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The McLaren F1 is a legend in its personal proper. Of the 106 automobiles that had been constructed, solely three F1 GTs (generally known as “Longtails” as a consequence of their stretched bodywork) had been made to adjust to FIA necessities for the F1 GTR race automobiles that competed within the GT1 class at Le Mans. Certainly one of these three automobiles ended up within the palms of one of many world’s most prolific automotive collectors: The Sultan of Brunei.
Just lately, @brunei_car_collection on Instagram—an account devoted to monitoring the actions of former and present Brunei-owned automobiles—posted a photograph of a identified McLaren F1 GT being loaded onto a Boeing 787 in Brunei, allegedly sure for London’s Heathrow Airport. This McLaren F1 GT is never seen and normally solely seems as soon as each few years, in keeping with the poster. In accordance with the Instagram caption, the automotive is reportedly being dropped at McLaren HQ in Woking for restoration and upkeep work. Whereas a automotive being transported for service could not appear important at first look, it’s the automotive’s proprietor and the automotive itself that makes this so intriguing.
Of the 106 McLaren F1s manufactured within the early Nineties, the sultan reportedly owns 10. The gathering is estimated to have between 2,500 to 7,000 automobiles comprising almost all luxurious and unique automobiles, because the video beneath exhibits (together with the F1 GT in query right here). There are allegedly over 600 Rolls-Royces in his assortment, together with a particular $14-million, six-door, gold-plated Rolls-Royce Silver Spur II. Nonetheless, the McLaren F1 GT represents one of many rarest and costliest. The gathering was rumored to have begun to rot away within the humid tropical climate as a consequence of poor upkeep and storage situations. Costly exotics and even one-off supercars had been allegedly starting to disintegrate and develop mould.
This picture of the automotive reportedly on its option to England exhibits that the Sultan (or somebody appearing on his behalf) is concerned in sustaining his automotive assortment, and proof that perhaps not all is misplaced. McLaren F1 upkeep is notoriously costly (shocker) and fairly troublesome as all upkeep is completed by means of McLaren’s manufacturing unit group straight and solely a handful of mechanics are educated to restore these. How costly can repairing an F1 be? Nicely, actor Rowan Atkinson had a restore invoice of his common road-going McLaren F1 in a 2011 accident for $1.2 million. Regardless of this and one other smaller accident, he bought the automotive in 2015 for $12.2 million, which exhibits that the worth of those automobiles is so astronomically excessive, that the upkeep price is value it.
The Drive reached out to the unique poster of the pictures in addition to a McLaren spokesperson to search out out extra info, although we have but to listen to again.
The Sultan of Brunei is likely one of the wealthiest males on the planet. Because the political chief of Brunei, the small nation state’s economic system is comprised almost totally of oil exports. Whereas the nation has a comparatively excessive GDP per capita of $27,442 in 2020 in keeping with the World Financial institution, a lot of the wealth of the nation of almost half one million residents is concentrated with the Sultan and his household. Forbes lists his whole internet value at over $20 billion and one of many issues the Sultan spends that cash on probably the most is his notorious automotive assortment. Like most oil states of this kind, Brunei’s human rights document is poor, in keeping with the U.S. Division of State.
Hopefully, some details about this stunning instance will floor throughout its alleged keep in Europe.
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