The hyper-exclusive Gordon Murray Automotive S1 LM has just made history. During a spectacular RM Sotheby's auction held as part of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, chassis number one went under the hammer for a staggering $20.63 million (€19.2 million). That officially makes it the most expensive new car ever sold at auction.

And honestly, nobody is surprised.

Only five examples, and a tribute to an icon

The S1 LM is Gordon Murray's love letter to the legendary McLaren F1 GTR. Only five examples are being built, entirely by hand, and steeped in Murray's six decades of engineering experience. Pure driving dynamics, zero compromises, entirely detached from every hypercar fashion trend.

The market knows it too. Hype around this car began from the moment it was first announced, and RM Sotheby's turned that into a media event that played on a Formula 1 level.

A Hollywood-worthy auction experience

To turn the S1 LM into a showstopper, RM Sotheby's left nothing to chance.

The car was flown in suspended beneath a helicopter during a gala event for the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Pure showmanship. But a clever one, because it created exactly the emotional must-have factor that pushes cars like this to astronomical sums.

An important detail: the car auctioned was not even the customer example, but a GMA display car. The first genuine customer car has yet to be built. Which makes this record even more absurd.

A car tailored to the buyer, guided by Murray himself

The eventual buyer now gets the chance to determine their specification together with Gordon Murray in person. That is the equivalent of buying a haute couture piece signed off by the designer themselves.

A dream experience follows:
testing and development sessions with Dario Franchitti, GMA's test driver and multiple champion.

There, the buyer also gets an immediate taste of why this car is so coveted:

• 4.2-litre naturally aspirated V12

• 710 hp

• Linear, unfiltered power delivery that has almost disappeared from the modern hypercar world

This is old-school absolutism on four wheels. And Murray has made it his life's work.

Gordon Murray: “A humbling moment”

In his reaction, Murray called the record sale:

“A milestone for my team and for the car world. The S1 LM is the purest form of everything I have learned over the past sixty years. That this level of appreciation exists is incredibly humbling.”

For a man who designed the McLaren F1, that says a great deal.

A new reality...

The S1 LM is not the first new car to break past the $20 million mark in 2025:

• Ferrari Daytona SP3 one-off (2025) → $26 million (entirely for charity)

But this is the first non-charity new build to push into that territory. We are in a new hypercar economy, one where rarity, brand storytelling and pure engineering count for more than power or numbers.

And in that universe, a Gordon Murray product is close to sacred.