LOOKIE WHAT I SAW TODAY!!!

Very hard to pull any discernable info from that listing unfortunately. There were a few silver F1s built in 1994 and the picture they are using is of the non-running "Clinic Model" that was built for the car's debut in Monaco in early 1992. The first actual F1 prototype wasn't even completed until December of that year, and the first production car came another year after that. You could drop them a note and see if they will share more info about the car?

Well, those images are all new for me, so thank you very much.

I do know the car quite well. It is chassis #011 and belongs to John McCaw, who I believe keeps most of his collection in Washington or Oregon state. He owns some other pretty significant cars, but tries to keep a low profile from what I have heard. Christies auctioned the car in London in June of 2003 which is possibly when the car became his, however, it didn't appear here in the USA to my knowledge until about 3 years later.

Pulling a quote from an old post on another website:

That price is pretty incredible as even adjusted for inflation it would be like $1.25M now and standard F1s have been selling for over $2M lately with very little trouble and one recently eclipsed $3.5M in London at an RM Auction. Talk about "inflation"!

Attached is the auction description that Christies released in 2003 for the sale of the car with a brief overview of its history up to that point and some other generic F1 details. Rather than retype it all I figured this would just be easier for those who care to see it.

>8^)
ER
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Here are two pictures of #042. Most of you on F/C who know me know the story of how I became a part of the pictures. These were taken 9 years ago. That is my son when he was 9 waving out the left side passenger seat. I am somewhere in the shadows. I had the car for three days while the owner was undergoing Bell Helicopter refresher training in Hurst, Texas. I let him drive my '97 3 series to drive while in town and he let me drive the McLaren. How good a swap is that????????? He is a good friend......

I can also tell you a little about the story behind it getting home to Texas from Ameritech. The owner of the car absolutely hated the funky bumpers and what had to be in place of the seats to be federalized. After it receiving its federalization the bumpers immediately came off and seats were shipped to be put in place once back in Texas. The owners wife had flown to Massachusetts with him to bring the car home and they did not realize it did not have seats in place for her. So they borrowed a few towels from the hotel and padded her side of the car and she rode home on towels. Absolutely true story............He no longer owns the car but did have it painted to match his Enzo before ordering his Veyron.

We tested the car at 10.8 et at Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas with a new clutch. Road and Track had burned up his clutch and rear tires when they did their test on it. They eventually paid for the tires but refused to replace the clutch. They will not get another of his cars for testing, at least not at this point.

He also owned the first Countach to be brought into the US. He bought an early model red Diablo and drove it daily also. His son attended Texas Tech, majoring in ranch management. All the other students with that major drove Crew Cab Dualie, diesel pickups. He drove a Pro-street Chevrolet Beretta with a 500 cubic inch supercharged engine to class. The administration finally told him he could not drive the car on campus any longer as the "noise" it made was too distracting for those in class. His dad gave him the Diablo to drive to class. Imagine seeing all those Dualie pickups and a Diablo parked together..........

He also has his own factory certified Lambo mechanic who turned a Diablo into a RWD car. Totally redid the driveline, doing away with the FWD mechanicals. You could not tell it did not come that way. Always does very good work.

I have all sorts of other stories but that will be saved for a different thread or look them up in the archives. I do not want to hijack this thread since it is so good.......I love McLaren F1's too......

 

Yes, your list was extremely helpful. Thanks again!

Do you recall the color of this prototype? The two Ultima cars were both crushed with photographic proof. The Clinic Model was still in the UK after the Brunei "crash" so I doubt it was that car. Also, was it you or someone else who stated that the race number on the door of the LeMans replica said "58" instead of "59" as the actual winner wore? I heard that somewhere...

Finally if you recall, was chassis #002, the Dorchester Grey road car with the red stripe on the ventline of the door the one that was crashed in Brunei and written off by a mechanic? It would have looked like the photo attached below.

Thanks!

>8^)
ER
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Bari?

 

James,

I've never heard of an F1 in Austin but I do know of someone here who wanted to buy one but I'm not sure if he ever followed through. I've heard through the grapevine that his current very rare car is for sale so maybe he did but an F1 or is planning to. If anyone in Austin were to but one, I would think it would be him.

 

Wow. very interesting. Thanks for posting. I hope we hear a few more stories soon