Brave pills required

To celebrate its 1995 Le Mans win, McLaren built the F1 LM: an ultimate road-going version of the race car, liberated of the power restrictions required to compete and with a more refined interior. In a similar vein, Hampshire-based Lanzante – which incidentally ran the winning F1 GTR at La Sarthe and has been converting P1 GTRs for the road – has now created the P1 LM. Arguably the maddest car ever allowed to grace the public highways, the P1 LM is 60kg lighter than the already featherweight GTR (achieved with the use of Inconel ‘super-alloy’ on the exhaust system and the lack of an hydraulic lift system), yet retains the track car’s 986bhp power output. But without doubt, our favourite feature is the direct adoption of the seats from the legendary F1 GTR. Oh, and when you think it can’t get any better, the steering wheel is a tweaked version of that in Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 championship-winning McLaren Formula 1 car.

There’s even more aero (a predicted 40% more downforce) thanks to a bigger rear wing and wider front splitter, which strikes us as odd considering you’re far more likely to push the car to its limits on a track. But this is a road-going hypercar, let’s not forget, and silliness and its ability to draw expletives from its occupants are integral to the design brief. Just six will be built including this prototype: one more in dark grey/exposed carbon-fibre, and four in McLaren’s famous ‘Papaya Orange’. With Indy 500-winner and McLaren test-driver Kenny Bräck at the helm, the P1 LM will vie for the quickest time up the hill at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. A formidable combination of car and driver, we certainly wouldn’t bet against it...

Photos: McLaren/Lanzante