As promised, the track-only GTR version of the
McLaren Senna made its first public outing at the 77th Goodwood Members’
Meeting driven by Bruno Senna, the nephew of the late Ayrton. McLaren is keen to point out that
the new Senna GTR is their most extreme creation this side of an F1 car and it
certainly looks the part, much more so than its road-legal sibling which has
split opinions with its design.
Bruno Senna even thinks that Ayrton would have loved
the latest GTR in terms of purity and performance. The racing driver piloted
the new Senna GTR in a track parade ahead of cars like the P1 GTR, the
road-legal Senna and the F1 XP5 prototype.
For the Senna GTR, McLaren increased the twin-turbo
4.0-liter V8’s output to 814 hp and 800 Nm of torque, 25 hp
more than the road-legal version. Dry weight is now down to 1,188 kg,
giving it a power to weight ratio of 684hp/tonne.
The wild new aero agenda produces 1,000 kg of downforce, the same with the regular Senna but at 15 percent lower speeds,
while the suspension has been lifted straight from the company’s GT3 race cars.
Just 75 lucky customers will be able to get an
example of the Senna GTR, which is priced at US$ 1.65 million (plus taxes), with
deliveries set to commence in September. All we have to do now is wait and see
some lap times to find out if the latest McLaren to wear the GTR moniker is
indeed as fast as it is claimed to be.
