Yikes, someone put diesel in a road-going McLaren F1 GTR

We all have bad days. We all make mistakes. Not all of us own up to those mistakes, though. So fair play to amateur racing driver, Le Mans 24hrs class winner and extremely rich man François Perrodo, who recently took to Instagram to tell a rather embarrassing story…

You may have heard of the McLaren F1 GTR. It was the racing version of Gordon Murray’s 241mph, three-seat hypercar. It even won the Le Mans 24hrs at its first attempt.

Only 28 GTRs were ever sold, with many being converted back to road legal spec at different points in time. Glorious. In fact, that’s exactly the treatment that was awarded to the No.61 Lark-McLaren that once competed in the 1996 GT500 series, and it’s that car that Perrodo drove on “a Sunday morning blast” along with a Porsche Carrera GT and a Ferrari 488 Pista, according to his Instagram.

“Unfortunately we hit trouble early on as the Lark car wouldn’t start after a quick stop,” writes Perrodo. After roping in F1 whizz Paul Lanzante and struggling to identify the problem, Perrodo clearly had a moment of realisation that we wouldn’t wish on anyone. 

“I put diesel in a McLaren F1 GTR.”

Yikes. We can only imagine the sense of dread…

Thankfully Perrodo followed up with a post that said the only damage was to his pride. The tank was drained and the GTR has been driven since its ordeal. Phew.