► McLaren coming to the Hypercar class in 2027
► Will use Dallara chassis and V6 hybrid
► Customer cars being made, too – provided you’re rich
McLaren has already confirmed that it plans to enter the top class of the World Endurance Championship, and now you can own an endurance racer. We’ve been up close with the ‘customer’ car at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
As part of Project Endurance, where McLaren is getting itself involved with top tier endurance racing again, it’s also producing a set of track-only versions that clients can buy and own. Of course, that idea comes with quite a few caveats – with the largest being you’d need to be a billionaire to even get close to one, and McLaren needs to keep a hold of it for the first two years.
‘The top of the car is still produced under LMDh regulations,’ Neil Underwood, head of HyperTrack cars at McLaren, tells us. ‘And then what we’ve done after is incorporate McLaren design cues, like the Performance Line down the side similar to McLaren’s CanAm cars. The DRLs – those vertical lights – are the same on the front and the rear of the Sabre [a limited-run, US-only hypercar], and the rear section is very much like the P1.’
Like the endurance racer, the client version features an electrified 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 powertrain that Underwood says has been specifically developed for Project Endurance, driving the rear wheels with endurance race-spec engineering. ‘There’s also a seven-speed sequential Xtrac gearbox, as well as all the right bits to make it go faster,’ smiles Underwood.
Naturally, there’s a significantly detailed onboarding process for those lucky enough to get access to their own Project Endurance car. ‘Clients will get simulator sessions, a seat fitted for the car, as well as lots of ‘money can’t buy’ experiences,’ says Underwood. ‘You’re in the development as it happens, too. The difference between ours and the Ferrari or Aston Martin programme, for example, is that we’ll really take you behind the scenes. They’ll come to the first test with us and experience what a pro driver will.’
Part of that programme is also choosing a livery or paint scheme. ‘You can choose from a number of liveries, as we’re not doing an MSO programme on this,’ says Underwood. ‘The car will come in raw carbon, then you choose a livery which will be in vinyl. If you want your car painted, that’d be an additional process but it’s possible.’
For the first two years, McLaren keeps custody of the car itself due to the super exclusive battery technology used. After that, the batteries are replaced. ‘After the two years, you can then take the car and run it yourself with a new battery programme, or we can keep running it through our McLaren Pure programme,’ says Underwood.
McLaren already races in the GT series with a 720S, but McLaren Racing recently confirmed its return to WEC. The team it’ll be partnering with United Autosports (co-owned by Zak Brown) to come back to the top class of prototype endurance racing.
Details are thin on the ground, but the racer will compete with the LMDh rules like Porsche – rather than the bespoke Hypercar rules Peugeot and Ferrari adhere to. McLaren will also be using a Dallara chassis, and will pair it with a twin-turbocharged V6 with hybrid assistance.
‘McLaren Racing’s return to the FIA World Endurance Championship marks the beginning of a new and exciting chapter for us,’ said McLaren Racing’s CEO Zak Brown. ‘We have a rich history in the sport together with McLaren Automotive, having raced and won on our first attempt at Le Mans in 1995. This customer programme will offer buyers an incredible chance to own an authentic race car and get closer to the action on track.’
Jake has been an automotive journalist since 2015, joining CAR as Staff Writer in 2017. With a decade of car news and reviews writing under his belt, he became CAR's Deputy News Editor in 2020 and then News Editor in 2025. Jake's day-to-day role includes co-ordinating CAR's news content across its print, digital and social media channels. When he's not out interviewing an executive, driving a new car for review or on a photoshoot for a CAR feature, he's usually found geeking out on the latest video game, buying yet another pair of wildly-coloured trainers or figuring out where he can put another car-shaped Lego set in his already-full house.
By Jake Groves
CAR's news editor; gamer, trainer freak and serial Lego-ist
