Nick Mason's One-of-a-Kind 'Pop Art' McLaren F1 GTR Heads to RM Sotheby's Monterey SaleFew cars carry a story as improbable as chassis 10R. This 1996 McLaren F1 GTR is the only example ever finished in the factory's scarlet-and-yellow pop art livery, and it spent the last 25 years in the collection of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason before quietly changing hands in 2024. Now it's headed to auction, with RM Sotheby's offering the car at its Monterey sale on August 15 with a pre-auction estimate in excess of $35 million.From Le Mans Winner to 1996 GTRThe McLaren F1 GTR exists because customers wanted to race what was already the fastest, most obsessively engineered road car ever built. Gordon Murray's F1 was never designed with competition in mind, but its carbon-fiber tub and BMW-sourced V12 made it a natural fit for GT racing once McLaren agreed to homologate a handful of examples for the BPR Global GT Series. That decision paid off almost immediately: chassis 01R won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright in 1995, on the model's first attempt at the race, a feat Murray has said was tougher than any of his Formula 1 title campaigns.Success bred competition, and the 1996 season brought faster rivals like the Porsche 911 GT1. McLaren answered with a revised GTR featuring extended bodywork, a more aggressive front splitter, and a magnesium gearbox housing that shaved 38 kilograms off the car's weight. Only nine examples were built to this 1996 specification, and chassis 10R was the first of them, retained by the factory as a development and promotional car rather than sold to a private racing team.The Factory's Own PrototypeThat factory ownership is what gave 10R its identity. Works drivers including 1995 Le Mans winner JJ Lehto and David Brabham tested the car at Magny-Cours and later at the Circuit de la Sarthe, where it ran in pre-qualifying for the 1996 race and turned laps during official testing before sister chassis 11R was chosen for the event itself. McLaren also used 10R for promotional duty at BPR rounds, wrapping it in the bold red and yellow graphics that made it instantly recognizable and, eventually, earned it the "Pop Art F1" nickname.Nick Mason's Quarter-Century CustodianshipMcLaren converted 10R for road use before it was sold in 1999 to Nick Mason, whose garage already included a Ferrari 250 GTO, a Bugatti Type 35, and a Porsche 962 among other historically significant machines. Mason kept the McLaren for a quarter century, sending it back to Lanzante Limited after nearly every outing and funding two separate restorations, including one following an on-track excursion at a Goodwood Members' Meeting. That level of care is a big part of why 10R is considered one of the best-preserved F1 GTRs in existence today.What Hagerty's Data Says About the MarketBecause so few F1 GTRs ever come up for sale, there's no dedicated price history to lean on, but the road-going McLaren F1 offers a useful reference point. Hagerty's valuation tools currently peg a #3-condition 1996 F1 at roughly $20.5 million, and recent public sales back that up: a 1994 example brought $25.3 million through RM Sotheby's in December 2025, while a 1995 car sold for just over $20.4 million at Gooding & Company in 2021. Against that backdrop, the $35 million-plus estimate on 10R reflects the premium buyers will pay for genuine racing pedigree, factory history, and a paint scheme that exists on exactly one car in the world.Monterey Car Week AwaitsChassis 10R will cross the block during Monterey Car Week, the same stretch of California coastline that regularly produces the biggest results of the collector car calendar, and it joins a run of significant 1990s hypercars testing the market this year, including the ex-Sultan of Brunei Jaguar XJ220 that surfaced on Hagerty Marketplace earlier this month. Whatever 10R ultimately brings on August 15, it's likely to reset expectations for what a McLaren F1 GTR is worth.AdvertisementAdvertisement⚡️ Read the full article on MotoriousSign up for the Motorious Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
