Twenty five years ago, McLaren entered and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, its first stab at the big time.
Now it is celebrating that with a special edition 720S Le Mans coupé, only 50 of which will be built. The winning car was a McLaren F1 GTR driven by JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya. Three other McLaren F1 GTRs finished in the top five.
Unique features, special plaques and badging aside, the 720S Le Mans edition has exclusive paint colours, unique wheels, and carbon fibre louvred front fenders and race seats, the latter with embroidered Le Mans logo. Plenty of CF options are available, as are harnesses for track work.
Powering the Le Mans editions 720S is a mid-mounted 4.0-litre twin-turbo engine developing 720hp (537kW). It races from 0-100km/h in a claimed 2.9sec, and to 200km/h in 7.8sec, signing off at 341km/h.
A carbon fibre central structure and Proactive Chassis Control II suspension make this amongst the lightest cars in its class, and McLaren claims “an unparalleled breadth of dynamic ability”.
The standard 720S costs a bit over half a million dollars here, so expect the Le Mans anniversary edition to cost a wee bit more than that.