Riding shotgun in new Lanzante 95-59 | PH Footnote

Testing is underway for the 850hp three-seat supercar - time for a high-speed preview from the passenger seat...

By Cam Tait / Sunday, 22 March 2026 / Loading comments

Everyone is trying their hand at an F1 homage at the moment. Gordon Murray has released no fewer than three in recent years, from the GMA T.50, the F1’s spiritual successor, to the ultra-limited S1 that served as a modern-day interpretation of the GTR Le Mans winner. McLaren, meanwhile, beat GMA to the punch in 2018 by revealing its three-seater Speedtail that would dislodge the F1 as the company’s fastest production car. And now there’s another homage in the works, with Lanzante deep into the development of its 95-59 ahead of the production version’s debut later this year.

All three firms have each played a part in the F1 story, though admittedly Lanzante’s contribution isn’t quite as well known. See, Lanzante Motorsport ran the winning number 59 McLaren F1 at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans, in a race where strong reliability and searing pace in the wet allowed the Petersfield-based squad to beat the lighter, faster prototypes in the dying hours. After its Le Mans win, it would develop the first road conversion kit for the F1 GTR, and then do the same for numerous track-only hypercars like the Senna GTR and Pagani Huayra R in more recent times. Then there’s the occasional special project, like the P1 GT long-tail and TAG F1-engined Porsche 911s, but the three-seat 95-59 (named after the ’95 win with car 59) marks its first attempt at building a supercar from the ground up.

Well, sort of. Lanzante uses a McLaren 750S as a donor car for the 95-59, carrying over the chassis, centre tub and drivetrain, albeit with significant modifications. The engine, for example, remains the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, only it’s been dialled up to 850hp and, thanks to the optional LM30 pack, inconel exhaust manifolds with titanium pipes. The bodywork, meanwhile, has been penned by P1 Spider designer Paul Howse and is made entirely from carbon fibre. Factor in redesigned doors that are 10kg lighter than those on the 750S and optional forged aluminium wheels means a target kerb weight of 1,250kg. That makes the 95-59 around 160kg lighter than the car it’s based on - and the 750S was hardly a heffalump.

All the more impressive is the fact that Lanzante has managed to cram three seats into a space that would normally contain two. It’s still the same ‘monocage 2’ tub found in the McLaren, the outline of which can be seen around the glasshouse, but the cockpit has been totally redesigned to accommodate a trio of seats. The 95-59 has a central bucket in line with where the you’d find the two conventionally placed seats in the 750S, while the rear passengers have to make do strapping themselves directly to the tub - just like you would in an F1.

To demonstrate the new layout, Lanzante invited us for a passenger ride around Goodwood circuit in one of its early development mules. It’s so early in its development, in fact, that it still resembles a camouflaged 750S that’s minus some bodywork. The back end, for instance, has a good chunk missing to accommodate the 95-59’s lower exhaust exist, while the curvy rear lights have been replaced by a set of rudimentary LED strips. And so you don’t mistake it for one of Woking’s prototypes, the pattern of the camo wrap is based on the company’s Ganesh logo and alludes to shape of the final product.

It’s just as makeshift of the inside, with most of the original dashboard replaced by a various bits of carbon and plastic, though the digital instrument cluster and steering wheel remain (with all the McLaren speed marks covered up, of course). The central driver’s seat is a lightweight carbon-backed bucket reserved for test driver Edward Sandström who, aside from having an epic surname, won the 2015 Nurburgring 24 Hours driving an Audi R8 and has raced in just about every GT category there is. The only trophy I’ve ever received was a participation cup for swimming in year three, and I had to give it back at the end of term, so I’d be sitting behind Sandström in the left of the 95-59’s two passenger seats.

Having not sat in a McLaren F1 before, the passenger seating position feels a little alien. On the one hand, you view out is a bit like the over-the-shoulder camera angles used in '90s GT racing, which seems fitting, and there’s an enormous amount of legroom. On the other hand, you’re positioned considerably further away from the dash, as if you were sat on the rear bench in a hatchback with no driver or passenger seat obscuring the view out. It’s a little odd at first, because you almost feel a step removed from what the driver’s doing, but that quickly subsides once Sandström is shown the green light at the end of the pit lane and the twin-turbo V8 behind us roars into life.

It takes a few seconds for wrap your head around the sheer acceleration forces the 95-59 inflicts on you. Sandström says the engine’s running the standard 750S tune, which serves as a reminder of how epically quick McLaren’s supercar is and that the 95-59 will have a good 100hp more. Head back in the game, and you begin to realise that the three-seat layout is actually more involving for the two passengers. The view out isn’t nearly as compromised as you might expect because of how low in the tub you sit, and you’ll be far too busy watching the driver’s inputs to notice what’s going on around you. By sitting behind and slightly to one side, you can see all the small steering inputs and how early Sandström is able to get on the power around Goodwood’s sweeping corners. It’s fascinating to watch.

Admittedly, it’s near impossible to glean any driving impressions from watching someone else drive, no matter how good they are, and being an early development car means it really isn’t representative of what Lanzante has planned for the 95-59. But it’s got all the active damping wizardry of the 750S, inspiring serious commitment from Sandström through not-so-straight Fordwater and the exit of Lavant, and will be a good deal lighter once the all the carbon bits are bolted on. And while the Ricardo V8 is nowhere near as sonorous as the old BMW V12, it’s relentless in its delivery and still fills the cockpit with all the right notes.

Once we’re back in the pits, I jump into the middle seat to see just how significant the change in driving position is. It’s no wonder Gordon Murray was so adamant about having the F1 configured this way, because it immediately feels like the perfect driving position. The 750S’s low scuttle provides a panoramic view of the road ahead, and you being bang in the middle of it means you’ve know exactly where to position the car for corners. That may be stating the obvious, but it’s only when you shuffle into the middle that the layout’s benefits reveal themselves. It makes getting back into a conventional two-seater feel a bit, well, antiquated.

Naturally, we’ll have to wait until we’ve had a go in the production car (and hopefully in the middle seat next time) to deliver anything like a proper verdict, but all signs point to it being a properly exciting supercar with genuine F1 pedigree. And at £1,020,000 minus the cost of a donor car, it’s a more affordable way into three-seat supercar ownership than the GMA or Speedtail route. Lanzante is only making 59 of them, though, so it’s easy to imagine most of those build slots have already been taken. And easy to see why, too.