Remember when you’d play Gran Turismo until the early hours of the morning, building and racing your dream garage? Then a few years later, you’d stumble upon a few million dollars and buy those cars in real life? Yeah… us neither. While the sequence we just walked you through is nothing more than a pipe dream for most, time and time again, manufacturers have dangled the virtual carrot with “Vision GT” concept vehicles — a new way of testing the market in the form of digital concept cars. These concepts have generally remained just that, but McLaren is now putting their money where their mouth (-watering renderings) is by announcing the production of 25 Vision GT cars, dubbed the McLaren Solus GT.
From the exterior shots, the Solus GT appears to resemble the Gran Turismo Concept. A Le Mans-esque, aerodynamically sculpted hypercar that’ll break as many hearts as it will lap records (for the few that don’t end up sealed away in vaults). The sliding canopy above the centrally mounted solo seat might just be the coolest design feature we’ve seen on a McLaren, although truth be told, the whole package looks like pure childhood fantasy. From the wheel shrouds to the front-splitter, the entire package looks to extract every drop of aerodynamic efficiency out of the car, to the point where McLaren claims the Solus GT will be capable of producing over 1,200 kilograms of downforce.
RELATED: Don’t Let It Fool You, This Everyday Driver Has McLaren Pulsing Through Its Veins
McLaren Automotive CEO Michael Leiters said: “The McLaren Solus GT is the realisation of a radical McLaren concept vehicle originally created for the world of virtual racing. Engineered free of any restrictions from road or race regulations, but with the full spectrum of McLaren’s expertise to bring it to reality, it epitomises our pioneering spirit.”
Surprisingly enough, one key element from the game that hasn’t made the real-world transition is the powertrain. The tried and tested twin-turbo V8 – a staple of modern McLarens – has been ditched in favour of a 5.2-litre normally aspirated V10. The bespoke powerplant will be capable of revving to over 10,000rpm and will double as a structural part of the chassis. Shifts will be taken care of via a straight-cut, seven-speed sequential gearbox, which will want to be razor sharp to propel 840PS in a package that weighs less than 1,000 kilograms. McLaren is targeting 0-100 km/h in around 2.5 seconds and a top speed of more than 320 km/h, but the real numbers will do their damage on the track.
McLaren has stated the Solus GT is currently undergoing track-testing before the sold-out allocation of 25 is delivered in 2023.
