Street-Legal McLaren P1 LM Shatters Nurburgring Record With 6:43.2 Lap

Street-Legal McLaren P1 LM Shatters Nurburgring Record With 6:43.2 Lap

A Lanzante-modified, street-legal McLaren P1 LM driven by Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack just set a scorching 'Ring lap, deposing the Lamborghini Huracan Performante's record

Nurburging lap records continue to be smashed. The most recent record holder, the Lamborghini Huracan Performante, set a blistering 6:52.01 lap in March, deposing the street-legal record long held by the Porsche 918 Spyder. Now, there's a new king: The McLaren P1 LM, a track-only hypercar made street legal by aftermarket firm Lanzante Motorsport. With Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack behind the wheel, it beat the Performante's lap record by nearly nine seconds.

.

Of course, caveats apply. Lanzante isn't a car manufacturer in the same vein as Lamborghini, McLaren, or Porsche. The company took the track-only P1 GTR—which McLaren never officially timed at the 'Ring—and modified it to street-legal spec for a select group of buyers in the U.S., Japan, U.K., and the UAE. Previously, the Lanzante-modified P1 LM became the fastest street-legal car to climb the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. With 986 horsepower from a twin-turbo V8 with hybrid assist, it's no surprise the thing is quick.

Lanzante promised to bring the P1 to the 'Ring to set a lap time, and now we've got video of the record-setting lap. It's astonishingly quick, riding on street-legal but custom made Pirelli Trofeo tires of "a specific size and compound." And while it's not quite apples-to-apples to compare an aftermarket-modified hypercar to a factory-stock production vehicle, one thing is for certain: This is one hell of a lap.

Perhaps it's more appropriate to compare the Lanzante-modified McLaren to the NIO EP9, an all-electric supercar that lapped the 'Ring in 6:45.9 (watch the video here). It's street-legal in Europe (but not the U.S.), though with only seven built so far and a price tag of nearly $1.5 million, it's not exactly a "production car." Still, Lanzante's McLaren beat the NIO by more than two seconds.

While Lanzante's effort was not officially backed by McLaren, this isn't the tuner's first time tracking one of the British automaker's vehicles: Lanzante campaigned the "semi-works" McLaren F1 GTR that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995.

As for the P1 LM's streetability? Lanzante says that, after the lap record was set, the car was driven all the way from the Nurburgring to the company's home in the U.K. Sadly, you probably won't be able to buy one for yourself: Only five examples were built, and they've all

World Most Expensive Car $12.8 Million Rolls Royce Sweptail

World's Most Expensive Car: $12.8 Million Rolls Royce Sweptail

Audi A8 L quattro 2017

Audi A8 L quattro 3.0 Year 2017

Watch the BMW i8 Spyder Testing at the Nurburgring on an Open Track Day

Watch the BMW i8 Spyder Testing at the Nurburgring on an Open Track Day

We're not sure why BMW's engineers chose to go out and test a prototype during a public track day, but we're not complaining.

All the way back in 2012, BMW teased us with an open-top version of its then-new i8 hybrid concept car. Three years later, it was confirmed BMW would be bringing the i8 Spyder to production following the coupe's success. We've seen cleverly hidden test mules of the Spyder before, but this latest clip is our best look yet at BMW's flagship mid-engine convertible.

Spotted yesterday on the Nurburgring by YouTuber statesidesupercars, this camouflaged i8 test mule is very clearly sporting some sort of removable roof mechanism over the cockpit, highlighted by its contrasted flat black color to the rest of the car. Additionally, the bodywork over the engine bay is stylized to accommodate a convertible look—much like a Ferrari 488 Spider.

What's curious about this video is the time of day BMW chose to test its latest sports car on the 'Ring. Instead of running during normal work hours when the industry test pool is in session, the engineers decided to go out during later tourist hours, where the track is open to anyone. Strange, but not unheard of.

Watch for yourself as the i8 Spyder navigates its way through traffic as it tests on the Nurburgring.

Heres How Manual and Automatic Transmissions Really Work

Here's How Manual and Automatic Transmissions Really Work

If you're looking at the difference between an automatic and a manual transmission, it's not hard to understand that one shifts gears for you, and the other doesn't. Even the concept of shifting gears isn't hard to grasp. After all, if you've ever ridden a bike, you've had to do something similar.

But if you want to understand exactly how car transmissions work, that's a little more difficult. Unlike a bicycle, you can't easily see what's going on in either a manual or automatic. The video below, though, gives a pretty in-depth explanation of how each type of transmission works, making it much easier to understand the differences.

The narrator is a robot, and the cars shown at the beginning appear to be front-wheel-drive BMWs, which makes it a little weird. Still, the illustrations and explanations do a great job of making relatively complex concepts simple to understand.

As the G.I. Joe commercial used to say, now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

This Car May Be the Greatest Barn Find Ever

This Car May Be the Greatest Barn Find Ever

An as-new Isotta Fraschini that was possibly never driven? That's crazy.

Earlier this year, a 1924 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A Landaulet crossed the auction block in Arizona and hammered for $434,500. This particular 1924 Isotta Fraschini spent the better part of the last century hidden. And, since the car is Italian, it is only fitting that it was, indeed, an Italian barn find. Well, it was a "warehouse" find but the cool part? This car may have never been officially delivered to a buyer by the factory, was preserved, and then put in storage for 90 years.

In fact, this beauty qualifies as one of the greatest "barn finds" ever. I've told you about Mark Lieberman and his business, Nostalgic Motors. If you don't remember, he bought a Tucker out of a barn last year. You'd think that would have been enough for Lieberman and he would have just coasted, resting on his laurels for the rest of the year. But he got word of another old car hidden away for decades, this time in Italy. He inquired about buying it and also researched the car's history to make sure it really was what it appeared to be. He negotiated the purchase and had the car crated up and flown to the US.

Research by the experts confirmed that this Isotta Fraschini is probably the first Tipo 8A–the company's flagship car–built. It was the product of two different coachbuilders which is also something quite remarkable. This particular car was ordered by a man named Filippo Bolzari of Milan but for reasons lost to history, he may never have taken delivery. The factory kept it and used it as a trainer for drivers who needed to learn how to pilot such a car. Not long after, the car was placed in storage away from the factory, which turned out to be a good thing. World War II saw the Isotta factory flattened, but it didn't kill the storage facility.

The car has a 110-HP engine with a little over 7-liter displacement from an inline 8-cylinder. The driver shifts a three-speed transmission and sits on the right-hand side. This car is huge: it has a 146 inch wheelbase. And the way you see it in the pictures is pretty much how it was found. The tires had been replaced about 35 years ago (while it sat in storage). The car had been maintained, service and repaired over the years by the caretakers. The fluids were changed out and the mechanicals were checked. And after perhaps 90 years in storage, the car runs and drives.

A walk around the car is not just lengthy; it is fun. The coach builders believed in nickel-plating almost everything. Exotic wood is used throughout. And the passenger can communicate with the driver by pressing buttons for "Left," "Right," "Fast," "Slow," and so on. The buttons are in Italian, of course, but you'd have plenty of time to figure it out as you sat in the back of this wonderful car.

Are there more barn finds out there? Obviously, yes. They can apparently be found in almost any corner of the globe. But ones like this are exceedingly rare, and all the more incredible each time they're discovered. 

Steve Lehto is a writer and attorney from Michigan. He specializes in Lemon Law and frequently writes about cars and the law. His most recent books include Preston Tucker and His Battle to Build the Car of Tomorrow, and Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird: Design, Development, Production and Competition. He also has a podcast where he talks about these things.