The first McLaren F1 to be imported to the US sold for a record $15.6m in Bonhams’ Quail Lodge auction over the weekend.
It soared past the previous record, set at $13.7m for a 1998 specimen.
20 years on the F1 remains one of the world's most sought after supercars
The F1 remains the quintessential supercar, easily capable of holding its own next to new generation upstarts like the Bugatti Veyron or the Koenigsegg CCR.
This chassis, #044, was shipped from the UK to the States in 1996.
In 20 years it has clocked just 9,600 miles. Around half of those were set during the first few weeks of ownership, when it was driven on a whirlwind tour of central Europe.
Only 106 F1s were ever built. Of these, just seven have ever been approved for road use in the US.
As the auction house explained in the run-up to the sale: “…the McLaren F1 dominated and defined an era.
“Today, these rare, world-changing supercars almost never come up for sale – let alone one that has never had an accident – and it is very likely there will never again be an opportunity to purchase a single-owner F1 with such provenance and history.”
The sale also featured a 1957 BMW 503 Cabriolet, which went for $583,000.
It’s one of around 13 examples expressly produced for the US market and has one multiple concours, thanks in large part to an exceptional restoration by the Scott Grundfor Company of Arroyo Grande, California.
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