McLaren’s digital-spawned supercar wins Goodwood

McLaren’s virtual-to-real supercar, the Solus GT, was the winner of this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb in the UK.

McLaren factory driver Marvin Kirchhöfer stormed up the 1.9km track with a run of 45.342 seconds in Sunday’s timed shoot-out final, thrilling spectators and crowning McLaren’s 60th anniversary celebrations at the event.

Having made its dynamic debut on Thursday July 13 — the first day of the 2023 Festival — the Solus GT’s full-throttle assault on Goodwood’s Hillclimb secured McLaren’s second Festival of Speed win in three years, following victory in 2021.

Born in the virtual world for the Gran Turismo Sport video game and brought to life by McLaren, just 25 Solus GT customer cars will be built. Apart from its naturally aspirated 5.2l V10 engine with outputs of 618kW and 650Nm of torque, the Solus GT’s hill climb feat was achieved with the help of the car’s slippery aerodynamics and sub-1,000kg weight.

As well as thrilling on the Hillclimb, a Solus GT was on display for the duration of the festival, an annual motorsport gathering for modern and historic motor racing vehicles attended by 150,000 enthusiasts.

Joining it on show was McLaren’s new 750S supercar — the lightest and most powerful series-production McLaren — which made its public dynamic debut with several high-speed runs at the weekend.

The Goodwood Hillclimb record belongs to the electric McMurtry Spéirling at 39.081 seconds, set last year by Max Chilton. The previous record of 41.6 seconds had been held for 23 years by Nick Heidfeld in a 1999 McLaren MP4/13 Formula One car.