The world’s only brown-on-brown McLaren F1, which sold for a stunning $20,465,000 at auction in 2021, is up for sale once more. The three-seater supercar was originally sold to an owner in Japan in 1995, and was delivered with a selection of stylish accessories, including a set of custom-fit luggage trimmed in the same leather as the car’s cabin. A FACOM tool chest, a tool roll, and a bespoke Tag Heuer 6000 chronometer watch inscribed with the chassis number 029 were also provided.
After its time in Japan the F1 spent its life in the U.S.A. where it accrued only 390 km (242 miles) in 25 years. The F1, in its unique combination of Creighton Brown over a Light Tan/Brazilian Brown, has added just three miles to its odometer in the three years since it set a world record at Gooding & Company’s Monterey Car Week auction.
After its 2021 sales smash Hagerty’s Andrew Newton predicted that the F1’s rise is far from over, suggesting that it could reach the dizzying heights of the Ferrari GTO.
“Today, this king of the 1990s is one of the most valuable cars in the world. F1s officially became eight-figure cars in the mid-2010s, and their condition #2 values in the Hagerty Price Guide rose 497 percent from 2011-21,” he explained. “It’s a big jump, but Gordon Murray’s magnum opus still has plenty of room to grow. Consider another, more established god-tier collector car – the Ferrari 250 GTO, which is worth between $36M and $70M in the Hagerty Price Guide. Despite their age difference, the two have so much in common (dominance on-track, very limited production, apex status for the era, naturally aspirated V-12s, usability, and active/exclusive owners’ clubs) that it’s easy to view the Ferrari and the McLaren in a similar light and as cars that could carry similar values in the not-too-distant future.”
Now the car is being offered by Sotheby’s Sealed in New York on May 13. As the name suggests this is a sealed bids auction and the final price paid won’t be revealed, but you can bet it will be big.
Report by Nik Berg
