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It’s a sad day for car enthusiasts around the country, as Wheels has reported that the only McLaren F1 in Australia has now been listed for sale overseas.
“Chassis 009″ was spotted boarding an Emirates flight to Dubai after a local buyer could not be found for the one-of-64 supercar. With a reported sale price of AUD$37 million, many believed the Macca was headed to Dubai, but planespotters tracked the precious cargo to Stansted Airport in the UK. It is now said to be in the hands of luxury car dealer, Tom Hartley Jr, based in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire.
The car was delivered to Dean Wills in Sydney in 1994, then-CEO of Coca-Cola Amatil. Wills famously built his own 22-corner, 5.1-kilometre racetrack, “The Farm,” in Kulnara after losing his driver’s license, and we’re sure he enjoyed the car at wide open throttle on numerous occasions. However, no one enjoyed their time at wide open throttle more than the BMW Sydney technical department member who promptly crashed the car after a joyride.
The crash occurred in 1997, but details surrounding it remain a mystery to this day. Many believe it crashed at high speed in West Head. However, all we know for sure is that it was sent back to McLaren in Woking to be repaired, incurring the largest repair bill in Australian history at just under $2 million in today’s money.
The paint was also changed from the original Magnesium Silver after the first crash, but it was again put into a ditch during a 2016 McLaren driving tour from Auckland to Queenstown.
Being a middle-seater, getting the McLaren registered for our roads was a mission. Comments from our social media post on Facebook reveal some of the details, although the validity of this cannot be confirmed.
It is said to have arrived on a ‘Green’ ADR compliance plate and was imported by Monarch Motor Imports, the importer for Bugatti, Lamborghini, TVR, Lotus, and Caterham, of which Dean Wills was also a stakeholder. The AFR published an article about Monarch Motor Imports in 1995, stating, “One McLaren has been sold to New Zealand, but so far, no Australian buyer has handed over the $1.2 million sticker price.”
Further details that we can reveal but not confirm are that the seat is said to have been moved to the right by 3 millimetres to classify it as a right-hand drive vehicle.
Dean Wills offloaded the car to Tony Raftis, who owned Prancing Horse Racing Team, and later sold it to Barry Fitzgerald, the last-known owner. Fitzgerald had owned the car for two decades before it was put on the Emirates flight to the UK in August 2025.
Now that it’s headed overseas, the McLaren F1 is unlikely to ever return to Australian soil.
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