The McLaren F1 GTR has returned! Meet Gordon Murray’s stunning new S1 LM

Nope, you haven’t just fallen into some space-time continuum wormhole, it’s still 2025 – 30 years on from Gordon Murray’s historic Le Mans win in the F1 GTR. What you’re looking at is the S1 LM - a road-legal, GMA T.50 and T.50s-based, F1 GTR homage built by Gordon Murray for one very special customer.

We'll let that sink in for a bit, give you time to browse the pics, because as launches go, a tribute to one of our favourite race cars, based on the underpinning of one of our favourite ever supercars, is a bit of a mic drop moment.

First, a history lesson. Gordon Murray never designed the F1 to go racing, but a few wealthy customers convinced him and McLaren boss Ron Dennis otherwise. Time only allowed for minimal modifications to be made, but the F1 GTR duly romped home 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th on its debut at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans – and a legend was born.

To celebrate, McLaren created five GTR-aping LM road cars, but with the added bonus of a more powerful V12 than was in either the race car or standard road car. Over the years, other F1 road cars have been treated to the lookalike high downforce kit, while a special few also got the unrestricted race engine… so it’s clear where the mood board came from here.

The S1 LM is one of two new cars from a newly minted company - GMSV (Gordon Murray Special Vehicles) – the other being the Le Mans GTR. GMSV’s purpose is to bring the imagination of Gordon’s team, and their most loyal and enthusiastic customers, to life. It will build rare and special supercars under three pillars: Heritage - continuation or reimagined models from Gordon’s back catalogue; Bespoke - 1 of 1 customer commissions such as this S1 LM; SV design - ultra low-volume specials based on GMA production cars, of which the Le Mans GTR is the first.

Back to the S1 LM (Special vehicle 1, Le Mans) - only five will be built, all going to the same customer who has a healthy obsession (like most of us) with Gordon’s 1995 Le Mans winning F1 GTR, and worked with the GMA team and his own designer to create a road-legal, modern interpretation of his all-time hero. The underpinnings are a greatest hits of T.50 and T.50s - the panels, for example, are made from the same, slightly lighter material as T.50s, but the three-seater layout and six-speed manual are T.50.

The V12 engine is another story entirely. The ‘standard’, naturally-aspirated 4.0-litre V12 was sent back to Cosworth for some fettling and returned as a 4.3-litre with a bigger bore featuring lighter internals, so it still revs to over 12,000rpm and now produces ‘over 700bhp’. Our ears are bleeding just thinking about it. The suspension is lighter and stiffer than T.50 and the engine solid mounted for even sharper handling response, but without a catastrophic effect on refinement, says GMSV. After all, this is designed to be a useable road car, not a track-day special.

The exterior is a blend of direct references to the F1 GTR fused with modern twists. Like the headlights – slim openings for a futuristic look, with cut-out surrounds that reference the original, larger lamps. There’s the bridge wing in the front clam, lozenge-shaped vents on the front wheel arch, five-spoke wheels, a roof scoop, sharp angles and intakes in the side profile… all lifted and reinterpreted from the OG.

But the rear steals the show. The fixed wing is a dead ringer (albeit with dual planes now for more downforce), the four round taillights, complete with new neon sunset slats are just perfect, as is the badging and Inconel quad exhausts. Again, the show car we saw only had a partial interior, but the focus inside, as you can see in the renderings, is to lean into Gordon’s founding principles of lightweight and engineering art... and have a bit of fun with the ear defenders, tartan seats and wooden shifter.

No word on price (if you have to ask etc) but the first one should be delivered next year. Apparently, GMSV is already working on the next batch of specials. So, what would you like to see next?