Gallery: the maddest cars to ever wear number plates

For those of you whose name begins with 'S' and end in 'tig', engineering firm RML announced this week that it would, for a pretty hefty sum, take your Aston Martin Vulcan and make it road legal. Something that from the factory, it most definitely isn't. Even with all the changes it plans, and has to make, we suspect the Vulcan we still be among the most hardcore cars ever to wear a registration plate.

It’s not the first time something so hardcore has been made road legal, either. Have a click through this little gallery of some of the other racers and trackday supercar specials which have had plates stuck on them for one reason or another. And as usual, tell us your favourite below. Or, indeed, the hypercar that's currently track-only that you wish to see wearing plates...

McLaren F1 GTR specialists Lanzante last year confirmed it would transform a number of P1 GTRs into road cars. It didn’t specify how or for how much money, only that it would. We haven’t seen any around, and if we’re honest the thought of a lighter, stiffer, more serious P1 scares us just a bit. We still would, though. The P1 GTR is brilliant on track, and a worth adversary to an attack helicopter...

The FIA obligated Mercedes to build 25 CLK GTRs, which it eventually did in 1998 and 1996 – some time after the GTR had made its race debut in the 1997’s FIA GT Championship.

For the road, Merc turned the 6.9-litre V12 down to ‘just’ 550bhp, swapped the rear-wing for something a bit more curvaceous and added some creature comforts to the interior. ABS and two small storage compartments were also added, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s messed around with the suspension & gearing too.

It’s said that Porsche wasn’t best pleased with its loss at the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours, particularly after a Dauer 962 (which you could also get as a road legal racer, incidentally) took overall honours in 1994. To blame was the McLaren F1 GTR, it thought, thus the 911 GT1 was born. Much success was duly had. 

The Strassenversion – literally ‘street version’ was the homologated road car, and as with the Merc, few concessions were made. Porsche gave it a proper interior borrowed from a 993-shape 911, raised & softened suspension and a new set of gear ratios. 

This one isn’t a Strassenversion. It’s the world’s only road legal GT1 Evo – read about it by clicking on these words. 

Nissan built the road-going R390 before the racer – very much unlike what Mercedes and Porsche did back in the Nineties. The work of Ian Callum (of Jaguar fame) and TWR, two were built, and one (the one you see above) remains in Nissan’s ownership. The engine was a 3.5-litre V8 with 550bhp, and the gearbox a six-speed sequential by XTrac. 

Just outrageous, this thing. Effectively a Le Mans prototype masquerading as a road car, the GT-One was designed to do one thing only: win Le Mans. It failed, just, but looked the business while doing so. The road car has a slightly smaller wing than the racer, a bit more ground clearance, a smaller fuel tank and catalytic converters. There’s an interior – of sorts - too. Some say that though it's road legal, the sole example has never actually been driven on the road. 

The F1 GT was McLaren’s homologation special. Three were built to homologate the long-tail F1 for competition – and one remains in the hands of McLaren. Without the restrictor plates of the racer, the 6.1-litre V12 makes 627bhp. Proper F1 GTR race cars have also been modified to make them road legal. As if the standard McLaren F1 wasn’t enough...

We couldn't possibly miss this off, a car we've been lucky enough to experience ourselves. It's a road registered Porsche 962, and its Japanese owner uses it go pop out for milk.

Under the bodywork is a complete jumble sale of 962 and 956 mechanicals. The suspension is from a 956, as is the dry-sumped 935/82 2.65-litre flat-six engine. A twin-turbo lump good for 630bhp – enough to send the slippery body shape north of 230mph.

But even though it looks like a racing car, sounds like a racing car, and has the innards of a racing car, under the eyes of the Japanese law it’s a road car. Brilliant.

Yep. Ferrari wanted you to keep your FXX on track, and would even look after it between your spectacularly loud, expensive and no doubt brilliant trackdays.

But German tuner Edo Competition had other ideas, and made the FXX road legal with the addition of more roadworthy tyres, a set of lights, a more restrictive catalytic converter, and… 80bhp.

The roadworthy FXX has a mighty 880bhp from its V12 engine, then, which isn’t a whole lot less than you get in the LaFerrari. And with just 30 FXXs produced - and barely any of them road legal - you’ve a heck of a lot of bragging potential over owners of Ferrari’s more recent hypercar.