RM Sotheby’s is a big name in the car auction world, collating some of the most valuable and rare cars of all time. The auction house has just hosted the ‘Monterey auction’, a weekend long event putting some of the most sought-after cars under the hammer. One of the hottest items was the 1994 McLaren F1 ‘LM-Specification’.
The holy grail super car went for a whopping US $19.8 million, the highest price ever for an auctioned McLaren. This figure however was still slightly under the pre-auction estimate of between US $21 millon and US $23 million.
If you’re unsure just how crazy McLaren’s 1994 F1 was, it had a top speed of around 240 mph. 240 mph back in 1994, let that sink in for a moment. That’s a stat that contends with hypercars being built these days. That’s faster than a Lamborghini Aventador.
Only 64 street-legal F1s were ever built, making it an already elusive vehicle. Only six track-only LM-spec versions have ever existed also, and an even smaller ‘TWO’ cars have both the LM-spec and the ability to drive on actual roads.
This is one of those two.
The LM-Specification was introduced in honour to the F1 GTRs that got McLaren its first 24 Hours of Le Mans win back in 1995. The LM thus stands for ‘Le Mans’.
What this celebratory spec did was soup up an already ridiculously zippy car. It rammed into the car a GTR 6.1 litre V-12, which gave 680 horsepower to play with. This is an extra 62 horsepower on the standard F1 cars.
The LM-spec also came with an extra large rear wing and vents on the front fenders, plus cool 18-inch wheels pulled right from the F1 GTR.
V-12, track-car wheels, 680 horsepower? This all gives the impression of a car with a stripped back interior and a seating solution about as comfortable as an economy flight middle seat.
This car however has a cream leather interior, with Alcantara accents, not to mention an actual radio and CD-player. Yep, it’s both stupidly fast and stupidly lux. It’s kind of like a Bugatti Chiron but from 1994.
If you’ve been paying attention to this article, and we hope you have, you may notice this car from 1994 has the LM-spec, but the Le Mans win wasn’t till a year later. That’s because this car didn’t get the LM touch-up till 1999 when the then-owner sent it to McLaren.
Standing as only the second car to ever get the LM spec and be road legal, this car is seen as one of the rarest supercars of all time.
Take a look at the video below, where the previous owner, Andrew Bagnall, talks about the super cool car.
The auction took place on August 15-17 at the Monterey Conference Center in California.
