The engine comes from BMW and the transmission from Audi.
McLaren only made five examples of the F1 LM, and one prototype. This means that your chances of getting one are slim. You’ll likely have to spend several millions to get one of these five cars. You can also build it yourself. You read that correctly.
The F1 LM series was a collection of five cars named after the McLaren F1 GTRs that finished the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. Each car was a stripped down version of F1 with a more sparse cabin, different aerodynamics and no interior sound suppression. The most noticeable difference between the F1 LM and regular F1 was visually the larger CFRP rear wing. This is in contrast to the active wing on the former.
McLaren did not publish actual blueprints or diagrams for the F1 LM. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t make one. Danie Brough from South Africa proved that dreams can come true if they are pursued relentlessly. Brough began a project 23 years ago to build an F1 LM replica. Now the car can be driven.
Cars.co.za invited the creator to take the Papaya Orange-replica behind the wheel and produced the video that you can see at the top. According to the creator, he used photos as well as scale models to calculate all dimensions.
In the video, Brough explains that “Everything you see in this car, was done by me.” I didn’t build the engine. “I even made a flywheel.” The engine is a twin-turbo V12 from BMW, mated with a six-speed manual transmission from Audi. It took years of research. It took many years to find the right dimensions. Then, there was the purchase of small model cars and scaling them up.