This Is What A $35,000,000 Car Looks Like

In terms of modern classics, there’s no car quite like the McLaren F1 when it comes to commanding high sales prices – but one example is set to move the game on quite a bit if it hits its $35,000,000 estimate at Monterey in August.

The McLaren F1 has existed in a bubble all of its own over the past couple of decades, with some of the 106 cars regularly the subject of eight-figure bids. More than one has changed hands for $20m, but even that pales next to the estimate for this extremely unusual model.

RM Sotheby’s will pass the car across the block at its annual auction during Monterey Car Week and the McLaren F1 GTR “10R,” as it’s known, could enter the top ten of most expensive cars ever auctioned – and as the only British entry on that list.

The McLaren F1 wasn’t originally intended as a racing car but, as the world’s fastest production car at the time, it happened to take to racing pretty well. Of the 106 cars built, 28 were made as “GTR” specification race cars and one of those prototype chassis – 01R – famously won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995 as the F1 packed out four of the top five places.

Following that success, McLaren set about building a new specification for the 1996 season, of which 10R was the very first of just nine and one of two short-tail GTR prototypes alongside 01R, which it was set to replace as the car was retired.

As well as new aerodynamics, the 1996 specification introduced extensive weight-saving measures, including a magnesium gearbox housing for the shorter-ratio ‘box that helped shave 38 kilograms off the not exactly hefty 1995 car’s weight.

Intended as a development car, 10R would be put to the test at Le Mans, where it went quicker than its predecessor in pre-qualifying, though it was replaced by 11R for the race itself.

The car stood out somewhat too, wearing a unique livery that earned it the “Pop Art F1” nickname. Comprising a blood red base with “96 GTR” splashed across it in bright yellow, and matching yellow wheels, it’s among the more recognizable F1s.

Retained by the factory alongside 01R, 10R was subsequently converted for road use by McLaren itself with additional work from Lanzante, a firm set up by the man who directed the 1995 GTR to victory at Le Mans. After receiving its license plates, “K40MCL”, 10R was sold directly to one of the UK’s most famous car collectors: Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. His fleet, which includes a Ferrari 250 GTO and a Jaguar D-Type, is itself the stuff of legend.

Mason routinely drives his cars and loans them to journalists on occasion for some very special tests, and 10R is no exception. Unlike some museum pieces, it’s had a few brushes with scenery, including when Mason himself hit a tyre wall at Goodwood during the Members’ Meeting in 2017.

Lanzante, by now a specialist in converting McLaren race and track cars for road use, restored the damaged F1 GTR, which returned to Goodwood for the Festival of Speed in 2022 before Mason sold it on privately in 2024.

GTRs don’t come up for auction all that often, especially at public auction. RM Sotheby’s already offered a long-tail model earlier this year in a sealed auction, at an estimated $21m valuation, but this short-tail stands a solid chance of blowing the record out of the water.

Typically, the road cars have set the pace, with a time-capsule, metallic-brown example becoming the first $20m McLaren when sold via Gooding & Co’s in 2021. RM Sotheby’s subsequently sold the car again, and again via a sealed auction, in 2024. The record, though, stands at $25.3m, for an ex-Sultan of Dubai car modified with the GTR-a-like High Downforce Kit and a race-spec interior, also sold via RM Sotheby’s in Abu Dhabi in December 2025.

With that as the benchmark, the real deal should be setting headlines come August.

Top graphic image: RM Sotheby’s