Over the course of his 10-year career driving for teams including Toleman, Lotus and McLaren, Brazilian Formula 1 racer Ayrton Senna captured three world titles, won 41 races and secured 65 pole positions.
The first of those came in 1984, when Senna became the first loser at that year’s Monaco Grand Prix, finishing in second place behind F1 legend Alain Prost in a weather-shortened race that was shrouded in controversy and touched off an ongoing rivalry between the two drivers which was expertly chronicled in director Asif Kapadia’s Senna.
When Prost was confirmed as the winner over Senna following 31 officially recognized laps, the four-time world champion’s margin of victory was a measly 7.446 seconds.
“It is frustrating that the race had to be stopped, because I knew I had a rare chance to win,” Senna said afterward. “If it had been dry it would have been a very different story.”
At the time, Road & Track wrote that Senna’s comments were “indeed modest” and said the performance he had put out in what was only his fifth Grand Prix contest was “staggering.”
That’s also not a bad adjective to apply to the fact that the car Senna was driving – which he went on to pilot to third-place finishes in that year’s British and Portuguese Grands Prix – is coming up for auction.
Designed by Rory Byrne and Pat Symonds, the Toleman-Hart TG184 was powered by a turbocharged, four-cylinder Hart 415T engine capable of producing up to 600 horsepower.
A powerful car that helped foreshadow Senna going on to win the Monaco Grand Prix a record-setting six times, the Toleman-Hart TG184 is a one-of-a-kind piece of F1 history.
“The Senna-Prost joust of the late 1980s and early 1990s was one of the greatest sporting rivalries of all time, with two great champions providing F1 fans with some of the most eye-popping and spectacular racing ever witnessed,” said Bonhams head of motorsport Mark Osborne. “We at Bonhams are delighted to present the very car – the 1984 Toleman-Hart TG184 – that triggered this great rivalry.”
And we’re happy to present the last lap of that legendary race – and remind you that bidding on the car will commence at the Les Grandes Marques À Monaco in Monte Carlo on May 11.
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