McLAREN SOLUS GT
MAC MONO
From Vision GT to visceral reality, the V10 Solus GT is a single seater, lightweight hit of pure violence. You’re on your own, Jethro...
WORDS JETHRO BOVINGDON
PHOTOGRAPHY GREG PAJO
1 Jethro spent three months in training for this very moment. On his PlayStation, that is
2 Lovely track and all that, but if you're a real gazilli onaire, you'd have one of these at home
3 No real purpose to exposed front suspension, but it’s pretty cool all the same
4 Any final words, Jethro?
Lovely track and all that, but if you’re a real gazillionaire, you’d have one of these at home
Despite the might of the Ford Motor Co
And the breathtaking expertise of Multimatic, our time back in Canada felt a bit like being embedded in a skunkworks team. The track was amazing but tucked away, out of sight; the team quietly went about their business, logging data in silence, measuring tyre and track temperatures. No fuss. No showbiz. Just a badass car doing badass things away from the gaze of the world.
This is different. We’re at COTA – a state of the art F1 facility – and there are people and cars everywhere, lavish hospitality and film crews and Bruno Senna and a McLaren MP4/4 and MP4/5 making ears bleed as they warm through in a pit garage. The MP4/4 won 15 of 16 F1 races back in 1988 driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost and, obviously, has irresistible star power. It draws those attending this ‘Pure McLaren’ event like bees to honey. These are McLaren’s best customers. Those racing in their onemake series, or buyers of the ultimate series cars or their track-only hypercars. There are 20 Sennas gathered in the paddock including some road registered Senna GTRs, plus P1s and the wild 720S GT3X – a car that follows a similar approach to the Ford GT Mk IV.
In other words, I am among my people. Ultra high net worth individuals. Today I am top dog as I’m here to drive McLaren’s newest track only project, the Solus GT. In fact, the real top dog is The Triple F Collection, which has kindly allowed us to drive its Solus GT, finished in Gulf colours. These guys have all the hypercars and are officially my new favourite people.