The unique car collection of former Formula 1 visionary and McLaren Group shareholder Mansour Ojjeh has been put up for sale.
Ojjeh, who passed away in 2021, was an entrepreneur who owned part of the Luxembourgish holdings company TAG, which went into partnership with the McLaren Group in 1981.
The Saudi-born Frenchman became a longstanding figure in the Woking-based outfit’s operations, and was credited for playing a role in helping it become one of the most successful F1 teams of all time, particularly during its more glittering period in the 1980s.
Ojjeh’s first involvement in motor racing was with Williams, with TAG becoming its principal sponsor, and its financial input helped it reach its first period of success.
After being convinced by Ron Dennis to make TAG the McLaren Group’s majority stakeholder, the team won a number of World Championships with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen at the wheel.
Latterly, Ojjeh’s vision to create an all-conquering road car was sanctioned by McLaren, and the result was the McLaren F1 – still considered as one of the world’s best road cars, and notably the last road-legal car to be outright winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The collection, which is comprised entirely of McLaren road cars, will be sold via Tom Hartley Jnr, the company which helped to sell the 69-strong collection of Bernie Ecclestone earlier this year.
“Mansour was a founding father of McLaren as we know it today,” said its CEO, Zak Brown. “A massively passionate racer and automotive enthusiast and no bigger fan of McLaren. His collection is very special, I’m not aware of anything else that compares with it.”
Ojjeh’s widow Kathy said: “McLaren meant so much to Mansour. It was more than business, it was pure passion and it was in that vein that he curated this unique collection of McLaren road cars.
“The ‘Last of Legends’ car collection is a treasure for our family – a reminder of the hours we witnessed Mansour designing each car to his specifications.
“He had an unusual talent for detail that stuns and impresses, a talent driven by the very passion he nurtured for so many years with McLaren.
“Parting with this very personal collection is not easy, but it is time for it to go to its new custodian, one who truly ‘gets it’ and will cherish owning and caring for it the way Mansour did.”
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