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Rowan Atkinson selling his McLaren F1 for $12M

Likely most associated in the US with his portrayal as the bumbling Mr. Bean, British comedian Rowan Atkinson has been quite an auto fanatic for years, making several appearances and at least one crash at the Goodwood Revival. When not racing or acting, he's known for driving a dark purple McLaren F1, but the supercar is now up for sale. Atkinson isn't just giving it away, though, with an asking price of 8 million pounds ($12 million). Atkinson bought the iconic McLaren new in 1997 but has crashed it at least twice since then. The first was a low-speed hit with an Austin Metro in 1999, but a shunt in 2011 did much more harm. McLaren Special Operations reportedly estimated the cost to rebuild the F1 at 910,000 pounds, and Atkinson's insurance company paid to have it done, according to the Western Daily Press in the UK. Now, the McLaren is up for sale by broker Taylor and Crawley with 41,000 miles on it, though it's not pictured on the company's website, as of this writing. "Apart from the accidents, I think Rowan has enjoyed every minute with the F1 and I think he will have withdrawal when it is gone," said David Clark, owner of Taylor and Crawley, to the Western Daily Press. The price of Atkinson's F1 is certainly eye watering. One sold in the UK for about $5.6 million in 2012 and a GTR version went for $5.28 million in 2014. Gooding and Company even estimated one at $12-$14 million during the Monterey Car Week.

Race Recap: 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix is Magyar for 'What a race!'

Every driver on the Formula 1 grid dreams of taking home the silverware, but only one driver each year can do it. Barring disaster in 2015 it looks like it's going to be Lewis Hamilton. The Brit has been so dominating at the front of the grid on Saturday, we can't see how he'll miss out on winning the second annual FIA Pole Position Trophy. That's the accolade introduced last season in another manufactured attempt to give drivers something to work for on Saturday, since the FIA felt leading into the first corner didn't have the pull it used to. Hamilton took his ninth pole of the season in Hungary for Mercedes-AMG Petronas with a crushing lap that put him almost six tenths ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg in second. All Hamilton needs is one more spot at the top of the grid this season, and he's the Pole Position trophy winner. Thrilling stuff. Behind Rosberg the gaps stayed smaller, Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari a little more than a tenth behind Rosberg, Daniel Ricciardo in the Infiniti Red Bull Racing less than four one-hundredths behind Vettel. We feel almost as vexed watching Kimi Raikkonen as he feels driving – he's finally got a good Ferrari, now he can't get a good weekend. The front wing broke on his car in Free Practice 1, then a water leak in Free Practice 3 robbed him of setup time on the soft tire. He lines up in fifth about two tenths behind Ricciardo. The slow, tight Hungaroring didn't agree with the Williams chassis, Valtteri Bottas the first of the Grove team drivers in sixth, his teammate Felipe Massa two places back. Between them is Daniil Kvyat in the second Red Bull in seventh. Teenager Max Verstappen put in a good showing in the Toro Rosso to grab ninth, while Romain Grosjean in a wriggling, squishy, sliding Lotus classified his appearance in Q3 at all as "a miracle." As for the race that followed, we don't expect to see another like it for a long time – it was the real thrilling stuff, one shock after another. The drama began after the first parade lap, when Felipe Massa lined up out of position and the start was aborted. The drivers did another parade lap, then lined up with everyone in place. Mercedes got swamped as soon as the lights went out. Vettel ran around both of them and led the race into the first turn, Raikkonen had come from fifth to third by Turn 1, then got the inside line on Rosberg through Turn 2 to take second place.

2016 McLaren 675LT Review

"It's so comfortable." That's always the first or second comment made by anyone who owns or has driven a McLaren. They say the coupe or spider in question is also a singular performer, but what really blows them away is the bug-in-a-rug coziness when they're not murdering the tires. A Southern California dealer commenting on the respective driving habits of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren purchasers said, "McLaren owners drive their cars too much," adding that it wasn't unusual for him to see examples clock 20,000 miles a year or go on long road trips – kind of like the one my colleague Steven Ewing did in a 650S Spider. We spent a week with a Napier Green 675LT coupe, the limited-edition, track-focused model in the Super Series line-up. It establishes a psychic connection with the McLaren F1 GTR Long Tail developed in 1996 to battle the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and Porsche 911 GT1. This is what you should know about the 675LT: it's really, really comfortable. Almost excessively so. Final output is 666 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque, an increase of 25 hp and 16 lb-ft over the 650S. At heart is the twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 found in all McLaren models, but more than half of its components are new for this application. The camshaft is new, the block gets lightweight connecting rods, the fuel pump is upgraded, the twin turbos are the same size as those on the 650S' engine yet more efficient. Final output is 666 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, an increase of 25 hp and 16 lb-ft over the 650S. More important is the weight loss. At 2,712 pounds the 675LT is 220 pounds lighter than a 650S through major overtures like carbon fiber body panels, less sound deadening, Alcantara in the cabin instead of carpet and leather, and a polycarbonate engine cover. You need a special tool – made of carbon fiber – to remove the polycarbonate cover because the struts and latches have been omitted to save weight. Then there are minute gestures, like the windshield being one millimeter thinner (saving 6.6 pounds), the rear bulkhead glass being half a millimeter thinner (saving 1.1 pounds), and the carbon fiber being satin-finished instead of gloss-finished (saving 50 grams). For all that precision, the 0-60 mile-per-hour time of 2.8 seconds is only one tenth under that of the 650S, and its top speed is 205 mph, compared to the 207-mph terminal velocity of the 650S. There is nothing riveting about the 675LT at road-legal speeds on straight roads.