Lanzante’s New 95-59 is a Million Pound Homage to Its Le Mans Victory

Lanzante sounds Italian, bears the mark of the Indian deity Ganesha as their mascot but is British. As if that wasn’t crazy enough, this automotive engineering firm makes it its business to take supercars, mostly McLarens, and make them even more hardcore. So when a company that’s looney enough to do that announces that it will make 59 units of an 850-horsepower hyper car, each expected to cost over one million Pounds Sterling (approximately 11.86 crore rupees) before taxes, one sits up and takes notice.

It’s a tremendous tribute act to the marque’s own victory in 1995 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans using a  McLaren F1 GTR bearing competition number 59 (hence the name). Unlike the usual crop of modern supercars, the Lanzante 95-59 has been designed from the start as a three-seater, drawing inspiration from the Gordon Murray designed McLaren F1 GTR which had a central driver’s seat.

The exterior styling has been designed by Paul House, who also designed the McLaren P1 and the 720, among others. The carbonfibre body is built around a McLaren derived carbonfibre chassis and is finished in the same shade of grey as the Le Mans winner from 30 years ago. The target kerb weight for the vehicle, whose production ready concept was shown at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, is a mere 1,250 kilograms. The result is a staggering 700 bhp per tonne power-to-weight ratio. Naturally, acceleration will be nothing short of brutal.

At the heart of the Lanzante 95-59 sits a twin turbocharged 4-litre V8 engine that puts out over 850bhp and a tarmac ripping 880Nm of maximum torque. Transmission duties are handled by a 7-speed sequential automatic gearbox.

Despite the hardcore race cred legacy behind the development of the 95-59, Lanzante says that this road going rocket is also a practical ship with room for plenty of luggage and a roomy 75-litre petrol tank. Now, if this isn’t a tribute, we don’t know what is. Don’t you agree?