Back in early February 2015 it was revealed that Rowan Atkinson decided to part with his rare McLaren F1->ke1159 for £8 million, or about $12.3 million. Four months later and the supercar->ke177 has found a new home. The F1 was sold to an unnamed British buyer through specialist car dealer Taylor & Crawler. The agency led by former McLaren->ke284 sales and marketing director David Clark would not reveal the price paid by the new owner, but it is unlikely to be too far short of the asking price given the F1 is regarded as the most collectable vehicle of the past three decades.

The current official record for a McLaren F1 sale stands at $10.5 million and it was set in 2014 by an example previously owned by former IndyCar->ke1559 champion Michael Andretti. Though the sum of this new transaction remains undisclosed, it's very likely Atkinson's former supercar is the most expensive F1 ever sold. Also, it would rank among the highest prices ever paid in the U.K. for an automobile.

The Mr. Bean star bought his F1 in 1997 for around £540,000 (about $830,700) and drove it for 41,000 miles.

Atkinson's F1 is also famous for triggering Britain's biggest ever insurance claim. In 2011, after crashing the car into a hedge, Atkinson's insurance company was handed a £910,000 (around $1.4 million) repair bill.

I have a feeling the new owner will be a lot more careful with his $12-million ride.

Continue reading for the full story.

Why it matters

Granted, the McLaren F1 doesn't need a famous owner to fetch millions of dollars on the used-car market (check out this article here to find out why), but when one of the fastest road cars ever built hits the road with the likes of Rowan Atkinson in the driver seat, its value goes through the roof. All told, $12 million is a spectacular sticker for a supercar that's been produced too recently to qualify as a classic.

If you wonder why Atkinson decided to part with it, he simply thought "It is time for it to be enjoyed by someone else." Rowan may have crashed it twice, but he sure did appreciate it. "What I enjoyed most about it when I first drove it was how lovely it was to drive slowly. To pootle is a pleasure. Of course I’ve gone to a track and done 200mph in it, but for me it was always the vision of its designer Gordon Murray that made the F1 unique," he said when he put it on sale earlier this year.

I wonder how long until an F1 sells for $20 million...

McLaren F1

Read more about the McLaren F1 here.