Buy this street-legal McLaren F1 GTR Longtail

By: Alex Affat, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 23.03.2020

A street-legal McLaren F1 GTR Longtail is probably better than stocks right now, and more fun!

We are currently living in times of great uncertainty.

There’s a pretty serious pandemic going on right now, and even after all that blows over, we’ll likely be left with some serious economic repercussions long after we’re allowed to go outside again.

And with the stock markets in free fall, there are many people looking for alternative places to stash their money. You could always buy gold, but you can’t really do anything with it, can you?

Alternatively, you could buy this: The first of ten McLaren F1 GTR Longtails ever produced, and the car utilised as the factory prototype/development car.

It’s recently hit the market, offered by UK-based wheeler-dealer Tom Hartley Jr – who has previously sold the car before, as well as numerous other pieces of automotive unobtanium.

Hartley stated: "these Longtail cars have so much potential as they’re still well behind short-tail GTRs and road cars in value".

Indeed, road cars and ‘short-tail’ special variants including LMs and GTRs have enjoyed tremendous auction results over the past few years, with a silver LM example selling for a record-setting AU$29 million midway through last year.

While young Hartley indicates that the race-bred Longtail versions trail some ways behind, we’re betting it’ll still fetch many millions of dollars.

And this is arguably more interesting than your ‘normal’ McLaren F1s.

First raced at the Suzuka 1000 under Lark livery colours, the Big Mac is complimented by extensive Japanese racing history, and is also the last F1 GTR to win a major race.

It’s not a toy reserved for closed racetracks either, as this is the first McLaren F1 GTR to be converted to road-specification by UK specialists, Lazante.

The sale includes a large cache of rare spares, including all components to return the car to race-trim; as well as a dedicated book by Gordon Murray, documenting the history of this particular car, and it’s road-going conversion.

With just ten ever built, the GTR Longtail is the rarest of all F1 variants produced, and young Hartley points out: "the other nine examples are either owned by institutions or collectors [that he doesn’t] envisage selling".

The price for this incredible piece of machinery is listed as $POA, but given the trajectory of McLaren F1 road cars, and rare LM and GTR examples – and the fact that Longtails traditionally lag behind in value - we’d peg the value of the Longtail GTR somewhere in the region of $15-20 million. 

Still, if you’re an extremely well-heeled individual looking for somewhere to stick your money over the foreseeable future – perhaps take a look at this four-wheeled wonder.

Classic Australian Family Car Value Guide home page

Muscle Car Value Guide home page

Japanese Classic Car Value Guide home page

Recent auction results

Unique Cars magazine Value Guides

Sell your car for free right here