Man Maths: McLaren 675LT

Earlier this year Andrew and I gathered all three LTs – the 675LT, 600LT and the latest, the 765LT – together in Wales for a showdown. You can read that story here and I won’t spoil the result for you now, but what you need to know is that the 675LT was every bit as good as I remembered. So often in this job you drive a car in a highly idealised environment, like the North Coast 500 with your own personal chaperone, and your judgement of the car is skewed by the quality of the experience as a whole. But not this time.

The cheapest 675LT for sale today, as far as I can tell, is an early example with 38,000 miles listed for £179,900. There are numerous others the same side of £200,000. A lot of money, I know, but given the sheer star quality of the car in question, I reckon that’s astonishing value. By way of comparison, let’s consider its bitter rival, the similarly spellbinding Ferrari 458 Speciale. There are more of those up for sale right now, the cheapest at £279,900. Exactly a hundred grand more than the most affordable 675LT.

That’s particularly weird when you consider rarity. We know McLaren only made 500 675LT coupés and the same number of Spiders, 1000 in total. Ferrari has never publicly said how many Speciales were produced, but the internet suggests it’s close to 1800 across coupé and open-top variants. Some corners of the web reckon it’s even more than that, but let’s stick with the lower estimate. Why would the Ferrari, with 80 per cent more of them out there, be worth 55 per cent more than the McLaren?

Various factors, I suspect, like the Ferrari badge still having a certain sort of cachet and buyers being very wary of out-of-warranty McLarens. Maybe the Speciale’s naturally aspirated engine is a factor too. But I don’t think that explains the vast gulf in values between the two. I suspect the market just hasn’t quite latched onto the 675LT yet. Given that car’s brilliance, its scarcity (and specifically the fact that we know precisely how many were built), its stunning looks and its historical significance, I think the first LT is poised to rocket in value. If I could, I wouldn’t hesitate.

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