One to Buy: 1 of 1 ex-Rowan Atkinson 1997 McLaren F1
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During the more economically challenged era of the 1990s, buyers for high end supercars that cost several hundred thousand pounds were comparatively few and far between. As a consequence, disappointing sales meant manufacturers like McLaren lost substantial sums of money on their expensively developed machines which had been conceived during the red hot collector car market of the late 1980s.
McLaren had originally hoped to sell around 300 examples of the F1 when Ron Dennis, Mansour Ojjeh and Gordon Murray decided to embark on the project, however, only 64 were sold by the time production came to an end in 1998.
Today, a combination of great rarity and the F1’s status as one of the true greats in automotive history has led to values that are 20 to 40 times that of the car’s already extraordinary list price.
Currently on offer with Taylor & Crawly in the UK is one of the most famous F1 road cars to exist: chassis 061.
One of eleven examples constructed in 1997 (the penultimate year of production), chassis 061 was commissioned by its first owner, the actor Rowan Atkinson, in the unique colour scheme of Dark Burgundy with a triple-tone black, tan and burgundy interior. In addition to its unique livery, 061 was also commissioned with white on black instrumentation instead of black on white.
First registered in March 1997, chassis 061 has today covered a little over 41,000 miles, around 2000 of which has been covered since a major rebuild at McLaren Special Operations costing the thick end of £1m.
