Back in 1995, McLaren took home a dominant victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with its cars coming home first, second, fourth, fifth, and 13th. And, on the eve of the 2020 event, the company debuted five customer-commissioned Sennas decked out in the liveries the winning F1 GTRs wore at the time.
McLaren notes that each one of these machines took over 800 hours to paint because they were done entirely by hand — and with extreme accuracy. Every logo is recreated to era-specific perfection. There’s even a recreation of a scrutineering sticker on the roof of each car. It’s an aesthetic feat that perfectly compliments the technological feats of the original machines.
Image: McLaren
Image: McLaren
Image: McLaren
There are quite a few technical changes that have been made to the standard Senna:
Enhancements to the GTR’s twin-turbocharged, 4.0-litre M840TQ engine include valve spring retainers made from metal matrix composite (MMC) to deliver a 65% weight reduction, higher grade steel for the valve springs and hand-polished, CNC ported cylinder heads.
Recalibration of the powertrain electronics releases power of 845PS – an increase of 20PS over the ‘regular’ McLaren Senna GTR – and revised torque curve characteristics that deliver more torque at lower revs and enable a rev limit set closer to 9,000rpm than the ‘soft limit’ of 8,250rpm.
Designers made a point of adding features that had been specifically designed for Le Mans, like twin-exit pipes as part of the GTR’s exhaust system, anodised suspension wishbones, satin gold brake callipers, a steering wheel punctuated by gold shades, and a six-point racing harness.
Image: McLaren
Image: McLaren
All five examples have already been claimed, so McLaren didn’t bother to release a price. With two of the five cars heading Stateside, it’s possible we’ll see them pop up at high-end car shows in the future.
But let’s just play pretend and imagine you can get your hands on one of these bad boys. Which one are you going for? For me, it always has to be the Elf livery. Nothing gets me in the racing mood quite like that royal blue.