Here’s what it takes to drive a McLaren P1 LM supercar at the limit

By Stephen Edelstein May 10, 2017

The McLaren P1 LM made quite a splash at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year when driver Kenny Bräck used it to set a record for road-legal cars on the English estate’s famous hillclimb course. Bräck ran the 1.16-mile course in just 47.07 seconds, and now you can see what that looks like in this video.

The challenges of the Goodwood hillclimb compared to normal racetracks are apparent. It’s pretty narrow, and on many parts of the track only straw bales separate potentially out of control cars from spectators. Bräck, who has an Indy 500 win on his résumé, dances with the wheel to keep the P1 LM pointed in the right direction.

The P1 LM has fairly complex genealogy. It’s a road-legal conversion of the McLaren P1 GTR, done by a company called Lanzante. The P1 GTR was a track-only version of the McLaren P1 hybrid supercar. So the P1 LM is a road-going version of the track version of a road-going supercar. Confused? We don’t blame you.

That means the P1 LM is equipped with the same upgrades as the P1 GTR, including a more aggressive aerodynamics package, and more power. The hybrid powertrain, which is based around a 3.8-liter, twin-turbocharged V8, produces 986 horsepower, instead of the 903 hp of the “base” P1. However, Lanzante had to retune the engine so it would run on 99-octane pump gas.

Lanzante isn’t some fly-by-night operation. It ran the McLaren F1 GTR that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995, and continues to maintain a close relationship with the automaker. The P1 LM is actually named after the F1 LM, a limited-edition version of the McLaren F1 based on the Le Mans-winning racer.

In addition to making that impressive run at Goodwood, test driver Bräck will also set up each P1 LM customer car at the Nürburgring. There won’t be many of those, as Lanzante only plans to five conversions, plus the prototype used for the Goodwood run. McLaren made 35 P1 GTRs, and 375 copies of the “base” P1.

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Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

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