The McLaren F1 is an expensive machine. Not only does it cost tens of millions of pounds to purchase, but thanks to a dwindling parts supply and highly specialised maintenance requirements, it's expensive to maintain, too. A windscreen replacement alone will run you $33,000 (approx. £26,500), Motor1 has learned.
We suspect there are only two people on earth who would actually care about that number: The two McLaren F1 owners whose windscreens cracked during last weekend's Velocity Invitational event at Sonoma Raceway in California. A video published to Instagram from the paddock shows the two cars each sporting sizeable cracks on their respective front windscreens:
A source familiar with McLaren F1 replacement costs confirmed to Motor1 the price for the glass itself is $25,000 (£20,000), plus another $8,000 (£6,500) to cover installation fees. That means the damage in the video above equates to about $66,000 (£53,000) worth of damage. Just for a couple of windscreen cracks.
Another source familiar with F1 parts told Motor1 there are still a small handful of original replacement windscreens sitting in storage at McLaren's headquarters in the United Kingdom, so it's not like these owners will have to shell out to have new pieces made. In fact, this source tells us McLaren Special Operations is planning to engineer and commission new windscreens for the F1, so owners won't be out of luck once the supply runs out in the future.
The windscreen isn't even the first part McLaren has reengineered to elongate the F1's service life. Our source told us the factory has begun producing aluminium fuel tanks and wheels to replace the ageing magnesium units. So if you own an F1, rest assured that you'll never be wanting for factory parts support.
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