Yahoo Autos McLaren's Quickest New Road Car Is Barely Faster Than an F1 GTR from 1997
So what? One is a road car, the other is a full on racer, right? Right! But there's more to it than that.
The F1 GTR Long Tails built for the 1997 GT1 season came with a better suspension, a new sequential gearbox and way more downforce than the championship-winning '96 F1 GTRs. This particular example, 19R, is McLaren's original development car, which turned out to be capable of running up the Goodwood hill in 47.98 seconds using the skills of talented maniac Kenny Bräck and the grip provided by a set of racing tires just last year, crossing the line at 130mph:
The thing about the new P1 LMs is that we are not even supposed to call them McLarens. Woking's Special Operations team sends an unfinished chassis to Lanzante Motorsport, who then do many things to those to end up with the fastest road-going McLarens ever, which can beat the track-only P1 GTRs as well thanks to being lighter and more aerodynamic.
While the F1 GTR LT weighs 2017 pounds, it's V12 produces around 600 horsepower with the air restrictors in place. The new P1 LM has 986 horsepower and instant torque to deal with 2943 pounds, which gives it a better power-to-weight ratio, and with Pirellis stickiest road tires and good old Kenny behind the wheel, that translates to speeds high enough to beat an 18-year-old racing car, but as pointed out to me by a former Goodwood employee, only just:
The time of 47.07 seconds and the closing speed of 134.9 mph makes the P1 LM the fastest road car ever to climb the Goodwood hill. But hardly the best sounding.
