McLaren F1 GTR Longtail

McLaren has revealed that it now owns a F1 GTR Longtail and in remembrance of this highly iconic model, the brand hopes to release a three-seater Hyper-GT by 2019. A total of 106 units will be manufactured with all of them having dihedral doors. The brand has confirmed as well that while being considered as the most luxurious and the most beautifully crafted model to come from McLaren, all units have been pre-sold.

For those familiar with automotive history, the number of units to be made is also the same number of F1s that McLaren manufactured from 1992 and up to 1999. One can even say that the GTR Longtail, also known as the F1 GT, was considered as the last to carry the name. Considered by many as an evolved version of the 1995 GTR, it won the 24-hour Le Mans that year. This was because the brand made sure to implement some improvements to the body resulting in the downforce being increased and thus enhancing even further its already top-notch performance.

The name F1 GT was in fact the same one used for the F1s road-legal variants, totaling three. However, the GTR Longtail itself was fitted with a suspension that was fully adjustable with a sequential six-speed transmission that allowed for faster gear shifts. Another significant change was that compared to the F1, the GTR Longtail had an overall weight of 2,017 lbs. (915 kg), a reduction of 297 lbs. (135 kg). This helped improve the performance even more despite the fact that it was already equipped with the 6.0-liter V12 engine that could offer an output of 600 hp (48 kW) with top torque of 480 lb.-ft. (651 Nm).

In line with the load-legal versions, McLaren also worked on the first version of the GTR Longtail that would have the chassis 19R. Work on the 1997 F1 GTR Longtail was officially done in 1996 by November 18. After that its next appearance would be during the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2014. A road-legal version of F1 GTR Longtail was later spotted and photographed somewhere in Chertsey, UK, during the early part of 2015.

Going back to the 19R, the brand manufactured an additional 9 units of race cars. The model that is now in the hands of McLaren is the chassis 20R that was first delivered to none other than Gulf-Davidoff GTC Motorsport. This particular model took second place during the 1997 Le Mans.

Details of the Hyper-GT were confirmed during the middle of November this year and it was revealed to have used the codename of BP23 which stood for Bespoke Project 2 with the remaining digit referring to the number of seats. As a Hyper-GT, the expectation is that it will be perfect for long travels but it will still boast the performance one expects from a model released by McLaren.