The recent Monterey Car Week auction over the weekend had at least one extremely notable result in the car world. After selling for an incredible sum of more than $20 million (including fees), a 1995 McLaren F1 is, according to Robb Report, not only the most expensive car sold at auction this year, but also the most expensive McLaren automobile of all time.
A YouTube user named "Fast Ferrari" was at the auction and captured its closing moments:
The classic supercar sold for a winning bid of $20.47 million to a buyer who has chosen to remain anonymous. Whoever they are, they're now the owners of an "undisputed masterpiece" of vehicular craftsmanship, described by car buffs as the first true hypercar and one of only 106 McLaren F1s built between 1992 and 1998. The auction was handled by the Gooding & Company auction house, and in a press statement Gooding & Company founder David Gooding described the car in equally glowing terms:
"We were incredibly proud to present this exceptional McLaren F1, and tonight, the market confirmed the sheer prowess of this unparalleled supercar from one of the most legendary names in motoring…This sale was a historic moment not only for Gooding & Company, but for the McLaren legacy and the entire industry as a whole."
The most expensive McLaren ever is a 1995 F1, Chassis 029, reportedly the 25th of its production run of a total of 64. It was originally sold to a Japanese collector who evidently kept it in more or less perfect condition with only 243 miles on the odometer and sold "as delivered" to its current owner. The $20.47 million sale price is significantly higher than pre-sale estimates valuing the car at about $15 million, and handily surpasses other recent big ticket McLaren sales, like the $15.62 million model that sold in 2017 and another that went for almost $20 million two years later.
For a look at the most expensive car of the year, take a look at the video below from Gooding & Company:
