McLaren F1: Ron Dennis considered building more orginal F1s to rake in cash

McLaren F1 - Ron Dennis mulled producing more cars

The price of an original McLaren F1 is nothing short of stratospheric. Prices of £3 million, £4 million and more have been paid for one of the 64 F1 cars McLaren made in the 1990s. And with prices like that Ron Dennis considered building more.

Talking at the opening of the Trivett McLaren dealership in Sydney – ahead of today’s Australian Grand Prix – Ron said:

I was very tempted, I’ve got all the old tooling, why don’t I just knock out a few more! Now you’d get screams from the existing owners, but I thought ‘if I make 100…’

And who can blame him? But he resisted (the comment was tongue in cheek) and instead McLaren have focused on the new McLaren F1 – codenamed McLaren P12 – which we expect to be unveiled at the Monaco Grand Prix in May.

On that subject (McLaren’s new halo car) Ron said that they weren’t aiming to compete with the Veyron for top speed and are instead concentrating on making the new F1 look dramatic and perform like no other.

Power – which will come from the same engine as the 12C – is expected to be boosted to around 800bhp, with even more possible from a KERS system. The new F1 will use the same carbon fibre cell as the MP4-12C but its styling will be dramatic and original, unlike the almost generic design of the 12C, and be produced in numbers below 500 a year.

Ron says he hopes the new F1 “…will be hailed as the most innovative, creative supercar of its time…big quantum leap and very different”.

We should learn more at Monaco – if not before.

McLaren F1 Photo Gallery

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(28 photos – click any thumbnail for full gallery)

Source: Drive.com.au