Rowan Atkinson Sells His McLaren F1 For $12 Million
By Paulo Acoba
It’s been a long time coming for this particular McLaren F1 owned by one Rowan Sebastian Atkinson, more commonly known as Mr. Bean, but Mr. Atkinson has finally sold his beloved supercar for the tidy sum of $12 million (or €8 million), according to Taylor and Crawley earlier yesterday (June. 9, 2015.) Owned for more than 17 years with 41,000 miles on the odometer (the most anyone’s ever driven a McLaren F1 mind you) and in two major accidents later and this particular McLaren F1 still commanded a pretty penny from the reported British driver who bought it. And talk about an ROI. The original price of a ’98 McLaren F1 cost around $1 million when it came out (or about $1.4 million today.) Click here to read the actual sales brochure!
How does one begin to describe a man’s relationship with his car. For those who knew Rowan Atkinson, they all knew how much he loved his McLaren F1. After all, since he bought it, he’s used it as his daily driver wherever he went. According to David Clark who handled the sale in the official sales brochure, Clark states how, “I’m not sure anyone has enjoyed 41,000 miles in a McLaren F1 (apart from a couple of miles where different things happened!) more than Rowan Atkinson. He is one of the most enthusiastic car owners I have ever met, a real user of his cars and that is how he derives his enjoyment: from the using, not the having.”
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And why did Mr. Bean finally decide to sell such a jewel? For one, the resurgence of McLaren’s product lineup signaled the rise in price of these treasured vehicles. There were only 100 ever made with 64 being sold with five set aside for racecar duties thanks to homologation, so it’s not like there are a lot of these roaming around. But his own words tell a much more sentimental side of this decision, ” I bought it for the quality of the thinking behind it. Now it has become a thing of value, it is time for someone else to enjoy it.” In the natural order of life, things come and go. Mr. Atkinson had his time with the car, and like all things worth taking cared for it’s always a good thing to share that with someone else.
McLaren F1’s were known for their analog speed. Give it the full beans (pun intended) and you’ll reach 241 MPH courtesy of its 6.1 liter BMW derived V12 pumping out 627 HP and 480 lbs-ft of torque. Check out a couple of video’s below of Rowan Atkinson’s beloved F1 being driven, spotted and all-around adored below.