Gordon Murray’s new S1 is a reborn McLaren F1

Just when you thought Gordon Murray and his Special Vehicles division had reached peak car with the S1 LM, he goes and pulls something for the purists (and arguably even more titillating) out the bag. It’s called the GMSV S1, and it’s a direct homage to the McLaren F1 road car – aka the greatest car of all time - which instantly catapults the S1 into the upper echelons of supercar royalty.

To understand the S1 first we must refresh ourselves on the S1 LM revealed exactly a year ago. That's a modern interpretation of the 1995 McLaren F1 LM, a super-rare road-legal tribute to the GTR that won Le Mans in 1995. The S1 LM then is the ultimate expression of Gordon’s central seating position, manual gearbox, screaming-V12-in-the-back philosophy; a road-legal, but race-inspired V12 manual supercar limited to just five units - the first of which sold for over $20m at auction when it was choppered into the Vegas GP at the end of 2025.

In a nutshell, the S1 is a more touring-focused version of the S1 LM… which means it sits on a version of the LM’s chassis, mildly tweaked for comfort with better sound-deadening, and sheds the rear wing, front splitter and side skirts for a cleaner look. Incredibly, every carbon panel (except for the roof and engine cover) is new and distinct from the S1 LM, as are the redesigned headlights. The round lights set into the intakes on the front bumper, and the newly designed wheels, are both a nod to Gordon’s 1992 McLaren F1 Monaco show car.

Now for the really good news - instead of just five S1 LMs, they’ll build 64 S1s. Henry Ford eat your heart out. For reference there are only 100 T.50 and 25 T.50S. Now for the really bad news - all the S1s are sold out for an undisclosed price. Which means many millions, and we couldn’t have afforded one anyway.

“We had so much interest in the S1 LM, but there will be only a handful of cars made,” Gordon explains. “S1 LM was a customer commission, but the S1 comes from customer pressure because everybody loved that car so much. A lot of people were saying ‘imagine it without the aerodynamics’, because not everybody likes the boy racer wings and spoilers and splitters - that's how it all started.”

S1 gets the same overall width, track width, tyre width and suspension architecture as the S1 LM, but there are changes below the surface to deliver that more road-friendly personality: 10mm more ride height, more compliant damper settings, switchable power steering and new dihedral doors with proper drop-down glass. There’s active aero, too, integrated into the rear diffuser so while it clearly can’t match the S1 LM for downforce, it’ll stay balanced as the speed builds.

Like the S1 LM, it gets the larger 4.2-litre naturally aspirated Cosworth V12 which revs to 12,100rpm, produces 681bhp and 367lb ft of torque, retuned to produce maximum torque from just 2,500rpm – better suiting its touring brief. The six-speed manual gearbox also has a longer sixth touring gear as standard, and the engine bay is high art with a polished Inconel exhaust and 24 carat gold heat shielding.

“The 64-car run is quite a big production number, it's getting uncomfortably close to the 100 T.50s,” admits Gordon. “It's not what we intended for SV, but I think this particular motor car, because of what it represents, the shape and the homage to the original, I think it's worth making an exception because it's never going to happen again. This is it."