McLaren F1 GTR sells for record amount in Scottsdale

One of the most successful McLaren F1 GTR race cars sold at the Gooding & Co. Scottsdale auction over the weekend, bringing in $5.28 million. This 1997 F1 GTR is one of 10 longtail cars built for the 1997 FIA GT season, and it's one of only 28 made in GTR-competition specification. Cars like this tend to join collections of similar cars and that's doubtlessly what happened here, with the car selling near the low end of the $5 million to $7 million estimate.

Chassis 21R has wins in Hockenheim and the Helsinki 3 Hours to its record, campaigned by BMW Motorsport team drivers Steve Soper and JJ Lehto. The team secured a 1-2-3 finish at Hockenheim, which was the first race of the season, with JJ Lehto recording the fastest lap of the race. Lehto came in first in this car, followed by two GTC Gulf cars, chassis 20R and 22R. And at the "Helsinki Thunder" race, chassis 21R came in a full three laps ahead of the second place finisher.

After this McLaren's racing days were over, it was maintained at a workshop in Tuscany until 2001. It was sent to the McLaren factory in 2002 for a mechanical restoration because the car sat virtually static for four years. It was then sold to a German collector, who let it participate in several private track events at major European circuits. Until the time of consignment to Gooding & Co., the car had been maintained by marque specialist Lanzante Ltd.

Gooding & Co.
This car competed in a number of FIA GT races during the 1997 season, including the first one where it took first place.

Few doubted this lot would achieve a result within the low and high estimates if it did in fact sell -- a lot of things must fall into place for one of these cars to change hands at auction. The number of private collections that feature cars like this is far smaller than the number of collections composed of much more expensive classic Ferraris. In other words, these cars do not settle into collections where they are the only 1990s race car. Keeping these machines exercised is also a full-time job, one that's slightly more complex than with a collection of classic cars of similar value -- it takes a crew effort to let these run at special-track events. And sitting idle doesn't help these highly strung machines.

This was a world auction record for a McLaren F1 GTR, the second-highest sale of the auction for Gooding & Co.

By Jay Ramey