ancient laptops more valuable
This Ancient Laptop Is The Only Key To The Most Valuable Supercars On The Planet
This is a Compaq LTE 5280 laptop from the early 1990s, running a bespoke CA card. In 2016, McLaren Automotive—one of the most high-tech car and technology companies on the planet—still uses it and its DOS-based software to service the remaining hundred McLaren F1s out there, each valued at $10 million or more.
McLaren Special Operations is a workshop like no other. It’s located in an industrial complex a few minutes from their well known Technology- and Production Center in Woking, England, in a building where McLaren used to work on its Formula One racing efforts before deciding to give it a go against Ferrari on the streets as well. I’ll have more detailed story on MSO later, but for now, let’s focus on the most challenging part of their job: the maintenance of McLaren F1s.
McLaren built 106 F1s, and 100 of those still exist today. In case you’re not familiar with the world’s greatest supercar, all you need to know is that it was the first proper production car to use a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis, designed by Formula One legend Gordon Murray and powered by a wonderful BMW Motorsport V12 that still makes it the fastest naturally aspirated street legal car ever made. That record is standing since 1998, set six years after the car was launched.
It’s a deeply special machine, and always will be.
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