Keep in mind, the 917/30 that just sold at Gooding & Co. auction at Amelia Island went for $4.4 mil, and that particular car was a backup car, with very little racing history and had been repainted to Sunoco livery. This car is not as rare (I believe somewhere between 5 and 7 917/30's were ever made) but this car has more history and provenance, although not that great of a w/l record. Nonetheless, it stands as an iconic machine that would be a crown jewel in anyone's collection.

I love this car, but would still rather have the 917/30

 

Unbelievable. One of a kind car.

 

I actaully don't expect any kind of record sales number for this car. It will almost surely sell for less than the road cars have been lately and they are hitting about $4M these days or sometimes a bit less.

There's a pretty limited market for people looking for something like this GTR. The longtails are generally regarded as not being capable of road conversion. There's also very limited use potential right now (not elligible for many historic racing events yet) and relative to other retired racing cars one could choose, these are said to be rather expensive to run. Additionally, when this car was for sale in Japan it was without any spares which makes using it even more difficult. It has basically been on the market at a rumored $4M asking price since 2008 and if someone were really clamoring to have it in their collection it would be there already.

All that said, it will be quite interesting to see what happens but my initial feeling is that bidding on the car will fall somewhere around $3M USD or slightly more, which may not be enough to complete a sale that day. With a better set of race results, more well known drivers or some history of racing at Le Mans the car would fare a little better than that. The things it has going for it are the very impressive and iconic Gulf livery and it's in impeccable condition.

It does wear the very last chassis number for GTRs as #28R - but this car's chassis actually started life as #27R. That chassis was damaged during shipping and so the monocoques had their numbers swapped so the damaged one could be repaired and the other car could be delivered to its customer. I haven't seen this particular fact mentioned in any of Bonhams information yet but I assume they will make it clear by the time the catalog gets published.

All in all, it is exciting to see this car coming to market and I am eager to see it myself when the Monterey weeked rolls around, but if this sale exceeds $4M I might be a little more than surprised by the results.

>8^)
ER

 

This is the car thats been sitting for sale at Bingo Sport in Tokyo for the last 5 years?

 

Yes trax.

 

Funny you mention that too - four different GTRs wore this Gulf livery during the 1997 season, though never more than three at one time. Today three of those four longtail GTRs still wear the livery.

This is #20R which placed 2nd overall at the 1997 24Hrs of Le Mans race in 1997, 1st in the GT1 class. It would be the one of the three to have but is part of McLaren's own private collection and kept almost exclusively on the Boulevard inside the McLaren Technology Centre.



This is #22R, part of the new ROFGO Collection of Gulf liveried racing cars put together by Duncan Hamilton for Roald Goethe. It also raced at Le Mans in 1997 and again in 1998 and has a much more extensive and impressive history on the track than the car that will be auctioned.



So it's really 3 of a kind right now.

>8^)
ER

 

$3MM..... that's chump change. Let me cash in one of my CD's!

 

GLWS lol

 

I'm out at 4!

 

Peloton = Mc Laren God