Former McLaren Chairman Could Get Paid With 13 Rare Race Cars
McLaren is using 13 of its most valuable historic race cars as collateral in order to rid itself of the last vestiges Ron Dennis’ rule.
In June, McLaren announced it would buy the former chairman’s 25 percent stake in the company and that it had secured $358.4-million in funding to do so. But it now appears the payment will be metered out in installments.
According to Forbes, the second $48.7-million installment owed to Dennis was recently secured through J.P.Morgan by pledging 13 rare and historic McLaren F1 cars as collateral.
The cars in question include the first carbon fiber F1 car, the 1981 MP4/1-1; Niki Lauda’s 1984 championship winning MP4/2-1; Alain Prost’s race winning 1985 MP4/2B-3, 1986 MP4-2C-5, 1988 MP4/4-1 and his championship clinching 1989 MP4/5-5.
ALSO SEE: No Surprise Here: McLaren’s Next Hypercar Will be Mental
There’s also Ayrton Senna’s championship winning MP4/5B-7 from 1990 and his ’91 MP4/6-10, along with the 1993 MP4/8-8, which Senna drove to his last victory before tragically dying less than a year later.
Lastly, there’s Mika Hakkinen’s 1998 and 1999 title winning MP4s, and the 2008 MP4/23A-5 that Lewis Hamilton used to win the first of his three driver’s titles.
Rarest of all, however, is a white 1993 MP4/8-1 test car that was fitted with a woefully underpowered Lamborghini engine.
Dennis would get the cars if McLaren is unable or unwilling to pay the second installment of his buyout, or should the company violate other terms of the security agreement. However, it’s unlikely that Dennis will get the cars as McLaren is controlled by heavy hitters like Bahrain’s Mumtalakat sovereign wealth fund and TAG Heuer CEO Mansour Ojjeh.
More by Michael Accardi
Comments
Join the conversation