McLaren Senna Can-Am and XP special editions honor two racing icons

McLaren produced 500 examples of the Senna road car, and the entire run sold out immediately. This year it added the more powerful, track-only Senna GTR, selling out of all 75 units instantly. That’s not the end of the Senna line, however, with 26 more units divvied up between three special editions. The most numerous is the Senna LM, a street-legal version of the GTR supposedly put together by McLaren Special Operations. The bodywork’s been toned down a touch by dropping the aero flics on the front bumper and the GTR’s extended rear wing, and the LM fits a less aggressive rear diffuser. Interestingly, a spy shot shows the Senna LM also going without the windows in the lower portions of the doors. There’s no reliable intel on the engine yet, but it’s hoped that the LM fits the same 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 as the GTR, producing 814 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque. The LM is reputed to cost £1.3 million ($1.7 million U.S.) 

CarBuzz reports that another special edition will be based on the Senna LM, having received an anonymous tip from a reader with one of the cars on order. Called the Senna Can-Am, McLaren would only say that this model was commissioned by a dealer. As the name implies, the coupe celebrates the legendary Can-Am cars that terrorized the series in the late 1960s and 1970s, and that are responsible for giving us the trademark orange hue McLaren remains known for. The Senna Can-Am is a specific homage to the M8B, called “the perfect race car,” that started on pole and won all 11 races during the 1967 season with Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme driving.

In CarBuzz‘s rendering, the Can-Am is done up in McLaren orange with Canadian flags on the front fenders, and number roundels on the rear fenders along with the signatures of McLaren and Hulme. Instead of the “LM” logos on the wing endplates and embroidered into the headrests, “Can-Am” appears instead, the M8B’s race record appears on the door sills, and a black anodized throttle pedal gets the Can-Am logo. CarBuzz‘s source said the Senna Can-Am is “due to be delivered in two to four weeks,” and cost $1.5 million.

The final three special-edition examples (pictured) come from early in the life of the Senna. Beverly Hills managed to acquire three of the experimental prototypes that McLaren used to develop the Senna, and commissioned three builds now known as the Senna XP. Each car gets a name and celebrates a Formula One race track where Ayrton Senna scored an especially outstanding victory. All three are dressed in gloss black carbon fiber, accented with the colors of the F1 circuit’s country, and adorned with Ayrton’s car number on the wing endplates. The “Master of Monaco” lauds Senna’s six victories in the principality; “Lap of the Gods” hails Senna’s opening lap in the wet at Donnington in 1993 when he drove from fifth place to first in less than a lap; “Home Victory” relishes Senna’s 1991 win in Brazil.

The Senna XP uses the standard Senna’s 3.9-liter V8 with 789 hp and 590 lb-ft, costs $1,435,328, and naturally, is sold out.