Look at that shifter! It's the same in all '97 race cars and if you hit a clown with it, you'll have to deal with a dead body.

It would be safe to assume that a shifter like that came straight from the Joker's Anti-Batmobile, but the fact is that after McLaren won Le Mans with what was pretty much a road car on sticky tires in '95, they beefed up their gearbox with a light magnesium housing and stronger guts for the '96 season before replacing the manual completely with a X-trac 6-speed sequential transmission in the Long Tails.

This was a full-on racing gearbox that drivers could abuse without having to worry about a thing, and for that, they equipped it with a stick that looks stronger than your average crowbar. And it comes with a purple snooker ball!

Just look at it, and be amazed:

This, of course, is not the only golden part of a McLaren F1, or BMW Classic's very own chassis number 26R in this case.

Everybody knows the F1's engine bay hides a few acres of golden foil to keep the V12's heat where it belongs, but have you ever seen its shining reflected on the exhaust pipes? Let's have a peek under that cover!

ENHANCE!

Screw the solar eclipse, this is it people.

We'll have to sit down with our beloved boss Nick Denton and convince him that Jalopnik needs a GTR. Our argument is at least as solid as that shifter.

Photo credit: Máté Petrány/Jalopnik