Chassis 10R. One of nine McLaren F1 GTRs built. Going to RM Sotheby’s in Monterey next month with an estimate above $35 million — which would make it the most expensive McLaren F1 ever sold. First McLaren F1 GTR ever built. Competed at the 1995 Le Mans — the race where one of the nine GTRs won outright, the last production road car to do it. This one finished 20th. McLaren kept it in the factory collection after, converted it to road spec, sold it to Nick Mason of Pink Floyd.
Racing pedigree, factory provenance, celebrity ownership, nine total ever built — that is the McLaren F1 GTR case for $35 million. The current record for any McLaren F1 at auction is well below that. Bidders will decide whether it is worth that.
A Standard McLaren F1 Already Sells for Eight Figures. The GTR Is Something Else.
Just over 100 McLaren F1s built. BMW V12, 6.1 litres, naturally aspirated, 600-plus horsepower, six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive. Any standard McLaren F1 GTR-era example brings eight figures at auction. Gordon Murray designed it without compromise — three seats in a row with the driver in the centre, a gold-lined engine bay for heat management, a chassis that set the fastest production car record at 240 mph in 1998.
Any standard McLaren F1 GTR-era F1 sells for eight figures. That is the baseline.
The McLaren F1 GTR is a different level within that rarity. Murray never planned to go racing with it. Murray built the McLaren F1 GTR’s road-car predecessor and nothing else. Customers who bought one took it to track and found it faster than everything. They pushed McLaren for a race version. McLaren said no, then yes. Nine McLaren F1 GTRs total. Each one was race-prepared — lighter than the road car, fitted with a fixed rear wing, equipped with carbon-ceramic brakes for sustained circuit use. The GTRs competed in the BPR Global GT Series and most famously at Le Mans.
1995 Le Mans. 1995 Le Mans — five McLaren F1 GTRs finished in the top fifteen. third, fourth, fifth, and thirteenth. Chassis 06R beat factory Porsche and Ferrari prototypes built specifically to win endurance races. A road car with a roll cage and some aerodynamic modifications won Le Mans outright.
McLaren F1 GTR chassis 10R: 20th overall. Did not win. Was on the same grid, same day, same race where a road car did something nobody thought was possible.
Nick Mason Bought the McLaren F1 GTR After McLaren
McLaren kept chassis 10R in the factory collection after the race season, then converted it from race spec back to road-legal configuration. Significant work — reversing roll cage, fire suppression, race wiring, and fitting road equipment. The finished product: a McLaren F1 GTR with licence plates.
Nick Mason bought it. Drummer of Pink Floyd, Ferrari 250 GTO owner, Porsche 962 owner. Not a trophy collector — a driver. He owns cars he understands and uses. His collection includes Ferrari 250 GTOs, Porsche 962s, and various other objects that would make most people sit down. He is also, by general consensus among the automotive journalists who have visited his collection, the sort of person who shows up and makes bacon sandwiches while you photograph the cars.
Mason’s ownership adds a story to a McLaren F1 GTR that already has one. The GTR chassis and Le Mans history are compelling entirely on their own. Rock-and-roll royalty who actually drove the thing is the biographical footnote that auction catalogues are made of.
The car has been regularly used under Mason’s ownership. That includes a couple of notable off-track excursions — incidents that were addressed by a specialist in the United Kingdom on both occasions. The car is described as having been properly restored after each incident. This is disclosed, not buried, which is how legitimate auction consignments handle the reality that cars with driving histories occasionally have driving incidents.
Original 1995 Le Mans Livery — Not Restored, Not Recreated
The McLaren F1 GTR 10R still wears the red and yellow livery it raced in at Le Mans in 1995. The red and yellow combination — popularly described as ketchup and mustard — is not particularly elegant. It is specific. It is the colour scheme of a car that was on the starting grid at Circuit de la Sarthe when the McLaren F1 achieved something nobody expected a road car to achieve.
Factory race liveries from genuine motorsport participation are a different category from cars that have been cosmetically restored or repainted to period specification. This car did not have its livery recreated. The livery represents actual use in actual competition.
That distinction matters to collectors at this price level. The difference between a car that raced and a car that looks like it raced is the difference between what RM Sotheby’s is estimating here and what a standard F1 brings.
The $35 Million Question
$24 million is the current McLaren F1 auction record. RM Sotheby’s wants $35 million-plus for 10R.
Three reasons the McLaren F1 GTR commands that premium over a standard car.
First: nine were built. Nine were built. Not nine hundred, not ninety. Nine. Standard F1 rarity at 106 examples produces eight-figure results. GTR rarity is an order of magnitude tighter.
Second: this McLaren F1 GTR has Le Mans history. Not all nine GTRs raced at Le Mans. This one did. The year the F1 won overall. Being in the same race on the same day as the winning car is not the same as winning, but it is provenance that cannot be manufactured or replicated.
Third: the McLaren F1 GTR ownership chain. McLaren factory collection to Nick Mason is a clean, documented, interesting provenance story. There are no gaps in the history, no ownership by anonymous collectors who might complicate the narrative.
Against that, McLaren F1 GTR buyers at $35 million will note that 10R did not win — it finished 20th. The winning car from 1995, chassis 06R, would presumably command more. Buyers at this level know the difference between being in a historic race and winning it.
Whether that gap is worth $11 million above the standing F1 record is the question Monterey will answer.
Gordon Murray’s Original Brief and Why It Makes This More Interesting
Murray started the McLaren F1 project in the late 1980s as a pure road car. His references were more about refinement than speed — he famously benchmarked the climate control system in the Acura NSX he was driving at the time. He was dismissive of the V8 in the Ferrari F40, which he found brutish, and equally unconvinced by the technical complexity of the Porsche 959, which he found too clever to be engaging.
The F1 was supposed to be the intelligent middle path. 6.1-litre BMW V12, no turbos, no compromises to practicality or technology for its own sake. Just the purest possible driving experience in the fastest possible road car.
Murray did not design it to race. The customers forced that decision. The customers then won Le Mans with it. And now one of the nine GTRs that made that happen is going to auction in Monterey with an estimate that would make it the most valuable F1 ever sold.
Murray has said in interviews that the F1 remains the car he is most proud of. The GTR variants were not his idea, but the fact that an unmodified production car design won endurance racing at the highest level is not something that happens by coincidence. It happens when the engineering is right in the first place.
What Happens in Monterey
RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale takes place during Monterey Car Week, one of the most significant collector car auction events in the calendar. High estimates at Monterey are normal. Cars projected above $35 million are not.
What chassis 10R sells for sets a data point for every other McLaren F1 GTR — and arguably every standard F1. If it clears $35 million, the valuation of every other F1 GTR — and arguably every standard F1 — adjusts upward. If it falls short, the market gives its own assessment of what Le Mans provenance plus Nick Mason ownership is actually worth.
Either result is interesting. That is why Monterey is worth watching.
FAQs
What is the McLaren F1 GTR?
Race version of the McLaren F1. Nine built. Competed at Le Mans 1995, where one won outright — last production road car to win Le Mans.
Which car specifically?
Chassis 10R — first McLaren F1 GTR built. Raced at 1995 Le Mans, factory collection, converted to road spec, sold to Nick Mason.
What is the estimate?
Above $35 million. Current McLaren F1 record is around $24 million.
When and where?
RM Sotheby’s Monterey, August 2026.
Previous owner?
Nick Mason, Pink Floyd.
How many GTRs exist?
Nine.
Engine?
BMW 6.1-litre naturally aspirated V12. 600-plus horsepower. Six-speed manual. Rear-wheel drive.
Why does 1995 Le Mans matter?
A McLaren F1 GTR won it outright. Beat factory prototypes from Porsche and Ferrari. Last production road car to win Le Mans.
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