Unallocated McLaren Senna Auction Raises £2m
The Last McLaren Senna Auction
The McLaren Senna has been public for barely a week. We were told when it went public that we couldn’t have one because they were all sold.
Or were they?
It turns out there was one final, “unallocated” (cough) Senna and it went to auction at an annual customer event held at McLaren’s technology centre.
The company says that bidding was “fierce” with auctioneer Max Girardo kept busy until the final bid of £2 million (almost US$2.7m) before taxes and charges.
We wondered in our launch story what the Senna family’s price was. We always knew it would go to a good cause and now we know. The proceeds of this final car will go to helping out underprivileged kids in Brazil through the Ayrton Senna Institute. Ayrton’s sister Viviane and nephew Bruno were on hand for the auction.
According to the McLaren press release the auction was a surprise, so one imagines the winning bidder has that kind of cash just lying around. Sucks to be whoever they are.
The Ayrton Senna Institute
Ayrton Senna was well-known for his business and philanthropic efforts. While absolutely ruthless on-track (as Alain Prost will attest), he was a thoughtful man off it. Born to a privileged family, Senna was revered for his efforts on the racetrack. The spurred him on to contribute something to his own people, many of whom live well below the poverty line.
The Institute has trained 750,000 teachers all over Brazil to improve the education of 17 million children. At its inception, the Ayrton Senna Foundation encouraged children to study and as a reward, allowed them to participate in sporting activities funded by the Foundation.
The money raised here is part of a broader fundraising effort using the Senna name, with a deal for Sony to use the name and brand in Gran Turismo, starting with Gran Turismo 6.
There you have it – there are now no longer any McLaren Sennas to buy. Bummer, eh? Console yourself with this video:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBTBlt3pLVo[/embedyt]
