Ayrton Senna's 1993 Monaco-winning McLaren MP4/8 Sold For EUR 4.2 Million

As far as Ayrton Senna is concerned, 1993 was one of his most lucrative years in the king of motorsports. Even though Alain Prost won his fourth and final title that year, the Brazilian racing driver racked up five wins.
The highlight, however, was that time at Donington Park in which Senna drops to fifth at the start, then works his way up to first by the end of the first lap, overtaking Alain Prost as well. In the rain!

The race that interests us today, however, is the 1993 Monaco Grand Prix. Prost and Schumacher qualified first and second, with Senna on third in his McLaren-Ford, 0.995 seconds off the leader. In the race, however, the Brazilian made easy work of his rivals, crossing the line on first after 78 laps.

Little did Ayrton know but Monaco 1993 would be his fifth consecutive win in Monte Carlo and sixth overall, as well as his last win at the world’s most celebrated street circuit. The MP4/8 is the car that helped Senna snatch victory from the more successful Williams FW15C. And the car Senna drove, chassis MP4/8-6 with, has just been sold for €4,197,500 including  buyer's premium to Bernie Ecclestone, the former head honcho of Formula 1.

An achingly beautiful piece of 1990s motorsport, the MP4/8 tips the scales at 505 kilograms and rolls on Goodyear slicks. In combination with the 3.5-liter Ford V8 with Cosworth know-how and the semi-automatic transmission, the McLaren proved to be reasonably competitive against the Williams.

Mika Hakkinen started his venture at McLaren with the MP4/8 as well, promoted to the Woking-based outfit after two years of promising struggle at Lotus. 1991 IndyCar champion Michael Andretti, the son of 1978 Formula 1 world champion Mario Andretti, raced the car too in his only season in F1.

On that note, what would you do with Senna’s Monaco-winning MP4/8? If you were asking me, the single-seater Macca would look good on the ceiling of my living room as a glorified chandelier.