Lanzante, the company that converted the track-only P1 GTR into the road-legal, but still extreme P1 LM, has announced plans to attempt a new Nurburgring lap record later this year. It wouldn’t be surprising for Lanzante to achieve its goal, but until McLaren has the opportunity to brag about a new record, we’ll just have a look at its previous record setting machine thanks to a video from the 2016 Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca.
The footage, which surfaced the Interwebz courtesy of YouTube’s “The Race Channel,” shows a visor cam of Bill Auberlen driving a 1996 McLaren F1 GTR on one of America’s most legendary race tracks. The car in question is none other than the first-generation F1 GTR, which unlike the P1 GTR, saw some serious track action and won several races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995.
Essentially a slightly beefed-up version of the road car, the F1 GTR used the same 6.0-liter V-12 engine developed by BMW, and as you can see in the video, it gives the car an amazing exhaust note that only large-displacement, naturally aspirated powerplants can offer. Not just noisy, the F1 GTR is also incredibly fast, and laps the Laguna Seca while zooming past other race cars present at the classic car event.
Making the video that much more entertaining is the fact that Auberlen pushes the F1 GTR to the limit, racing it like it’s the mid-1990s and the race car just came from the factory. Hit play and enjoy!
McLaren F1 GTR
Read our full review on the McLaren F1 GTR here.