McLaren 720S Le Mans

On 18 June 1995, something happened which McLaren hadn’t planned in advance: At Le Mans, an F1 GTR with the driver trio of JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya crossed the finish line of the famous 24-hour race in first place. Originally, the British company wanted to offer their supercar exclusively as a road vehicle. The development into a racing car for the GT1 category of the BPR series was only made after some customers had seriously insisted on McLaren boss Ron Dennis. After a few test drives, seven F1 GTRs finally competed in the endurance race at the river Sarthe in 1995. Two dropped out during the race after 77 and 131 laps. The worst placed car finished 13th, the other four cars were found in positions 1, 3, 4 and 5. The winning F1 GTR was actually the McLaren test car, which was only lend to the Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing team. Ron Dennis didn’t have the heart to remove the race colors and decals after the victory and resume testing. Instead, they used a newly built car for this job and put 01R (chassis number of the winning car) in their collection.

Now, 25 years after McLaren achieved this unexpected success, the British sports car brand is introducing a new limited special edition in the form of the 720S Le Mans. From the outside it presents itself either in ‘Sarthe Grey’ or ‘McLaren Orange’, whereby the lower part of the front bumper, the rear part of the side sills and the rear bumper are contrasted in ‘Ueno Grey’, similar to the winning F1 GTR, but flipped in order. In front of the rear wheels there is a special logo for the 25th anniversary of the important victory. On the rear window made of polycarbonate is a functional roof scoop, which is painted in glossy black like the rest of the roof. Like the carbon air outlets above the front wheels, it is taken from the MSO range of the 765LT. Gold-colored brake callipers are located behind the dark grey light alloy wheels in 5-spoke LM design.

For the interior, customers can choose between two black Alcantara finishes with either dove grey or McLaren orange accents. McLaren also designs the steering wheel zero markings to match the selected accent color. The driver and passenger sit on carbon racing seats with the 25-year-logo embroidered in the headrests. This can also be found on the floor mats and on the dedication plate.

Behind the passengers is the four-liter V8 biturbo engine, whose output of 720 hp and 770 newtonmeters of torque hasn’t been changed. This means that the impressive driving datas remain the same. In 2.9 seconds it accelerates from zero to 62 mph and in 7.8 seconds to 124 mph. McLaren specifies a topspeed of 212 mph. In total, only 50 units of the 720S Le Mans are being built, of which only 16 are intended for Europe. In Germany, the base price is 298,179 €, in the UK it is £ 254,500 (each including VAT), although the first vehicles will not be rolling into dealerships until September. Interestingly enough, the special edition model is given special chassis numbers that include the number 298. This is exactly how many laps the victorious F1 GTR covered in 1995 from start to finish.

Images: McLaren