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Apparently, there are PLENTY of people around the globe who will pay that and more! For more than 99% of the world’s population, however, that’s an event that is difficult to even begin to conceive. Bugatti, Lamborghini, Aston Martin… those are just a few in the million-dollar club. McLaren stands among (in not above) them and brings its own uniqueness to the lineup.
In 1953, at the age of 15, Bruce McLaren retrofitted an Austin 7 Ulster (all on his own!) into a racing spec and won his first ever race. By the time he hit 22, he became the youngest race car driver to ever win a formula one race in history. In 1963 he began his own company; Bruce McLaren Motor Racing, LTD. At the time, it was all about the racetrack, but Bruce had a vision of bringing racing technology to street cars. He was a dreamer and a visionary. In 1970 when the first street McLaren was in the prototyping stage, he died in a crash while testing a new race car. The McLaren M6GT prototype was shelved, but the vision and the dream did not die with Bruce.
Bruce McLaren Motor Racing went on and eventually, McLaren Cars was born… but this wasn’t until 1990. When they did finally come together with the intention of revisiting Bruce’s dream, they spent 10 straight hours in the boardroom in an effort to stay true to the McLaren vision, but in a way, they could move the vision forward. Engineers at BMW worked with McLaren Cars to develop a fantasy engine that delivered a 6.1 V12 with over 600 HP all the while leaving turbo technology in the dust.
If things weren’t expensive enough already, here’s where it gets turned up a notch. To handle the extensive heat produced by the awesome V12, they turned to solid gold to keep things cool. While this seemed a bit insane, this wasn’t a project focused on saving money. It was a project focused on creating the most awesome race-track-to-road crossover possible. They sure as hell weren’t going to skimp on materials. And talk about not skimping… carbon fiber, baby. Oh, yeah. The first street-car manufacturer to do so because they wanted to keep things light, yet with the best strength to weight ratio than even steel.
So, in 1993 the first McLarens were manufactured and sold. They were the F1s. Can you guess why F1? You’re so smart… you got it! Formula One. The McLaren F1 was one of the very few multi-million-dollar supercars build in the ‘90’s. You could have picked one up for just a little over a million bucks. What an investment that would have been considering that if you had purchased one in 1993, you could quite possibly sell it today for somewhere between 13-24 million. That’s dollars. 13 to 24 million dollars. Not only would you have been the most popular kid at the party, you would have been the first one there AND you’d now be retired living on the island you just bought.
This technology was so incredible that it is still used in the McLaren’s of today. And guess what? If you’re into saving the planet and will only drive a hybrid, you’re in luck. As long as you are a multi-millionaire, you can have your hybrid and still get a speeding ticket. Packed with a wholloping 600 horsepower and topping out at over 200 MPH, you’d never know you were in a hybrid. McLaren expects to go fully hybrid by 2025 while never sacrificing performance. The line of McLaren streetcars has some of the coolest ever speedsters designed and brought to the streets. If you ever have an opportunity to get behind the wheel of one, it would be an unforgettable experience to say the least. Talk about slaying it at your high school reunion!