Jaw dropping road-legal McLaren F1 GTR 'Longtail' up for sale

Matthew Hansen
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Photos / Tom Hartley Jnr

What is 'the' quintessential hypercar?

It has to be the Ferrari F40, really. If you're a Porsche head perhaps it's the 959, or the Carrera GT even. 

As a Kiwi there's probably some bias speaking here, but my pick is the McLaren F1. It's a not-that-attractive-but-stupidly-fast hypercar, with center drive, an engine bay lined in gold, and incredible rarity. And, that's just the standard model.

The standard car holds a probable value of $20million, making it one of the most expensive cars in the world without question. So, you can only imagine what the rarer versions of F1 are worth these days. 

One's come up for sale in England. And it's a doozy. 

Chassis 27R has a decorated motorsport history. The 1997 build competed all across Europe. It was a 'Longtail', which means it has a ... long tail. McLaren's early F1 GTR race car was basically just the road car tarted up. Nonetheless it was a successful racer in its own right.

But, when rivals started to beat it McLaren knew it needed to build something a bit more 'bespoke' — hence the arrival of the Longtail GTR. In short it brought more downforce to the party through a restyled rear end. It got longer, but also lighter at the same time. 

And the first of the Longtails to win a race was this one; chassis 27R. It also competed at the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 1997 FIA GT Championship, and the 1999 British GT Championship. McLaren only made 10 of these things, and this one is probably among the most sought after of them all. And yeah, it's for sale. 

What makes chassis 27R even more interesting is that it's been converted into a road car; ready for its next owner to drive it to the supermarket or the local McDonald's drive-thru. 

"It is freshly restored, road converted by Lanzante, UK registered with all EU taxes paid, and is accompanied by an extensive history file, as well as a long list of spare parts," says auction house Tom Hartley Jnr.

"In addition, when you consider it is one of only 10 examples ever produced, that the other nine examples reside in highly respected and major collections, and the likelihood of these examples ever coming for sale is very slim."

Price? Sadly it's POA, which means we can't drop crazed semantics on the Lark-liveried McLaren. But, assume that there will be plenty of zeros tacked onto the back of what's sure to be an extraordinary figure.

Want to buy it? Tom Hartley Jnr would probably love to hear from you

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