Ever wanted to own one of Ayrton Senna’s actual race cars? Well, if you’ve got a few million bucks laying around now could be your chance, because one of the McLaren MP4/8 chassis that he raced in 1993 is being auctioned off by Bonhams in May.
After finishing second with chassis number six in the Spanish Grand Prix, Senna used the car to go on and secure a record sixth victory in Monaco, a result that surprisingly saw him end up leading the championship.
Senna didn’t really want to drive for McLaren in 1993 as he didn’t think the car (with its underpowered Ford engine) was worthy of his talents, and instead of signing a contract for the whole year famously drove for the team on a race-by-race basis. He ended up doing the full season anyway and ended up putting in some of his most famous drives – including that immense wet-weather performance at Donington Park – on his way to second in the championship behind Alain Prost.
The car being sold is in complete running order and is expected to fetch around €5 million. Chances are it could go for a lot more though – last year Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F2001 was expected to sell for $5 million but ended up going for $7.5 million, a record for a modern F1 car. It wouldn’t be that surprising to see a similar thing happen with this McLaren – after all, how often does one of the most iconic F1 cars of all time pop up for sale?!
