McLaren’s ultimate road-legal track car arrives in NZ
Bearing the name of a Formula 1 legend, the McLaren Senna has been designed to be the most responsive and engaging road-legal McLaren ever.
Feb 1, 2018
One example of the hand-assembled McLaren Senna hypercars delivered to customers globally arrived in New Zealand recently.
Following McLaren’s ‘form follows function’ design philosophy to its extreme, the Senna is a mid-engined, rear-wheel drive road-legal track car which exhibits all the hallmarks of a stripped-back racer.
Purposefully aggressive in appearance, the Senna features a variety of performance enhancements engineered specifically for the model.
Built around a carbon-fibre Monocage III chassis, the Senna boasts carbon body panels which make it the lightest road car the Woking-based manufacturer has built since the iconic F1. Active front and rear aerodynamics provide for up to 800kg of downforce, while even the cockpit has been pared back so only essential instrumentation is displayed. The driver sits in an ultra-light, one-piece carbon fibre racing seat, with a roof-mounted ‘snorkel’ intake helping to enliven the experience in the driver’s seat.
The Senna also features advanced RaceActive Chassis Control II (RCC II) suspension and Comfort, Sport, Track and Race handling modes. Adding to the drama is a unique Iconel and titanium exhaust system which exits through an ultra-low carbon fibre rear deck.
Underneath the engine cover lies the most powerful engine ever configured for a McLaren road car: a 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 producing 800PS (789bhp) and 800Nm of torque. The impressive weight saving measures McLaren’s engineering team has achieved, combined with the power output of the V8 means the Senna offers a power-to-weight ratio of 668PS-per-tonne (659bhp).
As to be expected, the Senna offers savage performance: 0-100km/h in 2.8 seconds, or 0-200km/h in just 6.8 seconds. But it also offers unprecedented stopping power, braking from 200km/h to standstill in just 100m.
“The power, torque and performance are mind-blowing and on throttle, with the intake above you and the air mixing in the carbon fibre plenum, it feels like the engine is right there alongside you in the cockpit,” said McLaren Automotive Chief Engineer, says Marcus Waite at the Senna’s unveiling.
The McLaren Senna will be strictly-limited to 500 builds, all of which have been allocated to customers.