Check out this glorious gallery of Le Mans McLaren Senna GTR tributes
It’s Le Mans weekend and McLaren has timed it perfectly to release images of five stunning Senna GTRs built in tribute to the F1 GTRs that came home in first, third, fourth, fifth, and 13th places in the 1995 race.
The five customer LM edition cars each took more than 800 hours to create and are based on the track-only Senna GTR, but with even more go to add to the show. The 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 now has over 850 hp for extra shove down the Mulsanne straight. And the five very fortunate buyers will get the chance to experience exactly that in 2021 when McLaren will stage a special driving event at the world’s premier endurance race.
Strapped into the competition seat with a six-point harness, gripping the bespoke LM steering wheel with its anodized gold shifters, feet dancing on the titanium nitride pedals, those five owners are in for a treat. The revised engine revs to 9000 rpm thanks to valve spring retainers made from metal matrix composite, higher grade steel valve springs, and hand-polished CNC-ported cylinder heads.
The cars, each numbered one of one, are modeled on the liveries of the five cars that stormed the 1995 race and required McLaren to seek special permission from sponsors of the day, including Gulf Oil and Harrods. Additional tributes come with recreated scrutineering stickers and an etched dedication to its forebearer, including the names of its original drivers.
Built by McLaren Special Operations, the cars have all been sold. Managing Director of MSO Ansar Ali declared: “We wanted to make a major statement with this collection.”
We think it’s fair to say McLaren has succeeded, but you can judge for yourself with the galleries below.
Car no. 1 is dedicated to the outright winner. Known as “The Ueno Clinic” car it was driven by Yanick Dalmas, Masanori Sekiya, and JJ Lehto.
Car no. 6 is “The Harrods car” and was piloted to third place by Andy Wallace, Derek Bell and his son Justin.
Car no. 2 is “The Gulf car” raced by Maurizio Sandro Sala, Mark Blundell, and Ray Bellm to fourth position.
Car no. 7 is known as “The Jacadi car” and was run by French team Giroix Racing with Fabien Giroix, Olivier Grouillard, and Jean-Deni Deletraz sharing driving duties. It placed fifth.
Finally, numbered 5, is “The Cesar car” run by French team Société BBA and driven by Jean-Luc Maury-Laribiere, Marc Sourd, and Hervé Poulin to finish in the 13th position.
