Ultimate McLaren F1 GTR

If ever a car model could be considered to have had a charmed life, it is surely the McLaren F1 GTR. First, because neither chief engineer Gordon Murray nor company boss Ron Dennis initially wanted the F1 to be used for racing in any form; and second, because the realisation that superseded GTR race cars could be made very usable on the road with comparatively little effort transformed their values. By the end of the 1990s, the F1 GTR was no longer a front-runner in International competition and prices had dipped accordingly but, when Nick Mason bought chassis 10R and had it converted for road use, the floodgates were opened and a GTR is now worth more than a standard road car as a result.

The definitive account of the F1 road cars is still– available for £250 from our sponsor Hortons Books – and now we have a superb two-volume slipcased history of the GTRs, written by former Eurosport TV presenter and journalist Mark Cole. He has watched the GTR’s fortunes wax and wane, then wax again, from the initial press launch in 1995, through its stunning one-three-four-five placings at Le Mans the same year, to its swansong appearance in domestic Japanese series in the early 2000s and its current resurgence as a valued collector’s item. And the depth of his research is faultless.