To say Gordon Murray grumbled when he was tasked with transforming the road-going McLaren F1 into an endurance racing car would be an understatement. You see, when the Formula 1 mastermind set about designing the finest zero-compromise driver’s car for the road, he’d told McLaren’s head honcho Ron Dennis not to come back later and ask for a competition version.

Ultimately, it was mounting pressure from customers, who saw the newly formed BPR Endurance Championship as a perfect stage on which the F1 could compete and likely succeed, which led to the birth of the GTR. A compromised racer it might have fundamentally been, but the F1 GTR won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright on its debut in the French endurance classic.

Nineteen ninety-seven. Cue the arrival of the Porsche and Mercedes-AMG factory teams, whose interpretation of the rules and spirit of the flourishing sports-car championship were perhaps not as sportsmanlike as their existing competitors would have appreciated. McLaren was forced to up its game. Murray was forced to return to the drawing board.

As per the homologation rules dictated by the FIA, if McLaren wanted to drastically update the F1 GTR, it needed to sell a corresponding road-going version. So that’s exactly what it did. Christened the F1 GT, just three of these new high-downforce unicorns were built. The corresponding competition car, the 1997 McLaren F1 GTR ‘Longtail’, was an entirely different beast, differing from its predecessor in a number of important ways.  

Most obviously there was the bodywork, which was swelled dramatically in a bid for more aerodynamic downforce. The extended front and rear overhangs (adding 641mm to the overall length), the taller and more pronounced roof scoop, the louvres atop the front wheel arches and the wider rear track all combined to give the F1 the downforce it needed to match the speed of the Porsche 911 GT1s and the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR AMGs.

Needless to say, the modifications were not skin deep. The size of the BMW engine was reduced ever so slightly in order to improve the reliability over long distances, while a six-speed sequential X-Trac gearbox replaced the comparatively antiquated H-pattern of the older model. Our favourite feature? The golf ball-style gear knob – a feature borrowed from BMW’s all-conquering touring cars and a small signal of the Munich manufacturer’s involvement with the F1 GTR programme.

The Finnish driver JJ Lehto, who’d been part of the lineup who won Le Mans with the F1 GTR in 1995, described the ‘Longtail’ as “like jumping from Formula 3000 to Formula 1’ when he first drove it in early 1997. “The downforce was on another level, the braking was better, the car was lighter and the engine produced more power,” he continued. “It was instantly clear that the car was a huge step forward in every area.”

Indeed, the Schnitzer-run Works BMW Motorsport team took delivery of four of the 10 ‘Longtails’ built. Four chassis were delivered to the Gulf-Davidoff GTC Motorsports team, commonly held as McLaren’s ‘British entry’. The two remaining cars, chassis numbers 19R (the prototype) and 027R, were sold to smaller privateer outfits.

The penultimate of the 10 ‘Longtails’ built, chassis number 27R was ordered new by David Morrison’s Parabolica Motorsport outfit. A Scottish banker high in the ranks of Goldman Sachs, Morrison counted a ‘regular’ F1 road car and an F1 LM among his collection. Finished in a striking yellow and blue Parabolica livery, the car made its competitive debut in the opening round of the 1997 British GT Championship at Silverstone on 6 April.

Driven by Gary Ayles and Chris Goodwin (who later became McLaren’s chief test-driver), chassis 27R was the sole McLaren F1 on the entry list, which also featured, among others, several Porsche 911 GT2s and a Jaguar XJ220. As the bright yellow McLaren crossed the finish line over 1min10sec ahead of the second-placed Porsche, so the new F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ recorded its first victory.

Kazumichi Goh’s Team Lark McLaren leased chassis number 027R for the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans  

The traditional pre-24 Hours of Le Mans practice weekend took place in early May and chassis 27R was drafted into action for the second time. For Le Mans, however, this F1 was leased to the quasi-Works Team Lark McLaren from Japan, which was fresh off the back of its spectacular GT500 triumph in the 1996 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) with the short-tail F1 GTR. The major upset, which caused a great stir among the factory Nissan, Honda and Toyota outfits who’d lost on home turf, was architected by team owner Kazumichi Goh.

When the JGTC’s governing body imposed a raft of sanctions and technical limitations on the Lark-liveried McLarens in a bid to level the playing field for 1997, Goh and McLaren decided to withdraw completely. Nineteen ninety-six remains the only year to date in which the GT500 crown was claimed by a non-Japanese manufacturer.

We digress – back to chassis 27R. In light of his team’s withdrawal from the JGTC, Goh instead turned his sights to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most challenging motor race on the planet. McLaren were able to matchmake Goh and David Morrison and a deal was struck to allow Team Lark McLaren to sponsor this F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ for both pre-qualifying and the race proper. It was duly refinished in the Japanese team’s striking ‘Rocket Pink’ and ‘Black Obsidian Grey’ livery, with some clandestine-ish sponsorship (Lark was a Philip Morris-owned tobacco company, the advertisement of which was prohibited at Le Mans).

Chassis number 27R returned to its yellow Team Parabolica livery for the remainder of the 1997 FIA GT Championship

A strong trio of Japanese pilots was earmarked to race chassis 27R at Le Mans: Akihiko Nakaya, Katsutomo Kaneishi and Keiichi Tsuchiya. Tsuchiya was a coup for Team Lark McLaren and indeed the Le Mans organisers. The commonly held ‘Drift King’, Tsuchiya can fairly be described as the man who made drifting such a worldwide phenomenon. Parabolica’s Gary Ayles joined the squad for pre-qualifying in order to help the Japanese drivers get up to speed with the car. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ayles set the quickest time. 

Before Le Mans proper, Parabolica reassumed possession of this F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ and entered the second round of the 1997 FIA GT Championship at Silverstone. With Le Mans just around the corner, chassis 27R was kept in its Team Lark McLaren livery for convenience, albeit with Parabolica sponsorship. Against the might of the factory Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and BMW teams and in less-than-ideal conditions, Ayles and Goodwin carefully fought their way up the grid.

As they snatched the lead, so chassis 27R became the first – and only – privately entered McLaren F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ to lead a round of the FIA GT Championship. The heavens soon opened and Parabolica made a pit stop. Tragically, the race was red-flagged due to the conditions shortly afterwards and Ayles and Goodwin were forced to settle for sixth position.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans beckoned. After the first qualifying session it became clear that Katsutomo Kaneishi was well off the pace on the Circuit de la Sarthe, so the team took the difficult decision to substitute in Gary Ayles, who’d had the most seat time in the car. When Ayles duly turned a lap time of 3min47.1sec and earned the team 10th on the grid, faces in the Team Lark McLaren garage were awash with relief. Ayles was elected to start the 24-hour race – once again a decision which proved worthwhile. The Brit held his nerve and was quickly mingling with the leaders. By the time the light faded and darkness began to envelope the circuit, chassis 27R was running well within the top 10. That was until Akihiko Nakaya overcooked it into Tertre Rouge and that was that.

Under the Parabolica Motorsport banner, chassis 27R competed at circuits around the world including Spa-Francorchamps, Suzuka and Laguna Seca

It’s worth noting that, seven years later and after a number of failed attempts, Kazumichi Goh finally won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2004. His team became only the second Japanese outfit to achieve the feat. Sweet, sweet redemption.

After Le Mans this McLaren was returned to its bright yellow Parabolica livery and entered in the remaining rounds of the 1997 FIA GT Championship, predominantly in Europe but also at Suzuka in Japan and Laguna Seca in the United States of America. The most notable results of the season was a brace of sixth positions at the Nürburgring and Spa-Francorchamps. Looking back at Parabolica’s 1997 campaign with chassis 27R, the positives outweighed the negatives for David Morrison and his squad of drivers and personnel. To this day, Chris Goodwin describes this F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ as one of the greatest cars he ever had the pleasure of driving.

In 1998, McLaren brokered a deal for Morrison to sell chassis 27R to the British accountant (read fraudster) and founder of AM Racing James Cox. Cox hatched a plan to contest the 1999 British GT Championship and organised a lavish evening to launch his campaign, starring the McLaren (now painted in Papaya Orange), the pop star Paul Young and the supermodel Caprice. Veuve Clicquot was the only visible sponsor on the car. If questions weren’t already being raised as to the origins of Cox’s wealth, then they certainly were when he appeared on a BBC television show with his two McLaren F1s.

Cox managed to bank five races, partnered with Chris Goodwin, before the authorities caught up with him in the summer of 1999. Chassis 27R was acquired by Paul Osborn of CARS International. He kept it for almost a decade, during which time he exhibited it at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

In 2011, this McLaren was sent to the world’s leading F1 GTR specialist Dean Lanzante in Hampshire, England, to be comprehensively restored at a cost in excess of £110,000.And later, in 2017, the necessary modifications were made by Lanzante in order to make the ‘Longtail’ roadworthy – a process that cost almost £200,000. 

The first F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ to undergo the race-to-road conversion was chassis number 19R, the prototype affectionately known as ‘Squiggles’ thanks to its colourful pop-art-inspired livery, back in 2015. If you thought this was merely a case of raising the ride height and quietening the exhaust, you can think again. The year-long project was undertaken in close collaboration with the F1’s legendary designer Gordon Murray and his expert team at Gordon Murray Design (GMD). 

Both Lanzante and GMD had a wealth of experience road-converting the short-tailed 1995 and 1996 F1 GTRs. However, from a mechanical and technological perspective, those cars were much closer to the production road-going F1. The ‘Longtail’ went several steps further in terms of development, receiving a significantly advanced aerodynamic package that, by its very nature, compromised on practicality.

Both Lanzante and GMD’s brief from the outset was clear: make the car genuinely useable on the road while maintaining the attributes that made it such a formidable racer. Particular focus was paid to the steering, which needed to navigate England’s myriad mini-roundabouts, and the damping, which needed to handle England’s notoriously poor road surfaces. GMD also had to work out how the handbrake system from the road-going F1 could be fitted to the GTR ‘Longtail’ – an installation process nowhere near as simple as it sounds.

Other modifications included raising the ride height, fitting smaller wheels and tyres, fitting a left-hand passenger seat and installing quieter exhaust baffles that didn’t sap power. Where necessary, parts were reengineered or even designed from scratch, as the accompanying technical drawings illustrate. And Lanzante and GMD tested the car extensively at the Dunsfold aerodrome, paying particular attention to the aerodynamic efficiency of the car with its bespoke reprofiled nose section.

Chassis number 27R went through the exact same process as chassis number 19R, at a cost in excess of £198,000. It’s important to note that all the original components removed at this point accompany the car, which can be returned to full competition-specification if required.

Chassis number 27R was subsequently road-registered in the United Kingdom. The car was acquired by its current owner, a collector with a stable full of ultra-significant historic competition cars including a Ferrari 250 LM and a 312 PB, in 2017. He entrusted Lanzante with returning the car to its original Parabolica FIA GT Championship livery. Chassis 027R has made a number of public appearances since then, including at the 2022 Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace, the 2023 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance (where it was awarded ‘Best in Class’) and the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Not an everyday sight: a McLaren F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ driving on the public roads around Monterey on the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance 

In April of 1997, the British racing drivers Gary Ayles and Chris Goodwin earned the ‘Longtail’ variant of the McLaren F1 GTR its very first victory, in the opening round of the British GT Championship at Silverstone. “I was a bit embarrassed because it was like bringing a sledgehammer to a knife fight,” recalls Ayles, who was reunited with the very F1 with which he scored that win, chassis number 27R, at the 2024 Festival of Speed. “I’d raced a Ferrari F40 before that and the McLaren was leaps and bounds ahead in terms of refinement.”

Despite the fact he hadn’t sat in the car for almost 30 years, Ayles took no time getting his eye in on the world-famous Goodwood hill-climb. “I’m a bit rusty, which makes things a bit nerve-racking, but the experience has been fantastic,” Ayles gushes. “When you’re younger you don’t really take things in like you should, but now I’m older I realise what a wonderful time in my life that was. I can’t help but smile every time I climb in.”

Gary Ayles reunited with chassis number 27R at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed 

Chassis 27R is accompanied by a generous history file, comprising period photography, telemetry data logged during its period competition career, invoices from its restoration and road conversion at Lanzante, and the ultra-rare McLaren factory F1 GTR workshop manual and spare-parts catalogue. There’s also an inventory of spare parts including body panels, brake sets, transmission componentry, radiators and spare wheels.

With only 10 in existence and all accounted for in the collections of both manufacturers and prominent private individuals, the GTR ‘Longtails’ are the rarest of the McLaren F1’s competition variants. Chassis 27R not only boasts the distinction of being the very first example to win a race, but it also counts six rounds of the top-flight FIA GT Championship on its competition record and, of course, the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans. This F1 retains the exact engine with which it was delivered, numbered S70/3-606 – another string to its bow.

Comprehensively restored by the best in the business and fully road-worthy, this McLaren is among the most sought-after modern-era endurance racing cars of them all. Needless to say, it would be welcomed with open arms to a whole host of the world’s most prestigious dynamic and static historic motoring events, including the Le Mans Classic, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.

Price Upon Application