Jay Leno gives us a rare opportunity to have a listen at the naturally aspirated 6.1-liter V12 engine of his McLaren F1 without the exhaust system on, in his latest restoration vlog.
As with every supercar of this caliber, the McLaren F1 comes with an eye-popping maintenance schedule that includes replacing the fuel cell every five years. In order to do so, the engine has to come off, raising service bills to stratospheric levels.
If you have a McLaren F1 though, chances are that you are not going to lose your sleep over the service costs because you have the keys to perhaps the most legendary car of the previous century.
Values have been steadily increasing over the past two decades, with examples changing hands for $15 million to $20-plus million. With only 64 road-legal F1s ever produced in a total production run of 106 examples, values will not settle for the foreseeable future so spending $100k for a fuel cell seems somehow reasonable.
Plus, it’s a good opportunity to check the car and make sure that everything is in working order, just in case you want to take it for a spin.
Jay Leno also walks us through his ongoing restoration projects, which include beauties like a 1958 Chrysler Imperial, a 1916 ReVere, a restomodded Detroit Electric, and more, sharing at the same time details about them that often go unnoticed.