The inspiration for jobs, suites and, of course, other vehicles, the McLaren F1 is the OG of hypercars. And like most originals, it’s extremely rare — only-64-made-in-history rare. So when one goes to auction, it’s big news all over the world.
But in this case, especially in the United States is the opportunity anticipated, because this McLaren F1 chassis No. 44 was the first of the 240-MPH models to be imported to the U.S. and be turned into a street-legal model by a firm called Ameritech. Understanding the significance of the conversion, Ameritech made no physical changes to the car that couldn’t be reversed.
The 37th F1 to be produced, chassis No. 44 is the first of seven street-legal American F1s and, with only 7,071 miles on the odometer — the majority of which came from a 1996 road trip through France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and England — she’s in tip-top shape.
“It is as likely that the elements of a pure-blooded racing machine will never be so well integrated into such an ultimately satisfying road car,” according to the auction house, “as it is likely that there will never again be an opportunity to purchase a single owner F1 with the incredible provenance and history of 044.”
And an expensive opportunity at that, as the car is expected (based on previous sales of less historic models) to fetch more than $10 million at the Bonhams Quail auction on August 18th.
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