Lewis Hamilton may have secured the 2008 F1 Drivers’ Title on Sunday, but he narrowly missed out on winning his dream car, the McLaren F1 LM.
In March, The Sun newspaper reported that Ron Dennis had promised Lewis the factories own car, on the basis he won both World Championships.
At the time, Hamilton explained that owning a McLaren F1 had been a childhood dream. “The LM has always been my ultimate dream car since I first saw it when I was 13. When I first went to McLaren it was there and I fell in love with it. There are only five LMs in existence and the normal ones the GTR are worth around £1 million so the LM must be double that.â€
However, all is not lost for Hamilton. Should he pick up another two titles he can still win the car, based upon an agreement he made when he first joined the team.
“I want to win this car, I want to get this car off Ron. I will definitely work as hard as I can to get to number three,” stated Hamilton, having won title number one. “We made a deal: three world championships and it’s mine.”
“It s a car that I ve always wanted. I got a car book, a nice book for Christmas years and years ago when I was about 10, and it had the orange McLaren F1 LM on the front of it. It was my dream car then. Then I got signed up by McLaren, I went to the factory and saw it and ever since I ve gazed at it every time I ve walked past it.”
“Still today, it s the only car I ever really stop by apart from Ayrton’s 1989 car. I stop by it and I always open it up and just smell it – carbon, fresh, new. It s No 1 out of five and the most expensive and beautiful car in the whole world. It s the one that I want.”
The LM spec McLaren was created to mark the McLaren F1 GTR s victory at Le Mans 24 Hour in 1995. The car, with it’s V12 engine, accelerates to 60 mph in just 2.6 seconds. With just five examples in existance, the rare car is estimated to be worth several million pounds.
