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Eighteen-year-old, but close-to-new, McLaren for sale

4 May, 2016

If you’re like any normal car enthusiast in your 20s or 30s, growing up, you probably idolized the McLaren F1 on video games, such as Gran Turismo. With a single centre seat, New Zealand heritage, and more horsepower than a Pikes Peak Escudo with a stage-four turbo kit, it was one to own. Now, you can buy your very own 1998 example. 

Out of the realms of the affordable, I never thought I would see the day where a vehicle such as this would come up for grabs. Before the internet, I was so separated from such a vehicle, that the only version I could get my hands on involved a plugged in controller, a bag of chips, and an entire weekend. 

Now, though, with the internet connecting every edge of the globe to one monitor, you start to see and hear things that were once only reserved for those in the know. A McLaren F1, in concours condition certainly doesn’t get missed by my watchful eye, and it appears McLaren Special Operations’ Heritage Division is selling one. The most insane part? The mileage. 

This isn’t your flogged out, been-around-the-block example. No, this example is in as-new condition with only 2800 miles on the clock. McLaren has made it clear that the vehicle will be sold as-new, too. What this means for prospective buyers, is that you will receive your 18-year-old McLaren with all the extras as it was released from the factory. 

Unfortunately, McLaren hasn’t listed a price for the McLaren yet, but, if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it — much like myself. Back to playing video games it is! 

Images: McLaren

Almost mythical pony

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.