Someone Was Once Ballsy Enough To Steal The Shift Knob From BMW’s $20-Million McLaren F1 GTR

I’ve been to dozens of BMW events in my ten years as an automotive journalist. Whether it’s a reveal, a motorsport-related gathering, or a stand at a bigger event, the company is always very generous when it comes to letting people get in their cars to experience them first-hand.

Before I was even a journalist, I remember BMW reps at a local test drive event in New Jersey letting me poke around the interior and the trunk of the i8, which had only recently been revealed. Journalists had yet to get their hands on it, yet there I was, sitting in the driver’s seat.

This attitude even extends to BMW North America’s vast collection of vintage road and racing cars. At places like the Monterey Motorsport Reunion, most of the time, all you have to do is ask if you want to hop inside a car for a brief moment, and the BMW folks will let you.

It sounds like in at least one instance, a nefarious individual took advantage of that situation to steal a piece of BMW Motorsport history.

The Coolest Car In BMW’s Collection Isn’t A BMW

The crown jewel of BMW North America’s collection is a McLaren F1 GTR, specifically chassis #17R. It’s also known as the “FINA car” thanks to its sponsorship livery from the Belgian oil company of the same name. The car was one of three F1s purchased by BMW Motorsport in the mid-1990s, and saw action at Silverstone and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Despite an estimated value north of $20 million, BMW still carts out the F1 fairly regularly to showcase it at events around the country. I very clearly remember visiting Watkins Glen International for an IMSA race, and this very F1 was on display at the BMW booth.

According to Tom Plucinsky, the head of BMW Group Classic USA, the company even goes as far as to drive it on track a couple of times a year. Here’s what he said in an interview with BimmerLife:

At this stage, we only “exercise” it once or twice a year to keep it in full operating condition. At this stage, it is one of the only original owner examples and it is unrestored since it was re-conditioned after the LeMans race in 1996. To be frank, the value/insurance is an issue whether the car runs or not. Crash damage can be fixed—although expensive would be far less than the value of the car. Fire is worse case scenario.

That is to say, this F1 is incredibly valuable and very much irreplaceable, so BMW is certainly taking some risk here. But the company also knows it’d be wrong to just stash it away and let it rot somewhere. So its stewards keep the car running, and enthusiasts like you and me benefit by being able to see and hear it in action.

Most of the time, running the F1 GTR isn’t a problem for BMW. When asked whether it makes him nervous, Plucinsky brings up a frightening fact:

I think every pro we have put in the car has spun it at one point, so yes. Even though it is a 30-year-old car, it still feels like it should be a modern high downforce race car, and it’s not.

If you drive the car like a non-downforce car it’s fantastic! A big powerful go-kart, I love it. When I drive it, I am always worried at the beginning but once I’m rolling, it is just such a thrill and pleasure to drive and the nervousness disappears.

However, there is always a sense of relief when the car is loading back on the transporter.

Running the F1 isn’t cheap, either. A brake job costs $50,000 in parts alone, and every 10 years, BMW contracts Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, the brand’s motorsport partner in North America, to do a major service that involves removing the engine, rebuilding the gearbox, and replacing the fuel tank.

This Is Why We Can’t Have Shift Knobs At Auto Shows

Sometime in the mid-2010s, shift knobs started disappearing from show cars on the floors of auto shows. Automakers quickly realised people were stealing them, so they started preemptively taking off the knobs to keep thieves at bay. This practice persists to this day; at most auto shows, if you can find a car with a manual transmission, the shift knob has already been removed before show-goers arrive.

BMW could’ve learned a thing or two from those automakers, because this exact theft happened with the F1 GTR back in 2016, around the time those thefts started happening.

The shift knob was stolen at a show several years ago. The non-descript black ball knob has a moving weight in it—kinda like a slide hammer.

The knob itself doesn’t have any fancy labeling or anything. This video, published a couple of months ago on YouTube, gives a good look at the car’s interior, with the shiny ball sitting proudly atop the shifter:

Obviously, BMW couldn’t just log into FCP Euro or RockAuto and order a replacement shift knob. McLaren built just 28 F1 GTRs, and ten of those—the later “Long Tail” models—came with a sequential shifter with a different golfball-shaped shift knob (shown below). So we’re talking about sourcing a part that was made for a grand total of 18 cars.

Surprisingly, Pluincsky says the replacement knob cost just €750 (roughly $875) to replace, which is a lot less than I would’ve guessed. But he also notes that it was 10 years ago, so prices for the extremely niche part may have increased since then.

If you happen to find yourself inside BMW’s F1 GTR with plans to steal the shift knob, just know you’re no longer stealing a piece of racing history, because the original is long gone. Not that you should be planning to steal shift knobs at all. That’s just wrong.

Top graphic images: BMW / LukasJVW on YouTube