Track day experience with the McLaren Senna GTR

Once you drive the Senna GTR on track, the road-legal car will feel inadequate.

BHPian meta recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Here is a summary of my thoughts on the Senna GTR after tracking it.

There is a rather wide spectrum of track-worthy cars, with Formula 1 cars being at the absolute top end of the spectrum and street-legal sports cars being at the lower end.

No matter how high-performing or "track-oriented" a fully-homologated road-legal car is, it is still compromised on the track if compared to a roughly similar or even slightly lesser dedicated track-only car. The things that a car either needs (for practicality) or requires (because of legislation) for road use are usually in direct contradiction to what's optimal on the track.

Sometimes, a manufacturer takes an already extreme road-legal supercar and creates an even more extreme track-only version of it. For example (this is not an exhaustive list, but I can talk about these based on first-hand experience):

1. 599 GTB: 599XX
2. Enzo Ferrari: FXX
3. LaFerrari: FXX-K
4. P1: P1 GTR
5. Senna: Senna GTR
6. Aventador: Essenza SCV12

Of the road-legal cars listed above, the Senna is easily the most track-oriented. It is by far the lightest and has plenty of power, significant mechanical grip, and non-trivial aero. And yet, even though it outperforms almost all current road-legal cars on the track, it still has some compromises that will hold it back.

You get rid of the aforementioned compromises and you end up with a purer, more unfettered Senna: the Senna GTR.

The recipe is quite straightforward:

• More power: An additional 25PS for a total of 825PS
• Less weight: Just a bit over 2,600 lbs dry
• No road-going frills: No airbags, infotainment, secondary catalysts, fancy variable ride control suspension, or glass (all polycarbonate windows)
• Racecar tweaks: GT3-derived steering, integrated roll cage and harness mount points, wider front and rear tracks, lower ride height, race-derived suspension with 4-way adjustable dampers and solid bushes, slick tires
• More aero! (It's hard to miss—just look at it)

The road-going Senna is already a very fast, light, nimble, and raw car. It is pretty much devoid of cabin insulation, so it vibrates like a race car at all engine speeds, including at idle. On Trofeo R tires, it has an impressive lateral grip.

In some ways, the GTR feels quite like the road car: it vibrates the same way, the cabin is almost the same, and most of the controls are familiar. As you start driving it, it feels like a slightly stiffened up Senna that's somewhat less pitch sensitive.

However, as you start going faster, the differences become starker. You realize that the GTR is quite a bit more stable: the lateral grip is insane! (Once you experience slick tires, there's no going back.) There is more downforce available at lower speeds. You can get back on power quicker in the corners. At full throttle, the noise is even more intense because of the track exhaust setup, and the road car's upshift/downshift "bangs" are still present.

The road-legal Senna's base price sans options was approximately $965K before taxes in the United States. Options could add a lot more—in some cases, several hundred thousand more. In comparison, the Senna GTR started at $1.7M, which is kind of double! The respective production numbers were 500 units and 75 units, so there's exclusivity.

(There also were some few-off special edition units made of the Senna and 5 "LM" units made of the GTR, all at higher costs than their "regular" brethren. Exclusivity can be complicated!)

But the price is an irrelevant metric: once you drive the Senna GTR on the track, the road-legal car will feel inadequate. That's just how it is.

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