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One of only two McLaren F1s in LM-Specification headed for auction in Monterey

Of all the McLaren F1s out there (106 of them, including racecars and other variants), this 1994 F1 in LM-Specification is about as special as they get. Incredibly, it’s going up for auction in Monterey at the RM SothebyÂ’s auction house during Monterey Car Week. Why a McLaren F1 owner would ever want to sell their car is beyond us, but weÂ’re sure the millions of dollars on the other side of the gavel look pretty alright. This F1 happens to be one of two in existence in LM-Specification. In case you werenÂ’t familiar with the model, McLaren upgraded two standard F1 road cars to this particular specification at the factory after the production run had finished. That means the engine was upgraded to the unrestricted 680-horsepower GTR spec. An extra-high downforce kit was also added, consisting of a huge rear wing, revised nose and different front fender vents. Other differences between this and a normal F1 include race-spec dampers and springs adjusted to their softest settings, 17-inch wheels, a transmission cooler, two more radiators and a modified exhaust system. What it doesnÂ’t have is the barren interior from the hardcore LM. Instead, McLaren gave it an upgraded air conditioning system, radio, new headlights and a different steering wheel. That means you have the more aggressive performance with a slightly more comfortable living space, a combination we like. McLaren says it made all these changes over two rounds of modifications in 2000 and 2001. The car was also repainted from its original blue to the silver you see now in that timeframe.  This particular F1 has 13,352 miles on the odometer, and it has been given a full written history and evaluation by MSO. WeÂ’re sure itÂ’s going to nab many millions of dollars. To whoever ends up purchasing this fine McLaren, we envy you greatly.

Limited-edition McLaren Elva receives heritage-laced Gulf livery

McLaren tapped into its vast racing heritage to create a Gulf-themed version of the limited-edition Elva. Its partnership with the Pennsylvania-based oil company began in the 1960s, and it continues to this day. Like every Gulf-colored car released over the past few decades, the Elva receives light blue paint with orange accents. It's not the first model to feature this color combination, and it's undoubtedly not the last, but it wears it particularly well. It's not fitted with a windshield — it doesn't need one, according to McLaren — so the separation between the exterior and the interior is blurred, and even the dashboard and the door panels are light blue. Photos of the interior haven't been released, but we spot a pair of white seats separated by a Gulf-colored panel. Oddly, the car is not equipped with a rear-view mirror. McLaren Special Operations (MSO) has already applied heritage-inspired paint colors to two examples of the Elva, and both wore a dashboard-mounted mirror. McLaren announced plans to make 399 units of the Elva, but it dropped that number to 249 after analyzing feedback from its customers. Pricing starts at $1.7 million, and the Gulf-themed model displayed at the SpeedWeek event held on England's Goodwood track illustrates one way to customize the roadster. MSO's earlier creations paid homage to Bruce McLaren's 1964 M1A race car and his 1967 M6A racer, respectively. Ansar Ali, MSO's managing director, explained the Gulf-colored Elva celebrates the renewed partnership between McLaren and Gulf. Customers are now able to order the historic blue and orange combination directly from the factory regardless of whether they're buying an Elva, a 765LT, or another one of the British company's models. SpeedWeek starts today and runs through October 18. Spectators are exceptionally banned from the event due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but you can catch all of the action online. We're expecting to see a handful of new car launches, timed supercar laps, a huge auction, and, of course, dozens of race cars going flat-out. Related Video:

How McLaren will double its output this year

McLaren Automotive is aiming to almost double its output this year, to 3,000 cars, and hit 4,000 cars per year by 2017. That's over 50 percent of Ferrari's annual production, yet the current McLaren Automotive is only six years old, based about 40 miles southwest of London in Woking. In pursuance of its lofty plans, McLaren recently announced a massive expansion its operations and is hiring another 250 assembly staff for a second shift, which will bring its total headcount to 1,750. Is it chutzpah, or rank stupidity? McLaren made just 1,654 cars last year, including the last of the 570-strong run of P1 supercars, which had an average transaction price of $1.35 million each, and all 40 or so track-only P1 GTRs, which sold for over $288 million. January saw the last P1 GTRs running down the track at Woking. Is it chutzpah, or rank stupidity? And while these cars cannot have been cheap to design and build, it's not hard to see how profitable they will have been. Given that much of the research and development (R&D) will have been amortized in the years up to the 2013 launch of the P1, the profit level has soared in subsequent years. In 2014, its second year of profit and under the leadership of chief executive Mike Flewitt, McLaren Automotive generated a profit before tax of $21.7 million, compared to $6.53 million in 2013. Turnover grew from $413.6 million in 2013 to $688.9 million in 2014. To be fair, the company is investing almost 20 percent of that turnover in R&D ($132.9 million in 2014, $97 million in 2013) and it says that level of spend as a proportion of turnover will continue, with last year's R&D cost estimated at $173.7 million. View 22 Photos In its defense, McLaren says that as a late comer it is still growing in China, which Flewitt has said could well be McLaren's second largest market in 2016 after the US and ahead of the UK and Germany. He also says that the company's growth plans are based on actual orders rather than theoretical expectations, and that since it is (and has been) profitable at 1,500 cars per year, there is some protection against a downturn. But the cars it has to sell this year are a far cry from the exotic and phantasmagorical P1 or the P1 GTR, which were only sold to existing P1 owners. The Sports Series, while being based on shared carbon-fiber tub and the same Ricardo-built 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine and seven-speed twin-clutch transmission, is a much cheaper car.