One-of-a-kind, VP441 McLaren 675LT for sale

McLaren needs a game-changer to define its Forseven era - the car it revealed at Geneva in 2015 shows the way

If any supercar maker is aware of the need for change, it is McLaren. At the start of the year, its new(ish) boss described the firm’s financial situation as ‘perilous’ - or perilous at any rate before the Abu Dhabi government-owned CYVN Holdings, which owns McLaren and former startup, Forseven, paid off the brand’s enormous debt and apparently injected two billion dollars into the mix. “The climate is right for us to go offensive rather than defensive,” an optimistic Nick Collins told the FT back in January.

Precisely what shape that offence will take is only now coming to light. Though an SUV (no upmarket carmaker can ‘profitably exist’ without one, noted the CEO) assuredly waits in the wings, McLaren chose to gatecrash Pebble Beach with something else: the curiously named, and manually geared, Mcl 6GT. Underneath, it broke no moulds, but thanks to its Can-Am-inspired looks, it definitely broke from Woking’s long-established (and too often identikit) design language. Factor in the first clutch pedal since the F1, and you could almost hear people being won over.

A decent first step, then. But McLaren will need many more - and they cannot all be limited edition variants, a path it has beaten numerous times before, if it wants to become a sustainable outfit. Nevertheless, the Mcl 6GT seems adroitly attuned with the requirements of the time - and the last time Woking had its finger properly on the market’s pulse it came up with a humdinger: the 675LT, a car intended to make even the 458 Speciale seem ordinary.

It helped, of course, that the 650S at the time was a conveniently good starting point - and that the Longtail hook was such an exemplary, historical-satisfying place to hang the model on - but seldom has McLaren done a better job of making its exhaustive engineering effort look like a full-blooded obsession. Yes, it was lighter, fractionally longer, and more powerful, and better looking, and sensationally good to drive (seasoned journalists still recall it as Woking’s best-ever effort), but it was about X factor, too. Which is reflected in its £300k to £400k used price range.

This one is twice that, and with good reason. This is VP441: the verification prototype and the actual launch car unveiled at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show. That is a fairly hefty claim to provenance fame before you get to the fact that following its debut, MSO further honed the spec to suit its first owner: Anthony Hamilton. (We’ll assume the vendor means the Anthony Hamilton, not the American R&B singer.) Between them, it’s fair to say they nailed it; Chicane Grey and carbon everything easily elevate the 675LT to poster car status.

Sufficiently so for you to consider paying £675k to possess it? Well, that’s obviously a question for the one percenters among us, though it is hard to deny that VP441 occupies a unicorn sweet spot, representing not just a unique place in McLaren’s history, but also being possibly the perfect example of one of its best-ever cars. Plus it has barely moved since its MOT record went digital, so it clearly needs taking in hand. And what better thing to turn up at MTC when McLaren is ready to show its most dedicated fans what comes next?

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ThomW

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