James Hunt’s last race-winning McLaren goes on sale

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The car James Hunt raced to his last ever Formula One victory is set to go on sale on at auction.

The McLaren M26 he drove to victory in the 1977 Japanese Grand Prix is expected to sell for up to £1.12m ($1.8m).

After claiming the championship in 1976 Hunt won three times the following year to finish fifth in the drivers championship. Niki Lauda reclaimed the championship he had lost to Hunt the year before.

Hunt’s final victory came at Fuji, the scene of the thrilling conclusion to the championship in pouring rain the year before. That should have been his third win in a row, as he had also taken victory at Watkins Glen two races earlier.

In the intervening race at Mosport, Hunt was on course for victory after taking the lead from Mario Andretti. But he then crashed out while trying to lap team mate Jochen Mass. A furious Hunt shook his fist at Mass for several laps, then punched a marshal who tried to prevent him from crossing the track.

The Ford Cosworth-powered M26 took until the latter stages of the season to become competitive. McLaren ended the season third in the points standings behind Ferrari and Lotus.

The car, chassis number three, will be sold on Saturday at the RK Motors Collector Car Auction at the Emirates Palace Hotel near the Yas Marina circuit which hosts this weekend’s round of the championship.

If you’re in the market for a used F1 car you should know Michael Schumacher’s 1997 Ferrari F310B is also up for sale.

Pictures: McLaren M26

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Images © RK Motors Collector Car Auction

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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24 comments on “James Hunt’s last race-winning McLaren goes on sale”

  1. Kimi should buy this since he´s such a Hunt fan! XD

    1. Parmane will be on the radio telling him to keep the **** away :P

  2. That auction is incredible. Couple of Champ Cars on there, and a truckload of hot rods and muscle cars. Plus, oddly, a couple of mid 00’s BMWs. But still, well worth a flick through.

    1. man, there are some crazy cars in that auction… I would buy a few if I had a endless credit limit on a repayment-free credit card! :)

    2. I wouldn’t mind taking this one for a spin on the race track.

    3. The 528i boggles the mind. Also that 2012 Mitsubishi Eclipse in the same auction as F1 and champ cars is quite odd.

  3. >”That should have been his third win in a row, as he had also taken victory at Watkins Glen two races earlier.”
    That’s pretty useless to say. What’s the purpose of this sentence? That would have been his 17th win in a row, if he had won all the races…

  4. maarten.f1 (@)
    30th October 2013, 11:23

    It kind of saddens me that McLaren is auctioning this off. Anyone know the reason why? Is it for charity maybe?

    1. Probably a good time to sell a Hunt car with Rush at the cinemas.

      @maarten-f1

      1. Well, a massive coincidence for me as I just saw it last night, and when this crops up it all seemed to make a lot more sense!

        1. Ha, I saw it two days ago, and the cinema was almost full on a Monday night (granted, it was not in the largest hall but still!)

    2. It’s probably not McLaren selling it, more likely a private collector

    3. Andrew Hardiman
      30th October 2013, 13:52

      you are assuming McLaren is the owner…

    4. It’s probably owned by a private collector. If it was McLaren it owned I can’t imagine it would still have the Marlboro logos on there – they’ve removed those from all their cars

  5. Actually saw this today on a classic f1 sales website. A more interesting car i saw there, currently for sale, is a ferrari f2002. Guiding range was $2.2m – $2.6m. A man can dream…

    1. Ooooh wouldn’t mind an F2002! One of the (if not the) fastest F1 cars, and most spectacularly historic ones!

      1. Yep, time to bust out the lottery tickets!

  6. I’m gonna have the pleasure of seeing this tomorrow

  7. Although the M26 looks wonderfully 70’s, it’s pretty ugly.

  8. Oh my, I only have 1.5 mil !

  9. Cheaper than buying a sports car in Singapore!

  10. £1.12 million on one of the ugliest f1 cars ever lol

  11. some people may want to lynch me for this, but that is a truly fugly car.

  12. It’s amazing that such a pretty car like the M23 spawned this monster, still, a very important car.

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