At the Sonoma Historics this past weekend, Tom Price was there with his Red/light tan (don't know the name of the interior color) F1, but tucked back in the corner was another Red F1, this one with Reb/Black interior. There was quite a crowd around the owner and he was letting some kids sit in the driver's seat. I was able to ask him the chassis number of the car. It is number 41. If any of you want jpegs of these pics, pm me your email and I will be happy to send them.

 

Eric, please email those high res to me!!!! All of them!

 

I would also like the originals if you don't mind - my screenname @hotmail is my email address.

Unfortunately you were misinformed on the chassis number. 041 was one of several chassis numbers that were skipped over by McLaren during the F1's production run. You can see all the valid chassis numbers here:

McLaren F1 Chassis Index « QV500

This car you saw is actually chassis #042. It originally belonged to Carl Beal in Midland, TX and appeared twice in Road&Track magazine while it was still silver. Shortly before Mr Beal sold the F1 (in 2005 IIRC) he had the car resprayed in Rosso Corsa to match his Ferrari Enzo and had the interior retrimmed as you see it today.

I also suspect you did not meet the current owner of this car. He's a very private individual but does allow Scott Drnek of Virtuoso Performance to display the car at motorsport events alongside their support rig. That is probably who was allowing folks to check it out.

>8^)
ER

 

^

 

Here's a handful of photos showing #042 prior to the respray:



>8^)
ER

 

HOLY ****!!!!

 

That respray retrim was a bad move IMO.

 

Agree 100%. Why make the F1 look like the Enzo and not the other way around? F1 >>>>>> Enzo

 

Yep, silver is perfect on that car, which is the perfect car.

 

Just occurred to me that one of my favorite pieces of info to share with fellow enthusiasts doesn't yet appear in this thread. Many may already know it, but for those who don't it can be quite helpful when spotting F1s.

Below is the perfect trio of images to instruct people on where to locate the chassis plate in a McLaren F1. Click each image to enlarge. I am sure the original photographer didn't necessarily intend for them to be used for this, but they serve the purpose wonderfully:

--> -->

If the doors don't happen to be open it is possible to read and photograph the chassis plate through the right side window or through the windshield as these marginal shots I took of XP4 display:





Here's a much better result through the side glass with Jay Leno's F1:



Generally speaking if you can get close enough to the car to look in the window you should be able to spot the chassis number. There are a couple of GTRs which have switch panels obscuring the chassis plate (#01R and #10R for instance) but otherwise this is a sure bet on every McLaren F1.

There is also a VIN plate inside the engine compartment that is possible to photograph if the upper engine cover is lifted. Here is an example of the plate:



And here is a photo showing roughly where it is located. As you can see, it's not something you would generally notice unless you knew to look for it there.



>8^)
ER