Sure thing - this is chassis #072 and it has been in the USA since June of 2000. The car was one of the last F1s built, finished in early 1998, and first went to a German customer near Hamburg.

I have some pics of it during assembly at the factory and it was originally built as a standard F1 road car. The High Downforce Kit it wears today was added later on (the same is true of all the F1s that wear them), but still while the car was with its German owner. It has always been black and would have had the standard 17" wheels from new. The interior is also probably original.

It came into the USA through Motorcars Intl in Springfield, MO and was sold to a young Silicon Valley executive named Thomas Gonzales Jr who was CTO of a pioneering e-commerce company he had co-founded with his father, Thomas Sr., called Commerce One.

Sadly Thomas Jr passed away from a rare form of cancer in late 2001 at the very young age of 35. His memorial service was held at the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, CA where his prized McLaren F1 and Ferrari F50 were both displayed. The F1 remained there until mid-2002 and then sometime after that it disappeared. The last photos I had of it were discovered online in 2004, but from their source it was unclear when or even where they had been taken.

The car finally resurfaced again in this photo on the duPont Registry's Facebook page early last year - look in the back right corner beyond the SLR:



Also included in the same posting were these other images of the owner's garage:









The massive elevator being a very unique touch - I actually happened to recall reading about it several years earlier, but at the time I certainly didn't know whose home it was connected to or the fact that there was a McLaren F1 hiding down there. It took me about 20 minutes with Google but I found the earlier info I had read and learned it was located in Incline Village, NV. Here's an scanned article that had been shared online from "Elevator World" magazine:

<-- Click to read

One source from Motorcars Intl had told in ~2006 us that #072 was in storage in the Western USA but did not make it clear who owned the car or any other details. I went back to read some of the earlier articles I'd saved in my archive about Thomas' passing and in one it listed his father's home as "Incline Village" which tied it all together.

A little extra research paid off too. Here's a clip from the VH1 show "The Fabulous Life" that offers a very brief glimpse of #072:

VH1 - The Fabulous Life - Sierra Star

So all those details confirmed it was #072 and that his father had indeed retained possession of the car. Up to that point it had basically been MIA so it was great to see it resurface, even if its exact location in the corner of an underground garage probably meant that it wasn't going anywhere soon.

However, in September 2010 the first rumblings of it being for sale came my way. Just one month prior another F1 had changed hands for $3.575M at the Gooding Auction in Pebble Beach, so perhaps Thomas Sr wanted to capitalize on the F1's strong market value and felt it was okay to let go now. I'll add that no less than 10 brokers were offering this car by December - many of them somewhat clueless about the specifics, so I educated a couple of them who came my way for info. The asking price was always around $3.5M and the car was said to have 6,700 miles on it.

Given that it had been parked for so many years I was told that it was not in the greatest condition (the term "rode hard and put away wet" was used by one source) and that it would need extensive servicing before getting back on the road again. I'm not sure if all that work has been done yet (things like changing the rubber fuel tank bladder are serious efforts requiring removal of the engine) but from the images I have seen so far since leaving the garage it has definitely been detailed and it appears it's had a new set of tires fitted which can only be sourced from McLaren.

One contact mentioned the car had been sold prior to its appearance in Boca Raton, but I'm not sure yet if it has been purchased by an individual who plans to keep it a while or if it is still 'on the market'. For all those who got a chance to see it in Boca Raton they should feel pretty honored. I'm certainly jealous because with some advanced notice I would have been there too.

>8^)
ER

 

Always a wealth of knowledge Peloton. It was my contact who took those pictures and got to see the car in person. He told me that it's for sale and I found this listing here:

http://www.anamera.com/en/detail/car...cache=1&ret=63

 

Thanks!

Did you mean that your contact took the eGarage photos I started the thread with or the ones that showed up on the duPont Registry page?

The four pics in that Anamera ad are some of the oldest ones in my collection and actually date back to 2000 when Motorcars Intl had the car. Funny enough someone took the time to photoshop their logo off the wall.



Anyway, that ad you have found is one of many for the car from the different sources I alluded to earlier.

You do leave me wondering if it is not true that the car has already sold? Tom Sr lives in Florida where last I read he runs a yacht company called Shadow Marine. Maybe he was the one displaying the car at the Boca Concours in an effort to lure in some potential buyers? The car definitely looks impressive in these new pics, but I'd be concerned about the maintenance costs that might be lurking under all that carbon?

You should definitely buy it though.

>8^)
ER

 

Truly amazing garage. Same goes for you McLaren knowledge.

 

thanks for sharing...your knowledge on these cars is immense...

 

I didn't see the dupont registry photos but yes those were my photos taken for eG.

Believe me, I'd love to buy it. Just not quite a reality at this point.

 

Awesome.

 

I was only fortunate to see one in my life and that was a Silver F1 in a showroom in London back in 1999.

The rarest cars that I've saw once in my life is the CLK GTR AMG, Mclaren F1, XJ220.