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Tracking Down the Missing El Chapo McLaren F1 Is as Thrilling as It Sounds

During the course of six years, McLaren made only 106 McLaren F1s, which makes them incredibly rare, incredibly expensive and incredibly desirable for wealthy car collectors. None of them holds a candle to the El Chapo McLaren, though.
The McLaren F1 chassis #39 has hardly ever been photographed, no one knows where it is 4 photos
Photo: YouTube / VINWiki
The McLaren F1 chassis #39 has hardly ever been photographed, no one knows where it isThe McLaren F1 chassis #39 has hardly ever been photographed, no one knows where it isThe McLaren F1 chassis #39 has hardly ever been photographed, no one knows where it is
Seeing a McLaren F1 is a very rare sight, since their rare status means they’re often displayed behind locked doors or at exclusive events attended only by the who’s who of the world. Seeing this particular McLaren is a pipe dream, since it’s been missing since the late ‘90s and has almost effectively slipped off the face of the earth.

Ed Bolian, founder of VINWiki, believes he may have tracked it down, and his story is the most thrilling thing you’re likely to hear today. You can check it out in full in the video below.

The McLaren F1 chassis #39 presents a very unique combination of Brazilian Metallic Brown paint with red leather interior and (now) gold wheels, for which reason it’s considered one of the least attractive F1s ever made. Completed sometime in late 1995, it was deemed down-right ugly by the missus when McLaren CEO Ron Dennis brought it home – so much so that she barred him from owning it.

Dennis chose another F1 and had this one shipped to the UK, where it would remain for the next few years. By 1997, chassis #39 ended up in Mexico, presumably in the possession of one of El Chapo’s highest-ranking lieutenants. El Chapo being, of course, the El Chapo, Joaquin Guzman himself, who ran Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel for years. How the F1 ended up there is uncertain, but Bolian says it was most definitely paid for with drug money.

For almost nine months this year, Bolian was on a self-described treasure hunt for chassis #39, which he estimated would now be worth $1.5-$2 million max – a fraction of what a regular, non-El Chapo-touched F1 could sell for (some are estimated at $21 million, for comparison). He claims to have found out that the family of the owner misplaced the key and tried to get McLaren to sell them a new one sometime in 2004, but balked at how much they were being charged for it ($200,000-$300,000 for the key alone, because they couldn’t provide documentation of ownership).

Without a key, they decided to hide the car in rural Sinaloa, under a tarp. At some point, the car disappeared, quite literally so.

And here’s the craziest part of the story: Bolian has a theory that, despite his desperate efforts to track down the car in Mexico, it might not even be there in the first place. There’s another F1 with the same license plate (“P440 CPJ”) as chassis #39 in the UK, the McLaren F1 GTR chassis 6R, known as the Harrods McLaren.

Bolian says that the collector who owns the UK McLaren probably found a way to get chassis #39 out of Mexico and has it hidden away in some secret vault, never to see the light of day again. Either that, or he’s using the license plate as a means to keep his own McLaren street-legal.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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