The difficulty with stealing the show at Festival of Speed is the need to return with something even bigger and better. Anyone who saw or heard Mad Mike Whiddett’s four-rotor RX-7 do its thing last year won’t have forgotten the experience in a hurry. So where to go from there? A Mad Mike McLaren, of course…
Project ‘Madmac’ will be debuted and drifted at this year’s Festival of Speed, a collaboration between Lanzante, O’Gara Coach and the man himself. Though designed to look like a P1 GTR, it’d be staggering to find that one of the real things had been sacrificed for a drift project. This is likely one of those humbler (yet still pretty exotic) McLarens made to look suitably madder by the people who knew them better than most. Lanzante is responsible (and famous) for road-converting GTRs and making that incredible Spider. A drift car ‘designed around bodywork of the track-focused McLaren P1 GTR’ ought to be a walk in the park.
With the initial part of the build having been Lanzante’s domain, Madmac is now back in New Zealand having the appropriate drift bits fitted (loads of power and loads of steering lock, for starters) at Whiddett’s workshop. O’Gara Coach is California-based, and is involved in getting the McLaren ‘to take on unique events and projects.’
Mad Mike is enthusiastic about the project to say the least, as we probably all should be given the look of this thing and the (likely) V8 power. “Lanzante has a reputation for creating some incredible cars. Being a proud kiwi, I’m inspired to push this McLaren project to the absolute limit, and then take it around the world… SIDEWAYS!” Madmac will return to the UK in 100 days, just in time for its Goodwood reveal. You’re sure not going to miss it…
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