Chassis 01R

[ps2006]

hi,
i am new to this board - i have spent the past few days reading the first 20 or so pages of this board and as a big mclaren f1 fan it has made for very interesting reading - especially with at least 2 owners posting on this board too.
I have one question regarding chassis 01R, sorry if it has been brought up before, but is this car in private ownership and just being looked after by McLaren in its display at MTC Woking?
surely the comapny Kokusai Kaihatsu racing bought the car from McLaren to race at Le Mans and ultimately an individual or individuals own Kokusai Kaihatsu and therefore the car? Or did McLaren have a buy back agreement?
Just curious as if it was in private ownership and it ever came up in auction it must be worth...anyones guess but easily US$5m+
Thanks for any replies.

[PatrickT82]

you have posted a double post;-)


Its owned by McLaren

[ps2006]

ok thanks, so did Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing merely finance the running of this car for the Le Mans entry? also was this the one and only race 01R competed in?
Thanks for any info.
Please can a moderator delete my duplicate thread, many thanks.

[hurstg01]

According to here it was the only race it appeared in, however I bet its leading the race to be the most expensive F1 were it ever to be offered for sale....

[Sauc3]

Originally Posted by hurstg01

According to here it was the only race it appeared in, however I bet its leading the race to be the most expensive F1 were it ever to be offered for sale....

Can't remember exactly where, but I read that McLaren offered the car for sale to the team for $4,000,000, unless the car won Le Mans, in which case McLaren would keep the car.

As far as I know this is the truth, but I can't say for sure.

[mini magic]

I doubt the number was as high as 4mil

[carbuilder2002]

I am up for correction on this but i seem to have a distant recolection that the GTR when they were initially offered for sale was in the region of £1.5m GBP but that included the support package offered by McLaren at race meetings. The actual car was rumoured to have cost between £900,000 and £1,000,000 each, mainly due to the braking and suspension package, the on board telemetry instalation, safety equipment, engine mods and other weight saving measures.
The GTR would actually have cost more to asemble than the LM as it contained more specialist equipment that the LM does not have (hence the LM is lighter).
Probably shooting myself in the foot here but a GTR now is quite a bargain considering the initial build cost.
Yes you can argue that it has saved on the cost of the Hi-Fi, Air Con, electric toys etc. but if the look at the price of fitting out a world class racer then you would soon surpass the cost of the aforementioned items.

[BMW.WilliamsF1Team]

Maybe McLaren leased the cars to teams so they would eventually get them back?

[ArchangelGTR]

I remember 01R was considered the works team. Maybe someone can clarify as to why. Perhaps the other 95 GTRs were purchased outright and since 01R was brought in as a "last minute" car, being the test mule for GTR upgrades, it may not have been sold. With its single race and significant finish, I doubt that McLaren Cars would have let this one get away. 01R is the pride and joy of their sportscar efforts.

As far as GTR's not selling more than LMs still puzzles me. Normally concourse markets tend to favor cars with a racing pedigree (ie GTO). Give it another 10-20 years. I'm sure those with cars in original livery will command a large sum.

[ps2006]

having done some more research i have found out that archangel is correct - 01R was effectively the "works team" but only after the other privateer teams were offered the opportunity to run 01R - they all had the same factory back up so "works team" isnt quite accurate - mclaren hired paul lanzante and assembled their own team for 01R but effectively it is lucky for them that chassis 01R won the race and therefore mclaren had full ownership of the car and it will never be sold!.....so the mach one harrods, west and gtc gulf teams all bought their cars from mclaren and had they won the 95 le mans race they would kept the car as they owned it 100%.
before the 1995 bpr season mclaren had reluctant to convert the f1 and take it racing at all...but owners such as ray bellm said they they were going to race it anyway....hence the late decision for mclaren to "do it properly"
sorry if anything above is already repeated in other threads.