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I went to see McLaren F1 chassis #69 (you done laughing?) when it was for sale in Chicago. It was actually quite an experience, since my mom's fiance and I had to create quite a cover story to convince the dealer that we were really intent on buying the car (I mean, we wanted it, but the outrageous $1.6 million asking price was a bit out of reach). The car was being kept at the owner's home, and the owner was ofter out of town. We finally connected with him and his car in February of 2001. We saw the car, sat in it, heard it start, and gave it the once over, but for all intensive purposes, this 1998 McLaren was damaged goods. The price was easily half a million more than the cars actual worth, there was a growing crack in the windshield, and the purchase and importation of the car had been very shady.
It did lead to one incredible thing though...a car sourced relationship b/t Jay Leno and I founded through discussion about this very McLaren. My mom's fiance ran into Leno at a charity benefit about a month after we saw the McLaren, and got to talking about it. He wasn't able to asnwer all of Leno's questions, so I wrote to Leno, who called the factory for me about the car (I didn't even ask him to, he just did it to be kind). Turns out the car had been illegally imported (little surpirse it soon disappeared from Fox Valley Motorcars website) and that the windshield would easily cost upwards of $20,000 to fix. The best part, however, was that Leno, impressed with my letter, invited me to his garage. I went to it in August of 01, after the Pebble Beach Concours. There I saw Leno's McLaren F1. In August of this year, I saw the Lark McLaren F1 Longtail GTR at the Symbolic Motor Cars exhibition in the Double Tree.
Check out my gallery for pictures...
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11-15-2003, 01:24 AM
