came to £910,000 and is still a record payout for a British car policy insurance claim. The rebuild took 18 months to complete.

In 2015, Rowan decided to let somebody else have the pleasure of owning a McLaren F1, and it was advertised by London based historic and performance car specialists, Taylor & Crawley. The business is run by David Clark who was previously a Director of McLaren and was responsible for the F1 road and race car programmes. He is a successful historic racer as well as being a partner in Jota Group / Jota Sport, who have been very successful at Le Mans.

The F1 sold quickly for its asking price of £8M to a European buyer. Rowan had eventually clocked up around 40,000 miles in the car. The current mileage, as at its last MOT this year, was 44,868. There are probably not many F1’s that will have covered as many miles.

In 2019 a 1994 car, chassis 18, was auctioned by RM Sotheby’s at their Monterey event. It set a new F1 world record at $19,805,000US. This car had spent all its life in collections. Delivered new to a Japanese collector in 1994, he then sold it to a German collector in 1999. The car then underwent two upgrades – it received the LM spec 680hp engine – only the second car to have this upgrade. It was then also fitted with the F1 High Downforce Kit. Shortly after this work was completed, it was sold to a Singapore based collector and then on to New Zealand before its appearance at Monterey.

A true supercar icon, and arguably has never been bettered.

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