Watch: the McLaren Solus GT, a £2.75m V10 Gran Turismo hypercar made real

The Solus GT is the first Vision Gran Turismo car to become a reality. McLaren will build 25 of them, priced at over £2.5 million each. Considerably more than the million credits they cost in the game.

The familiar twin-turbo V8 has been ditched in favour of a naturally aspirated V10 that revs past 10,000rpm and develops 840bhp. That 5.2-litre engine (it’ll need to be pre-warmed for an hour before driving) is used in different configurations for LMP2, and the Solus GT’s architecture is pure racer.

Obviously it’s not road legal. But outside of F1 it will be the fastest McLaren ever around a track, quicker than a 720S GT3X, Senna GTR or P1 GTR. All up it weighs well under 1,000kg and develops 1,200kg of downforce. There’s no active aero, just a socking great wing, front splitter and huge underbody tunnels.

Top Gear magazine’s Ollie Marriage gets an exclusive behind-the-scenes look and tells us all we need to know.