2015 McLaren/Lanzante P1 HDK

Lanzante Limited and O’Gara Coach have revealed their latest collaboration, the McLaren P1 HDK (High Downforce Kit). The P1 HDK follows in the same footsteps as the High Downforce Kit that was available to McLaren F1 owners that wanted to give their cars added performance and similar looks to the GTR variant. Built off a P1 road car, the HDK bodywork replaces the now seemingly tame stock body panels, giving it GTR race car looks with extreme presence on the road.

This is the second P1 HDK to be produced by Lanzante, with the first one being recently revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and paying homage to the famous McLaren F1 chassis 018. This second P1 HDK however has no F1 counterpart to draw inspiration or homage to. Instead, it is a fully bespoke commission that is comprised of details specified by its owner. From the brilliant metallic green paint to the rich saddle tan Alcantara seats, right down to the 24kt gold electroformed badges.

Lanzante Limited is a British automotive company specializing in service and restoration of classic cars, while also participating in auto racing in both modern and historic guises under the Lanzante Motorsport title. Founded by Paul Lanzante in the 1970s, the company is now led by his son Dean Lanzante out of their workshops in Petersfield, Hampshire, England.

Lanzante Motorsport won the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans with a McLaren F1 GTR for McLaren Automotive – the first team to win on debut at Le Mans – under the name of Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing. This success led to Lanzante becoming a service center for road and race McLarens.

They raced again in the British GT Championship in 1996 and secured the title in the GT1 category before taking a hiatus from racing, not to return until 2003, after which they turned their focus to road conversions of the McLaren P1 GTR, previously a track-only car.

With the production run of McLaren P1 GTRs having been built and sold, and prompted by their efforts in converting track-only spec P1 GTRs to road-legal spec variants, Lanzante Motorsport commissioned McLaren Special Operations’ Bespoke division to build a further 6 new P1 GTRs for them to develop into road-legal P1 LM variants.

Of this production run, five P1 LMs have been sold and the other P1 LM, the prototype which is designated XP1 LM, has been retained and is being used for development and testing. To make them into P1 LM spec, Lanzante Motorsport developed these P1 GTRs by, amongst other modifications, making changes to the drivetrain hardware (to increase power), by employing a modified rear wing and larger front splitter and dive planes (to improve downforce) and by removing the air-jack system and using Inconel catalytic converter pipes and exhaust headers, lightweight fabricated charge coolers, Lexan windows, lighter seats (from the F1 GTR) and titanium exhausts, bolts and fixings (to save weight).

At the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed (annual hill climb featuring historic motor racing vehicles held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, UK), the prototype P1 LM, XP1 LM, set the fastest ever time for a road car up the Goodwood hillclimb, with a time of 47.07 seconds, driven by Kenny Bräck.

On 27 April 2017, the prototype P1 LM, XP1 LM, continued its success on track, beating the road car lap record time at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, with a time of 6:43.22 using road legal Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tyres but without front number plate required to be road legal. This time was once again set by Kenny Bräck, and announced on 26 May 2017.