This McLaren F1 once owned by the Sultan of Brunei could be yours

4 min readSep 16, 2018

For sale by RM Sotheby’s, this stunning McLaren F1 once belonging to the Sultan of Brunei could soon by yours, if your pockets are deep enough…

In a recent blog, I asked the good people of DriveTribe what car they’d rush to buy first if they were fortunate enough to win the lottery. A surprisingly high percentage of the 400 + commenters took the opportunity to declare their love for the McLaren F1, which is ambitious given that I never specified the outrageousness of the win.

This got me thinking: just how much would you have to win on the lottery to be able to afford a McLaren F1? And with the help of a friend of mine, a rather nice example currently for sale has come to my attention.

This white beauty you see before you is F1 chassis No14 — one of several F1s to feature in the Sultan of Brunei’s mythical collection. After being exported to America in 2002, it was picked up by its current owner in 2006. He then set about transforming it from Sultan-spec into his rather more performance orientated standards.

How the car looked originally.

Before and after

The transformation was carried out by McLaren in Woking in 2007. After spraying the body white, covering up the ghastly yellow chosen by the Sultan, the F1 was comprehensively rebuilt and altered. The fabled high downforce kit was bolted on — meaning this McLaren is 1 of only 8 of the 106 cars made to feature the lap-time enhancing pack. Also, to authenticate the overall appearance and make it look just that little but more like the LM that it so closely resembles, louvres were cut into the wings, and black Oz racing wheels were fitted.

Also in keeping with the LM-theme was the interior, which was stripped down to racing-spec. Despite how extreme this was however, improved air conditioning was fitted for that extra bit of comfort when driving hard. All in all, the process cost the owner $500,000 — but if you ask me, it was worth every penny.

Under the Sultan’s ownership, this F1 accrued just 3224 miles between 1994 and 2002. While the second owner has driven it more — and collected the autograph of Lewis Hamilton on the body — it’s still only seen 12,000 miles pass beneath its wheels. And for each and every one of them, it’s been thoroughly taken care of.

Lewis Hamilton’s autograph — I am sure some will say this detracts from the value

Just this year at McLaren Philadelphia — the only McLaren centre in America able to work on F1s — the engine was taken out for a major service at the cost of $50,000. A painful yet necessary expense when maintaining such a magnificent machine.

Naturally then, you want it. But unless you were to win the largest of jackpots, it’s probably going to remain out of your reach. For this particularly lovely McLaren F1 is currently for sale from RM Sotheby’s for the price of $22,000,000!! That’s just over £16.8million! Could you imagine driving something that valuable on the public roads? Only the bravest, and richest, dare apply…