... “This special Ford Mustang was created by McLaren in 1980 for Ford’s then recently founded Special Vehicle Operations (SVO). Jamie Palmer. The M81 is often cited as the first SVO vehicle. ... here’s a detailed history of how the M81 Mustang came to be over at MustangLab.com. 1980 M-81 McLaren Mustang Prototype With 74 Miles! It’s understandable since the M81 was debuted in late 1980, and the announcement of the Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division was announced in September 1980. The names Barrett-Jackson, Barrett-Jackson.com, and all associated graphics, logos, page headers, button icons, scripts, and service names are trademarks, registered trademarks or trade dress of the Barrett-Jackson Auction Company, LLC or its affiliates. 1980 M81 McLaren and the Enduro Mustang History and Recent sale Now LMR.com had this nice little write up and it's great but isn't 100% accurate Recently a couple cars from an estate went to ebay for auction and I know of one selling for 60,300 or at least that is what the auction ended up with. This 1980 Ford McLaren Mustang M-81 shows just 4,887 miles and is number 10 of 10 examples hand-built by McLaren.

However, the McLaren M81 was actually designed much earlier in the year. The car was acquired by the current owner from the estate of its longtime original owner, who was a California-based collector.

yellow 1980 Ford Mclaren Mustang M-81 for sale located in OAKLAND, California - $39,500 (ClassicCars.com ID CC-898477). It’s somewhat of a “Chicken and the egg” scenario.