McLaren F1 GTR Road Car

1996 McLaren F1 GTR Longtail

For Sale by Tom Hartley Jnr | Ashby-de-la-Zouch, U.K.

Photo – Tom Hartley Jnr

There was a time when anyone who could afford to do so could rush out and buy a McLaren F1. Now it’s kind of big news if one hits the market. After all, they only built 106 of them between road cars, race cars, and prototypes. The racing variant was the GTR, and 28 were built between 1995 and 1998. Their competition life lasted until 2005. They were that good.

What’s special about this car is that it was converted to a road car. Yes, the interior is a little sparse, but it does have the classic three-seat layout. That rear-mounted 6.0-liter BMW V12 is still there too.

This car is chassis #19R, and it was the first 1997-spec car (which technically makes it a prototype). The Longtails were only built in 1997, so this is one of 10. It was initially used as a development car, before shifting to the race track. It competed at the FIA GT race at Suzuka in 1997 before contending the 1999 JGTC season. It continued to race until 2002.

It was the first Longtail converted to a road car, which was actually done by Gordon Murray Design. It is being sold with the parts to return it to race specification, should the next owner want to. The asking price is not public, but you can be sure it’s well into the eight figures. Click here for more info.

Porsche 908/2

1969 Porsche 908/2 Longtail Spyder

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | November 30, 2014

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

The Porsche 908 was the successor to the 907 and it was introduced by Porsche to fight in the Group 6 category, which had just undergone rule changes for 1968. First came the 908/1. The 908/2 was a topless spyder, unlike the closed coupe 908/1.

The Langheck Coupe was a long tail version for high-speed tracks. But when Porsche chopped the top for 1969, the Longheck (long tail) Spyder was born. The engine is a 3.0-liter flat-8 making 350 horsepower. The light fiberglass body allowed this car to achieve high speeds on the straight at Le Mans.

This was a factory team race car before going into privateer hands, and its competition history includes:

  • 1969 12 Hours of Sebring – 7th (with Vic Elford and Richard Attwood)
  • 1970 12 Hours of Sebring – 7th (with Attwood, Gerhard Koch, and Gerard Larrousse)
  • 1970 1000km Brands Hatch – 6th (with Koch and Larrousse)
  • 1970 1000km Monza – 14th (with Larrousse and Rudi Lins)
  • 1970 Targa Florio – 13th (with Larrousse and Lins)
  • 1970 1000km Spa – 9th (with Larrousse and Lins)
  • 1970 1000km Nurburgring – 6th (with Larrousse and Lins)
  • 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans – 3rd (with Lins and Helmut Marko)
  • 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans – 43rd, DNF (with Hans-Dieter Weigel and Claude Haldi)

This car was later owned by Jo Siffert and appears in the Steve McQueen movie Le Mans. Later in 1971, it ended up in a private collection before being acquired by Peter Monteverdi. It has had a recent restoration and a handful of other owners. It’s an awesome machine with a fantastic history. There is no pre-sale estimate, but it’ll go big. Read more here and see more from this sale here.

Chassis # 908.02-05

Update: Sold $3,437,744.

The Winner of the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona

1968 Porsche 907 Longtail

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 7, 2014

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

The Porsche 907 was, you guessed it, the successor to the 906 and the predecessor to the 908. (Well okay, the 910 was technically slotted between the 906 and 907, but that doesn’t make any numerical sense, now does it?).

Anyway, in 1967 Porsche introduced the 907 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans gunning for a head start on the rule changes coming for 1968 that mandated smaller engines. The car you see here uses a screaming 278 horsepower 2.2-liter flat-eight. The 907 would bring Porsche it’s first 24 hour endurance victory – setting off a streak unlike any other in motorsports history (although corporate cousin Audi is trying its damnedest to top it).

The competition history for this car includes the following:

  • 1968 24 Hours of Daytona – 1st (with Vic Elford, Jochen Neerpasch, Rolf Stommelen, Jo Siffert, and Hans Herrmann)
  • 1968 1000km Monza – 2nd (with Neerpasch and Stommelen)
  • 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans – 29th, DNF (with Alex Soler-Roig and Rudi Lins)
  • 1969 24 Hours of Daytona – DNF (with Soler-Roig and Lins)
  • 1969 12 Hours of Sebring – 4th (with Soler-Roig and Lins)
  • 1970 1000km Monza – 15th, 1st in class (with Andre Wicky and Mario Cabral)
  • 1970 1000km Nurburgring – 9th, 1st in class (with Wicky and Cabral)
  • 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans – 23rd, DNF (with Wicky and Jean-Pierre Hanrioud)
  • 1971 1000km Monza – DNF (with Wicky and Peter Mattli)
  • 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans – 7th, 1st in class (with Mattli and Walter Brun)
  • 1972 1000km Monza – 4th, 1st in class (with Mattli and Herve Bayard)
  • 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans – 18th, 2nd in class (with Mattli, Brun, and Bayard)

What is most awesome about this car is that a later American owner tried to enter it in the 1998 24 Hours of Daytona because its performance from 1968 was on par with current cars. How cool would that have been?

This car was meticulously restored to 1968 race-ready condition and one of eight 907 Longtails built and one of only two that remain. It’s a very important racing Porsche that can be yours for between $3,500,000-$5,000,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

S/N: 907-005

Update: Sold $3,630,000.

Ex-BMW Motorsport McLaren F1 GTR

1997 McLaren F1 GTR Longtail

Offered by Gooding & Company | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 18, 2014

1997 McLaren F1 GTR Longtail

Photo – Gooding & Company

We’ve actually already featured a 1997 McLaren F1 GTR Longtail, so this is kind of awkward. What makes this car different? Well, for one, it is an ex-BMW Motorsport F1 GTR Longtail. Why is that distinction important? Because that was the closest approximation to a factory McLaren F1 race team.

The first F1 GTRs were built for 1995 and 1996 but the rules of racing changed for 1997. There were specialty-built prototype race cars backed by major manufacturers that came into the fold. Instead of building a race car around a road car (which is the case with the McLaren), companies built homologation specials of their race cars in order to make them “road-car-based.” The F1 had a slight handicap.

But it didn’t matter because Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and the like didn’t have Gordon Murray in their corner. The F1 was re-designed with an elongated nose and tail and a huge rear wing. The engine was a BMW Motorsport-sourced 6.0-liter V-12 detuned to make 604 horsepower (the road car made 627 with slightly larger displacement – that’s how incredible it really was).

This was BMW Motorsport car #1 (chassis #021R). It’s competition history includes:

  • 1997 FIA GT Hockenheim – 1st (with JJ Lehto and Steve Soper)
  • 1997 FIA GT British Empire Trophy at Silverstone – 3rd (with Lehto and Soper)
  • 1997 Helsinki 3 Hours – 1st (with Lehto and Soper)
  • 1997 Nürburgring 4 Hours – 3rd (with Lehto and Soper)
  • 1997 3 Hours Laguna Seca – 36th, DNF (with Lehto and Peter Kox)

And that was it for this car. After 1997, the F1 GTR program came to a halt. BMW traded this car to another McLaren team and the new owner loaned it to the Le Mans Museum for a little bit before selling it at the end of 2001. The new American owned had McLaren restore the car in 2002 to its original 1997 FINA racing colors.

In 2006, it was acquired by a German who actually used the car on track for the first time since 1997. Only 10 GTR Longtails were built (all in 1997) and this is as close to a factory race team example as there is. It was also the most successful BMW Motorsport Longtail with an impressive race history. Gooding & Company estimate that this car will bring between $5,000,000-$7,000,000 at auction in a few weeks. Click here for more info and here for more from Gooding in Scottsdale.

Update: Sold $5,280,000.

Gulf McLaren F1 GTR Longtail

1997 McLaren F1 GTR Longtail

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 17, 2012

If this doesn’t make you drool all over your keyboard, I don’t know what will. But seriously, if anyone out there would be kind enough to buy this car for me, I would be eternally grateful, as I have been really wanting one of these since I knew what they were. And I’m a sucker for anything painted in Gulf livery.

Where to start? I’m going to leave out the interesting tidbits about the McLaren F1 road car except that I will say that it was the greatest road car ever built (sorry, Volkswagen). Racing versions first appeared for the 1995 season, having to have been detuned from road-car spec to make it legal for certain racing series – including Le Mans, which it won in it’s debut season. Nine race chassis were built for 1995 (the GTR denotes a race chassis – some were converted to street legal versions after their racing lives had concluded and a number of GTR road cars exist today).

For 1996, nine more GTRs were built (with two additional 1995 cars upgraded). They had slightly different bodywork that was a little longer both front and rear to stay competitive. 1997 saw even more improvements and a move to the “Longtail” specification to compete against the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and Porsche 911 GT1. Ten Longtail cars were built with none of the previous cars being upgraded. This took the total to 28 cars. This was #28, the final GTR built.

Chassis 028R was originally 027R, but 027R was destroyed in a testing crash. When it was rebuilt, it was rebadged as 028R. The competition history of this car includes:

  • 1997 FIA GT Nürburgring 4 Hours – 44th, DNF (with Andrew Gilbert-Scott & Anders Olofsson)
  • 1997 FIA GT Spa 4 Hours – 44th, DNF (with Gilbert-Scott & Olofsson)
  • 1997 FIA GT Zeltweg 4 Hours – 30th, DNF (with Geoff Lees & Gilbert-Scott)
  • 1997 Suzuka 1000km – 6th (with John Nielsen, Lees & Gilbert-Scott)
  • 1997 FIA GT Donington Park 4 Hours – 7th (with Olofsson & Lees)
  • 1997 FIA GT Mugello 4 Hours – 8th (with Olofsson & Lees)
  • 1997 FIA GT Sebring 3 Hours – 10th (with Olofsson & Lees)
  • 1997 FIA GT Laguna Seca 3 Hours – 6th (with Olofsson & Lees)

Since the end of the 1997 season, this car was “preserved” at McLaren before being sold to someone in Japan in 2004 where it remained for two years. The current owner acquired it in 2006 but it hasn’t seen a track day since 1997. The engine, the 6.1-liter BMW V12 (which in this car has a somewhat neutered 600 horsepower) was last run in January – but McLaren has offered to do a full technical inspection free of charge once this sale is complete.

The McLaren F1 was a legend from day one and it continues to grow. These cars will do nothing but appreciate and by the time the kids – who had McLaren F1 posters on their walls in the 1990s – grow up and become financially successful (hopefully) adults in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, these cars will be worth untold fortunes. Road cars started at about $600,000-$900,000 back in the 90s and have sold for upwards of $4 million since 2008. I remember seeing them sitting on used-supercar dealer lots in the early 2000s. Times change fast. Bonhams wasn’t sporting enough to publish an estimate, so we’ll have to wait and see. For more info, click here. And for more from Bonhams in the amazing little town of Carmel, click here.

Update: Not sold.

S/N: 028R