GTR #28R to headline Bonhams auction at the Quail Lodge in Monterey

[Peloton25]

Big news!!

Legendary Gulf Team Davidoff McLaren F1 GTR to Headline Bonhams' Quail Lodge Sale



This year, for its Quail Lodge Sale, Bonhams is thrilled to present an absolute icon of modern-era sports car racing: an ex-GTC Gulf Team Davidoff 1997 McLaren F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ FIA GT Endurance Racing Coupe.

The McLaren F1 GTR design is from that pantheon of victors, including the legendary Ford GT40 and Porsche 917K, to wear Gulf Oil’s charismatic pale-blue and orange team livery.

The 20th Century’s ultimate motoring icon, the McLaren F1 not only earned its place amongst such exalted company on genuine merit, but appears on most aficionados’ top-ten list of the greatest sports cars ever built.

This particular example, chassis ‘028R’, was the 28th and last McLaren F1 GTR produced by the British McLaren Cars factory in Woking, Surrey. It is the last of that final year’s batch of only ten highly developed ‘Longtail’ cars. These definingly beautiful, ultra-modern competition coupes – with their unique centerline driving position and super-sophisticated all-composite structure – were the ultimate development of McLaren’s entire Le Mans-winning F1 GTR family. Indeed, they had to be to resist the tailor-made circuit-racing projectiles then unleashed by the AMG Mercedes-Benz operation.

In 1997 ‘028R’ contested FIA GT Championship 4-hour races at the Nurburgring, Spa-Francorchamps, Austria’s A1-Ring, Donington Park and Mugello, plus the Sebring and Laguna Seca 3-hours events and the Suzuka 1,000 kms. Driven in these races by Andrew Gilbert-Scott, Geoff Lees, Anders Olofsson and John Neilsen, ‘028R’ finished sixth at Suzuka and Laguna Seca, seventh at Donington and tenth at Sebring.

As the last of this rarefied and now much coveted breed, the McLaren F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ ‘028R’ embodies all the lessons learned during that highly successful period. In short, this Gordon Murray-designed beauty is today one of the finest and most exclusive and charismatic racing coupes available anywhere in the world.

“We are delighted to have been appointed by an international collector to represent this breathtaking piece of competition machinery,” says Mark Osborne, Head of Motoring at Bonhams. “Racing legends like the McLaren F1 GTR rarely if ever appear at auction and Bonhams' appointment speaks volumes about our leadership in this sector of the market.”

This year Bonhams is very excited to present its offerings in a new, larger venue on the same Quail Lodge grounds in Carmel Valley. This new location – on the lawns at the western end of the property – provides spacious plein air viewing against the backdrop of the stunning wooded highlands. This is a much more open and accessible site and, while providing greater space on preview and auction days as two key aims behind this move, will also enable our clients to park with ease right at the sale.

Bonhams is currently accepting consignments of rare and pedigree motorcars of all vintages to go alongside the McLaren F1 GTR. Interested sellers may e-mail [email protected] or contact one of the following motorcar experts:

Mark Osborne, San Francisco: 415-391-4000

Rupert Banner, New York: 212-461-6515

David Swig, West Coast: 415-503-3285

The 2012 Bonhams Auction of Exceptional Motorcars will take place Thursday and Friday, August 16th and 17th at Quail Lodge in Carmel, California.

Hope to be there to see it!

>8^)
ER

[Sami Aaltonen]

Ok, this is interesting. What might be the price when of if it will be sold.....

And this sales-advertisingment gaved good specific history of this #28R chasis, Have to copy that to my files.!

[carbuilder2002]

A fabulous thing to own even if I do prefer the short tail variant. But honestly what use would you get out of it?

[Peloton25]

I don't expect any kind of record number for this car. It will almost surely sell for less than the road cars have been lately. There's a pretty limited market for people looking for something like this. There's also very limited use potential right now and relative to other retired racing cars these are said to be rather expensive to run. Additionally, when this car was for sale in Japan it was without any spares which makes using it even more difficult.

It will be quite interesting to see what happens but my initial feeling is that bidding on the car will fall somewhere around $3M USD which may not be enough to complete a sale that day. With a better set of race results, more well known drivers or some history of racing at Le Mans the car would fare a little better than that. The things it has going for it are the very impressive and iconic Gulf livery and it's in impeccable condition.

>8^)
ER

[hurstg01]

It was obviously being priced far too high to sell in Japan, and $3m seems like a steal for the last ever GTR

[BlueEdge]

It's a real shame about the lack of spares, this would be great for the Blancpain Revival Series if it weren't for that.

If I were wealthy enough and there wasn't a chance to use it as intended I think I'd buy it just to have it as an ornament in my office.

[F1GTRUeno]

Would be nice to see it being bought to be used, even if only for private trackdays and such.

The lack of spares will probably ensure that never happens though, which is sad.

Surely if you could afford to buy the car you could afford to have some spares made up by McLaren or whoever.

[carbuilder2002]

Being the last of its kind is obviously what they are relying on, other than livery and condition of course.

[hurstg01]

Originally Posted by F1GTRUeno

Would be nice to see it being bought to be used, even if only for private trackdays and such.

The lack of spares will probably ensure that never happens though, which is sad.

Surely if you could afford to buy the car you could afford to have some spares made up by McLaren or whoever.

I don't think there are many spares left [last I heard] to have for these GTR's.....

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by carbuilder2002

Being the last of its kind is obviously what they are relying on, other than livery and condition of course.

Yeah - I should have included that in my comments too.

There's an interesting twist with this car though - it actually has the repaired chassis originally built for GTR #27R which was crashed during its initial shakedown run. (Edit: I should have looked this up instead of drawing from memory. The car was not actually crashed - see below.) As I understand it, they essentially swapped chassis plates between the two and then repaired the damaged car making it 28R after the fact. I wonder if that will get disclosed in Bonhams full description or how that information will be handled leading up to the auction?

>8^)
ER

[ArchangelGTR]

Not sure how they're going to avoid the info regarding the chassis swap since two blogs have posted it.

From GTSpirit:

Originally Posted by GTSpirit

A rare McLaren F1 GTR Longtail will be auctioned. Back in the 1990s, the McLaren F1 was the pinnacle of what a supercar could be. The iconic British driving machine was once the fastest road car in the world. Nowadays the F1 is among wealthy collectors one of the most sought after cars in the word.

Auction house Bonhams will offer a McLaren F1 GTR Longtail at its Pebble Beach auction. This McLaren was originally built as chassis #27R, but was damaged in transport. It was rebuilt as #28R for GTC Competition as spare car before ending up in the 1997 FIA GT season.

The car is also the last of that final year’s batch of only ten highly developed ‘Longtail’ cars which were the ultimate development of McLaren’s entire Le Mans-winning F1 GTR family. The Longtails featured a longer nose and tail in order to reduce drag and to gain as much aerodynamic downforce as possible.

The Gulf Team Davidoff McLaren is finished in the famous pale-blue/orange Gulf livery, similar to other epic cars like the Ford GT40 and Porsche 917K. The McLaren F1 GTR was driven by Andrew Gilbert-Scott, Geoff Lees, Anders Olofsson and John Neilsen and entered races at the Nürburgring, Spa-Francorchamps, Austria’s A1-Ring, Donington Park, Mugello, Sebring and Laguna Seca.

One of the most epic cars ever made in one of the most legendary liveries ‒ an interesting combination that surely will appeal potential bidders. The McLaren could be regarded as a great investment in an era of economic doubt. One year ago the same car was offered for € 3,000,000 ($ 3,990,000). It will be interesting to see how much the Longtail will fetch this summer.

The Gulf McLaren F1 GTR Longtail will auctioned at the Pebble Beach auction which is scheduled for Thursday the 16th of August and Friday the 17th, at Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley, California.

and MotorAuthority:

Originally Posted by MotorAuthority

Set to grace the auction block at Bonhams’ annual Quail Lodge Sale leading up to August's 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is this ultra-rare Gulf Team Davidoff 1997 McLaren F1 GTR 'Longtail' race car.

Long-term readers of this site may remember the car being up for sale previously in Japan, though it appears whoever bought it is now selling it off once again.

This particular F1 GTR has chassis number ‘028R’ and was the last one of its kind to be built by McLaren, though it originally started out life as chassis number '027R' and was later rebuilt after being damaged during transportation.

The car’s current design is from that pantheon of victors, including the legendary Ford GT40 and Porsche 917K, to wear Gulf Oil's charismatic pale-blue and orange team livery. Its 'Longtail' longer rear wing section was a change in the aero for 1997 that was designed to increase grip over the rear wheels.

Built for racing, the F1 GTR competed in the BPR Global GT Series, now known as the FIA GT Championship. With all of its modifications, the F1 GTR with chassis number 028R weighed only 2,000 pounds but generated more than 600 horsepower from its modified 6.0-liter racing version of the production F1's 60-degree V-12 engine.

Some of the races it contested included the 1997 FIA GT Championship four-hour races at the Nurburgring, Spa-Francorchamps, Austria's A1-Ring, Donington Park and Mugello, plus the Sebring and Laguna Seca three-hours events and the Suzuka 1,000 kms. Driven in these races by Andrew Gilbert-Scott, Geoff Lees, Anders Olofsson and John Neilsen, the car finished sixth at Suzuka and Laguna Seca, seventh at Donington and tenth at Sebring.

Bonhams’ Quail Lodge Sale takes place from August 16-17 in Carmel, California.

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by ArchangelGTR

...damaged during transportation...

Thanks for thosee references and I'm glad they got the story straight on what occurred, unlike me.

I was drawing from memory there and have edited my prior post to note the mistake.

>8^)
ER

[cabrio92]

Exciting news. So, the car is the last or not ?

Phil

[Peloton25]

#28R was certainly the last of the F1 GTRs to be completed (as a spare car for the GTC team) and of course it wears the last chassis number in the sequence of F1 GTRs. To many that makes it the last one for sure.

All that said though, its chassis is actually the repaired chassis that was originally fitted to GTR #27R, and when they were swapped to allow delivery of #27R to Parabolica Motorsport after it had been damaged, each one was renumbered in the process.

I also found an alternate source of information that refers to this incident and it specifically says that 27R was 'damaged in shakedown'. That doesn't mean 'crashed', but it also doesn't exactly sound like a transporting accident either.

Le Man - do you recall anymore details on this?

>8^)
ER

[Le Man]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

#28R was certainly the last of the F1 GTRs to be completed (as a spare car for the GTC team) and of course it wears the last chassis number in the sequence of F1 GTRs. To many that makes it the last one for sure.

All that said though, its chassis is actually the repaired chassis that was originally fitted to GTR #27R, and when they were swapped to allow delivery of #27R to Parabolica Motorsport after it had been damaged, each one was renumbered in the process.

I also found an alternate source of information that refers to this incident and it specifically says that 27R was 'damaged in shakedown'. That doesn't mean 'crashed', but it also doesn't exactly sound like a transporting accident either.

Le Man - do you recall anymore details on this?

>8^)
ER

Only what,s on the more detailed GTR race history chart that I shared with you . We did cover this somewhile back, but I could not locate the thread when I did a quick search.

The main criteria is how well the repairs were caried out. after looking very closely at several repaired F1,s. McLaren do an excellent job, as you would expect from such a company. This info should not detract anything from the cars value, in the same way as its lack of race results should either.