It's known as one of the most expensive supercars in the world, but don’t expect McLaren F1's million-dollar-plus price tag to be the end of your financial worries.

Bruce Weiner, an Atlanta-based entrepreneur who owns a 1994 McLaren F1, told VINwiki that the maintenance costs of running a F1 far exceeded the $1.2 million he paid for it (these days, the average cost for a similar car is $12-$15 million).

Before he bought the car – which came from the factory in stock silver – the former owner requested that it be resprayed orange to match its racecar-turned-street machine personality.

In a process that would normally cost $3,000 - $5,000 on your average family sedan, the McLaren factory charged him a staggering $410,000 for the re-spray.

But of course changing the colour of a car is not essential maintenance like changing the oil – for that, Weiner says for your first service McLaren will fly over their mechanic from the UK for free to inspect the car personally.

What Weiner learned was that unlike regular cars, parts on the McLaren simply "timed out" – meaning whether they were actually driven or not, they had to be replaced after a particular period of time.

(A McLaren F1 interior. (Image: Getty))

The first of which was the clutch, which had a lifespan of just three years irregardless of how far you drove the F1.

Doing the sums, Weiner worked out that the McLaren would cost him $50,000 a year to maintain even if he never turned over the engine. He only used the car to do the school run (such is the life of a multi-millionaire), but his first service bill was a whopping $250,000.

A new set of tyres? $50,000. A new fuel cell? $110,000. As Weiner explains, it wasn't simply the cost of the parts that was driving up the bill – it was the enormous expense it took to organise and deliver the car to qualified McLaren mechanics.

"Then the fire extinguisher expired. To replace that, that was $800 for a fire extinguisher I could literally go to Walmart and buy," Weiner told VINwiki.

"This kind of thing went on and on and on. After about a year I said to myself 'I don't know if I want to be upside-down in this car' and I sold it.

"As we all know today that car is worth somewhere around $15 million and it's one of the most regrettable sales I've made in over 1000 cars."

(A McLaren F1 interior. (Image: Getty))