The Ones That Got Away: McLaren F1, Enzo, CGT

[SSO]

Just posted a new blog on the one's that got away. Its a painful list including a McLaren F1 with Le Mans race history, Ferrari Enzo, and a Porsche Carrera GT:

https://karenable.com/the-ones-that-got ... arrera-gt/

Comments?

What are yours?

[mik]

Finally our vehicular experiences converge - I have never bought any of the above either.

[SSO]

Finally our vehicular experiences converge - I have never bought any of the above either.

There you have it.

[tim]

1991

Porsche 964rs

£21,000.

FM actual L.

[Coaster1]

F1 GTR might just be the coolest ‘Race Car with number plate’.

That FINA car.....

[zx6rkiller]

Alfa SZ
A few years ago, my budget was just a little to low to find a decent SZ.
Since then, prices have doubled.

Lancia Integrale Evo
Same story.

Still pales in comparison to passing up on a F1 of course.
However, with hindsight every decision is easy.
Should have bought bitcoins when they went for peanuts, etc...

I think the lesson is to be happy with the cars that you actually bought.
Instead of the SZ or Lancia, I purchased a Z4 coupe.
Took it all over Europe, did some fantastic road trips and simply had a blast.
Enjoyed that car for a couple of years without any hiccups or problems.
Not sure that all would have happened if I tried it with a SZ.

[mik]

I still snigger at the Gordon Murray interview with Harris/Collecting Cars in 2020 for the T50 launch. Murray confirmed he had sold his F1 around 3 years before this interview. He felt he couldn’t drive it any more. He said something like (not verbatim) “Ownership became untenable - when they were worth £600k I used to take people out in it - before there were speed cameras - and show them what it could do, slide it around in the wet, but when they started edging up to £20million you think twice about taking it out of the garage”. Words to that effect anyway. The idea of sliding a £600k car around with gay abandon is amusing - might as well be £20million to most folks....

[integrale_evo]

I started enjoying the e30 less when it was worth about £15k which was a lot of money to me at the time

[GG.]

I still snigger at the Gordon Murray interview with Harris/Collecting Cars in 2020 for the T50 launch. Murray confirmed he had sold his F1 around 3 years before this interview. He felt he couldn’t drive it any more. He said something like (not verbatim) “Ownership became untenable - when they were worth £600k I used to take people out in it - before there were speed cameras - and show them what it could do, slide it around in the wet, but when they started edging up to £20million you think twice about taking it out of the garage”. Words to that effect anyway. The idea of sliding a £600k car around with gay abandon is amusing - might as well be £20million to most folks....

Its probably more the insurance excess that he was concerned about. Unless you're worried about sentimental value if its fully insured it doesn't really make a difference if it is 600k or 20 mill... save that the excess on the latter is probably six figures.

I expect if its a total write off they'd deduct that from the payment they make to you but if its only a very big repair job then you'd in theory have to stump up - that would focus the mind...

[ZedLeg]

I'd hate to see the kind of crash that could write off an F1. Hadn't Rowan Atkinson's been pretty much completely rebuilt twice before he sold it?

[GG.]

Exactly - you could get to many hundreds of thousands, maybe millions in repairs before that happened. You'd think even a fire damaged shell would be worth rebuilding on something with a valuation of tens of millions.

Yes, I imagine Rowan's 'offs' were eye watering to fix.

[RobYob]

I was on secondment in Japan in 2004 on a very nice per-diem for eight months and I didn't buy a stupidly cheap NSX/RX7/GTR.

I drank a lot.
And bought some camera gear.

A few years ago I think I burned my copy of Goo? magazine 2004 in disgust at my failure.

[SSO]

I'd hate to see the kind of crash that could write off an F1. Hadn't Rowan Atkinson's been pretty much completely rebuilt twice before he sold it?

Yes and that still is the largest car insurance payout to date in the UK.

[Zonda_]

I'd hate to see the kind of crash that could write off an F1. Hadn't Rowan Atkinson's been pretty much completely rebuilt twice before he sold it?

He had a minor bump into the back of a Metro I believe many years ago. I read the story of the rebuild of it after the big smash and it was basically a new car bat keeping a bit of the chassis for 'originality'

[Mito Man]

I reckon they’d still be rebuilt even if a F1 goes up in a ball of flame such that only 1 digit of the chassis number is readable.

[Carlos]

1991

Porsche 964rs

£21,000.

FM actual L.

Same for me.

They were still that sort of money in the early 2000s and I ended up buying an E46 M3.

I wouldn't have benefited financially as even that was disposed of after having 2 kids in 18 months but I look back as an opportunity lost.

Like the CSL we discussed and the cars SSO refers to I can't see a 964rs buyer doing 12k miles a year in them now.

[SSO]

I reckon they’d still be rebuilt even if a F1 goes up in a ball of flame such that only 1 digit of the chassis number is readable.

Doesn't need to be readable, just needs to be confirmed as a McLaren F1 chassis plate.

[SSO]

Speaking of McLaren F1 chassis numbers, originally the plan was to produce 300 F1s. Product stopped at 106 due to a lack of demand and it took McLaren a couple of years to sell off the last few cars. On a factory visit a few years ago, I did inquire if I could order one of the remaining 194 unsold units.

[RobYob]

On a factory visit a few years ago, I did inquire if I could order one of the remaining 194 unsold units.

Running by Jaguar and AMLs playbook they'll be saving those numbers for a rainy day "continuation" run.

Anyone want to run a book?

Can I have decent odds on 2035?

[Marv]

On a factory visit a few years ago, I did inquire if I could order one of the remaining 194 unsold units.

Running by Jaguar and AMLs playbook they'll be saving those numbers for a rainy day "continuation" run.

Anyone want to run a book?

Can I have decent odds on 2035?

2029 if they want to avoid it having to be pure EV (in the UK at least!)