There’s Only 1 Mechanic in the U.S. Certified to Repair the $20 Million McLaren F1
The McLaren F1 remains one of the world’s rarest cars ever to hit the road. With values continuing to skyrocket over the last decade, these McLaren owners have to ensure these cars remain in excellent condition. In most cases, this means only trusting a factory-certified technician for all of your service needs. While choosing your technician might seem like a small detail, a wonky service history could seriously impact your car’s value.
If you’ve got one of these ultra-rare hypercars, there is only one man in the U.S. capable of servicing them. According to Road and Track, his name is Kevin Hines, and he works largely by himself in a secret McLaren workshop.
How much does a McLaren F1 cost?
As you might imagine, nailing the exact value of a McLaren F1 largely comes down to which specific car we’re talking about. In the 1990s, a total of 106 cars left the assembly line. Out of this total production run, only 64 of these cars were road legal. The remaining units were race cars featuring a variety of different trims and bodywork.
According to RM Sotheby’s, a McLaren F1 LM sold in 2019 became the world’s most valuable example sold, coming in just shy of $20 million. If you’re looking at a “normal” road-going example, you could be looking at anywhere between $12 and $14 million.
As you might imagine, the car’s rarity and provenance undoubtedly have led to its massive appreciation. However, pricing varies greatly based on mileage and the car’s service history. Unlike most normal road cars, the McLaren F1 needs an elevated amount of service to keep it running properly. This is where Hines and his shop come in.
The only certified mechanic works out of a hidden workshop
If you wanted to get your McLaren F1 serviced up until recently, you had to rely on one of two U.S. service centers managed by BMW. This is because the F1 houses a naturally-aspirated BMW V12 in the middle. However, as Road and Track report, the German carmaker shut down these centers, leaving these hypercar owners with an unusual dilemma.
Instead of shipping cars back and forth to England, McLaren opted to create a service center for the U.S. F1 fleet. The workshop is based in Philadelphia, and it has just one technician in it. As mentioned before, Hines is the only factory-trained F1 technician in the entire U.S.
Hines was the perfect candidate to receive this factory training since he already had plenty of experience working on McLaren and BMW’s cars. Since the F1 is mostly analog, it takes a special amount of finesse to get it running perfectly. Hines describes the hypercar as needing unique servicing procedures to extract its maximum performance.
To keep customer anonymity, the workshop is housed in a secret location where no one can take photos. In fact, Hines works almost entirely by himself, constantly taking these $20 million machines apart.
What about if you want to service a McLaren P1?
As you might imagine, Hines isn’t just trained to work on the McLaren F1. In fact, Road and Track report that Hines can also work on newer hypercars such as the P1. While the original story covering Hines’ work is a few years old, we’d imagine he currently works on a variety of the brand’s newest hypercars as well.
