With a $610 billion market capitalization, Apple is rather wealthy, so wouldn't you say it's high time the company bought an expensive car for itself? The Financial Times reports that Apple may seek to do just that, claiming that the Cupertino-based tech company is in talks to purchase McLaren Automative, a British sports car maker and Formula One racing team owner. The move would give Apple a lane in the coming race with a growing cadre of tech companies, such as Tesla, Uber, and Google, to create the cars of the future — vehicles most suspect will soon be driven autonomously.

The Financial Times report indicated that three different anonymous sources said Apple was considering a full takeover of McLaren, whose cars have a certain caché in Northern California after being satirized on the popular HBO comedy Silicon Valley for their "billionaire doors." A major acquisition like this wouldn't come cheap for Apple: McLaren Automotive produced 1,654 vehicles last year which generated $584 million in revenue, Mashable writes, and the FT's sources imagines that McLaren would be valued somewhere between $1.3 and $1.96 billion. That would put a potential purchase on par with Apple's 2014 takeover of Beats Electronics, the audio equipment company, for which it spent $3 billion.

Neither Apple nor McLaren has yet commented on the story, and it should also be said that this new narrative runs counter to a a New York Times article published earlier this month. That piece proposed Apple was in the midst of a "retrenchment" on self-driving car projects: "Apple has shuttered parts of its self-driving car project and laid off dozens of employees, according to three people briefed on the move who were not allowed to speak about it publicly," the Times wrote.

Related: Video: Uber's Self-Driving Vehicles Hit The Streets Of SF