VIN: Rowan Atkinson's McLaren F1 chassis 061
History of chassis 061
Chassis 061 was the 49th McLaren F1 road car built. Completed in early 1997, it was uniquely appointed with Dark Burgundy paint at the request of its first owner, the actor and comedian, Rowan Atkinson.
Atkinson specified the similarly unusual interior combination of a black leather driver’s seat with burgundy alcantara inserts, tan leather passenger seats and lower door panels, burgundy carpets and a burgundy alcantara steering wheel insert.
Chassis 061 was reputedly the only F1 built with white on black instrumentation instead of black on white.
Rowan Atkinson took delivery of 061 in March 1997 and it was registered P380 GJM that same month.
Prior to the McLaren, he had most notably owned several Aston Martins after getting his big break at the BBC in 1979 with a series of shows called The Atkinson People. This was followed by appearances on Not the Nine O’Clock News after which he spent much of the 1980s portraying the lead role in the renowned comedy series Blackadder.
Various theatre roles were also taken during the 1980s.
Atkinson’s success enabled him to acquire an Aston Martin V8 which was followed by a V8 Vantage and then a brace of V8 Vantage Zagatos, one of which he later raced.
In late 1990, Atkinson debuted the character Mr Bean which was subsequently adapted from TV to film.
The McLaren was purchased a few months prior to the movie release of Bean in August 1997. Atkinson drove chassis 061 around the UK and Europe in all weathers.
In 1999, the car was involved in a minor accident (and repaired at McLaren) which was followed by a more serious crash in 2011 which required £910,000 of remedial work. 061 span off a wet road and the engine was separated from chassis. Atkinson broke his shoulder blade in the accident.
At this stage, 061 had covered around 39,000 miles to which Atkinson added another two thousand miles before he put the car up for sale at Taylor & Crawley run by former Sales and Marketing Director of McLaren, David Clark, in 2015.
The immaculately repaired car quickly found a European buyer at an asking price of around £12m.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Tim Scott / Fluid Images - https://www.fluidimages.co.uk/ & Taylor & Crawley - https://www.taylorandcrawley.com/
