Other than Nick Mason and Rowan Atkinson, who else owns an F1?
McLaren F1 Owners
stickshift
121 - 140 of 144 Posts
Joined
·
4,404 Posts
"Hoax" is too strong a word, but I think "typical exotic car dealer marketing bullshit" would be accurate.
Dealers in the rare stuff do this kind of thing all the time. The absolutely key thing for them is to get a lead. If they can't get a lead from a seller, the next best thing is to get a lead from a buyer; they then take that lead and go fishing with owners (or actually more often with other dealers and brokers, who might happen to know of a car for sale somewhere) - "I have someone who's interested in your car, might you consider selling it?" That's the game they try to play.
The fact that they have not got for sale the exact car they are advertising is almost irrelevant. They'll just say, "Bad luck. I have a sale agreed on the car that was advertised, but I have another thought because I know a dozen or so F1 owners. What sort of price did you have in mind...?" And so it goes.
Ironically, the above mentioned London dealer David Clark pulled exactly this stunt on me when I responded to an ad he had placed in one of the British magazines. "I don't think that particular car is still for sale, but...blah, blah, blah."
Joined
·
2,435 Posts
They have a website, a call centre number in the UK and one in the USA and more than one email address.
Looks legit to me.
Joined
·
4,404 Posts
It depends on how one interprets language. 'Legit' as in 'not illegal', or as in 'actually is what this Gary Knight hopes the reader will think it is'?
Yes they have a website. I too have a website. There are more than one billion websites. To have a website costs £10 a year. I'm afraid that having a website proves nothing.
To have an email address costs £0 a year. There are many billions of them. I don't know of anyone in my acquaintance who does not have one, or more than one.
The Knight International website has a list of what it grandly calls 'GLOBAL OFFICES'. London is listed, along with a bunch of other cities. All the website gives is an outer London phone number indicated to be a call centre number. A call centre number is not an 'office', it is a person who is paid peanuts to answer the phone for hundreds of unrelated persons.
This fellow may occasionally get involved in the sale of an exotic car, but unless I see some real evidence, in the form of proper physical facilities in all the 'GLOBAL CITIES" in which he claims to have offices (including, he would have us believe, South Africa, France, Turkey, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Germany, Canada and Dubai), I call it BS.
Rather than being the proprietor of a global empire, it is much more likely that this is a guy operating out of his kitchen, or maybe a small one- or two-person rented office space. I wish him no harm, but the claims and implications of his website and advertising are simply not credible.
#001 written off in Namibia testing
#002 crash test car
#004 Brunei car written off by a mechanic
#010 Bernd Pischetschrider's crashed car
#017 Christopher Dawes' car
If I remember correctly.
Joined
·
4,404 Posts
Also chassis #033, written off in high-speed crash on Autobahn.
Indeed, forgot about that one then looked at my notes. For years it was debated whether it was #010 or #033 written off then it was found out that both were.
Joined
·
4,404 Posts
I can assure you that #033 was destroyed. The person who was driving it is one of my best friends. He keeps the damaged steering wheel on a shelf in his den.
Joined
·
3,595 Posts
Given todays values, I am sure it would still be financially viable to build a completely new F1 from the steering wheel out.
Joined
·
4,404 Posts
The cost of creating a car 'from scratch' would be a lot less than the market value, yes, but the factory wouldn't do it without the original chassis plate, which is molded into the resin of the CF tub.
Joined
·
3,595 Posts
Your friend didn't by chance also keep the chassis plate as a memento ?
Joined
·
4,404 Posts
Nice idea, but: no. The car was crushed by McLaren and my friend bought another.
Joined
·
786 Posts
My friend has been offered his own car for sale on at least one occasion... These brokers are a (k)nightmare and waste so much time.
I spoke to a broker about a certain car recently, humouring them, but it turns out that it is a friend (read broker friend) of his who, I was proudly told, had 'actually seen the car'. I contacted a genuine broker I know who personally knows the owner of that car who stated that it was categorically not up for sale...
Joined
·
3,595 Posts
There is just way too much of this BS going on right now.
Does anyone know where #072 is? This is the white one being crashed in Italy in 2014. Was it repaired? I would image it was.
Joined
·
2,435 Posts
Last I heard it was still at MSO
Joined
·
4,404 Posts
Repair is not yet 100% complete, the delay owing to issues that have nothing to do with cars. Chassis #072 is residing in a safe place awaiting resolution of those issues.
Joined
·
2 Posts
They may have the mandate. Who knows? Only way to find out is to get in touch and sign an NDA. I think. I’m just saying.
Joined
·
2 Posts
I don’t think Knight International is a hoax. I heard of them years back.
121 - 140 of 144 Posts
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
