Lanzante Limited

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Lanzante Limited
Company typeLimited Company
IndustryAutomotive
FounderPaul Lanzante[1]
Headquarters
Petersfield
,
United Kingdom
Key people
Dean Lanzante
Paul Lanzante
Number of employees
12[1] (2018)
WebsiteOfficial website

Lanzante Limited is a British automotive company specializing in service restoration and development of unique vehicles, while also participating in auto racing in both modern and historic guises under the Lanzante Motorsport title.

Lanzante Motorsport won the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans with a McLaren F1 GTR for McLaren Automotive under the name of Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing, leading to Lanzante becoming a service center for road and race McLarens.[2]

Company history[edit]

Lanzante was founded in the 1970s by Paul Lanzante initially focused on restoring and preparing historic cars. Lanzante's logo is a Ganesha, which was recommended to Paul by George Harrison of The Beatles.[3] The two were close and Paul was referenced by Harrison on his eponymousalbum inner sleeve, along with Jackie Stewart.[4] In the 1980s, Lanzante supported the restoration of Harrison's iconic Radford Mini, which was repainted by artist Phil Lemon.[5]

In 1993, Dean Lanzante, son of founder Paul, joined the business, and two years later they had expanded into motor racing. Lanzante are recognised as a key service and maintenance centre for elite McLaren cars and in 2022 serviced 25 McLaren F1's alone.[3] Lanzante's base is also home to McLaren Petersfield, one of the UK dealerships within the McLaren cars network.[6]

In 2018, Lanzante were awarded a Queen's Award for Enterprise. In recent years, Lanzante have created bespoke, limited run versions of a variety of supercars including road-going versions of various race cars including the Pagani Zonda R and McLaren P1 GTR. Furthermore, Lanzante developed the unique Porsche 930 TAG Turbo, a Formula 1 powered Porsche road car from the 1980s.

Motorsport history[edit]

United Kingdom Lanzante Motorsport
Team principal(s)Paul & Dean Lanzante
Former seriesBPR Global GT Series
British GT Championship
International Sports Racing Series
Britcar
Drivers'
Championships		1 (1996 British GT GT1)

Following years of participation in historic motorsport, Lanzante moved to modern racing by entering the BPR Global GT Series in 1995 with a Porsche 911 Turbo competing in the GT3 category with drivers Paul Burdell, Wido Rössler, and Soames Langton.

In the same year, the McLaren F1 GTR was debuting in BPR, as well as entering the 24 Hours of Le Mans. McLaren's developmental car was loaned to an entry backed by sponsors Kokusai Kaihatsu UK, while Lanzante was chosen to organize and run the team, which incorporated a small number of McLaren employees, other McLaren associates and experienced endurance engineers.[7] Drivers for the effort were JJ Lehto, Masanori Sekiya, and Yannick Dalmas. Lanzante's McLaren was the fastest from the manufacturer in qualifying, and inherited the race lead after other McLarens suffered woes. The Kokusai Kaihatsu McLaren went on to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans by a one lap margin,[8] making the McLaren the first car and Lanzante the first team to win on debut at Le Mans. In addition Lehto and Sekiya's involvement meant it was the first Le Mans win for a Finnish driver and a Japanese driver.[7] Following Lanzante's Le Mans victory, their McLaren was returned and the team remained with Porsche throughout the rest of 1995.

In 1996 Lanzante purchased their own McLaren GTR for use in the British GT Championship, as well as a Porsche 911 GT2 for BPR. The Porsche was also entered for Le Mans, but an invitation to partake in the race was not granted.[9] Langton and Burdell remained in the Porsche, joined by Stanley Dickens and earned several podiums over the season, with a best finish of 2nd at Monza and Nurburgring. The final races of the season were challenging for the Lanzante Porsche, at Spa the team were disqualified from their 3rd place finish owing to Burdell not completing the required number of laps. At the penultimate Nogaro driver Soames Langton was involved in a serious crash driving the Lanzante Porsche, which left him in a coma and ultimately suffering from locked in syndrome.[10][11] The team did not race at Zhuhai for the final race of the 1996 season.

In the 1996 British GT, the team's McLaren was driven by Ian Flux and James Ulrich, and won a race at Donington Park. Although Flux and Ulrich lost the overall championship title to the drivers from Marcos, they did secure the title in the GT1 category.

Lanzante did not return to modern motorsport again until 2003 when the company developed a Lotus Elise. The car debuted at Brands Hatch for the final round of the season, driven by Dean Lanzante and Chris Yandell. The pair finished 8th overall, and 2nd in their class.[12] The Elise was later developed for the Britcar series, with Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey sharing driving duties.

Specialist vehicles[edit]

McLaren P1 GTR-LM[edit]

McLaren P1 LM

With the production run of McLaren P1 GTRs having been built and sold, and prompted by their efforts in converting track-only spec P1 GTRs to road-legal spec variants, Lanzante Motorsport commissioned McLaren Special Operations' Bespoke division to build a further 6 new P1 GTRs for them to develop into road-legal P1 LM variants.[13] Of this production run, five P1 LMs have been sold and the other P1 LM, the prototype which is designated XP1 LM, has been retained and is being used for development and testing. To make them into P1 LM spec, Lanzante Motorsport developed these P1 GTRs by, amongst other modifications, making changes to the drivetrain hardware (to increase power), by employing a modified rear wing and larger front splitter and dive planes (to improve downforce) and by removing the air-jack system and using Inconel catalytic converter pipes and exhaust headers, lightweight fabricated charge coolers, Lexan windows, lighter seats (from the F1 GTR) and titanium exhausts, bolts and fixings (to save weight).[14]

At the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the prototype P1 LM, XP1 LM, set the fastest ever time for a road car up the Goodwood hillclimb, with a time of 47.07 seconds, driven by Kenny Bräck.[15] On 27 April 2017, the prototype P1 LM, XP1 LM, continued its success on track, beating the road car lap record time at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, with a time of 6:43.22 using road legal Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tyres but without front number plate required to be road legal. This time was once again set by Kenny Bräck, and announced on 26 May 2017.[16]

In 2024, Lanzante confirmed they had partnered with Mike Whiddett to create a one-off P1 drift car based on a GTR chassis.[17]

McLaren P1 Spider[edit]

P1 Spider at 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed

In June 2022, Lanzante revealed the first of five planned McLaren P1 Spiders. Paul Howse who designed the original P1 for McLaren was drafted in to design the changes required. The vehicle was extensively modified as a result of removing the roof from the standard P1, notably the design requiring two large carbon fibre buttresses to stand tall behind the seats to replace the main roof air intake that would have featured on the coupe. Furthermore, Lanzante redesigned the exterior aerodynamics to encourage more air into the side mounted air intakes to aid cooling. The engine cover was also modified, now a single piece removable clamshell, which made the power unit more visible than on its coupe counterpart.[18] The price of the P1 Spider was estimated to be £2.4million in 2022, including a donor P1.[19]

McLaren LM 25 Editions[edit]

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of McLaren's Le Mans 24 hour victory, Lanzante released seven modified McLaren vehicles called the LM 25 editions. These were coupe and convertible variants of the 600LT and 765LT, McLaren Senna and Senna GTR. Each car was painted in the Ueno Clinic 01R black, and gold brake calipers. Lanzante launched the models at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed.[20][21]

The McLaren Senna GTR LM 25 was sold by Sothebys in Monaco for €1.45million in 2024.[22]

Pagani Zonda Revolución[edit]

Pagani built five Zonda Revolución's based on their Zonda R race car, and one was converted by Lanzante into a road version. Lanzante showed the car at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed, albeit specific modifications were kept secret.[23][24]

Porsche 930 TAG Turbo[edit]

Porsche TAG Turbo at Goodwood

In September 2018, Lanzante introduced a new model based on the 1980s McLaren test mule Porsche 930, that the Formula One team had used for capability testing of the new 1.5 lite turbocharged engine produced by Techniques d'Avant Garde. Lanzante launched the vehicle at the RennSport Reunion VI.

Lanzante obtained permission from McLaren to produce the vehicle, and purchased 11 engines originally installed in their F1 cars. Lanzante brought Cosworth to the project to restore the engines, and each produced vehicle would have a plaque signifying the engines race history, engine number and the cars production number.

The display car's engine was originally fitted in 1984 to Niki Lauda's MP4/2 in which he won the 1984 British Grand Prix.[25][26][27]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Queens Award Gazette 2018" (PDF). thegazette.co.uk. 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  2. ^ "McLaren F1 - The Specialist: Dean Lanzante". classicandperformancecar.com. Octane. October 2008. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  3. ^ a b Smith, Damien (29 March 2023). "If You Can Dream It". Autocar. United Kingdom: Haymarket. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  4. ^ "George Harrison". jpgr.co.uk. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  5. ^ "Phil Lemon Custom Paint". lemocom.co.uk. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  6. ^ "Petersfield McLaren". mclaren.com. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  7. ^ a b Meaden, Richard (24 February 2015). "McLaren F1 at the Le Mans 24 hours". Evo. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  8. ^ "McLaren F1 - Le Mans authority: Brian Laban". classicandperformancecar.com. Octane. October 2008. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  9. ^ "Motor racing Lanzante Motorsport have had entry refused for this year's Le Mans". independent.co.uk. The Independent. 22 March 1996. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  10. ^ "The Motor Sport Month Obituaries". motorsportmagazine.com. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  11. ^ "Spa 4h". motorsportmagazine.com. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  12. ^ "BRDC British GT Championship (round 10)". racingsportscars.com. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  13. ^ "Meet McLaren's £3,000,000 Ultra‑Limited P1 LM". Goodwood. 24 June 2016. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
  14. ^ "McLaren P1 LM is the world's most extreme, exclusive supercar". Autoblog. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  15. ^ "Video McLaren P1 LM smashes Goodwood road car record". autocar.co.uk. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  16. ^ "McLaren P1 LM smashes Nürburgring production car lap record". autocar.co.uk. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  17. ^ "Oh my word, Lanzante is building a McLaren P1 GTR drift hypercar". topgear.com. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  18. ^ "McLaren P1 Spider: Lanzante reveals open-roof hyper-hybrid". autocar.co.uk. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  19. ^ "The Lanzante McLaren P1 Spider costs £2.4m". topgear.com. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  20. ^ "Lanzante McLaren LM 25 Editions shown at Goodwood". evo.co.uk. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  21. ^ "Say hello to Lanzante's 'LM 25 Edition' McLarens". topgear.com. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  22. ^ "2020 McLaren Senna GTR 'LM 25' by Lanzante". rmsothebys.com. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  23. ^ "Pagani Zonda Revolucion made street-legal with help from Lanzante". Motor Authority. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  24. ^ "Video: Pagani Zonda Revolucion debuts at 2023 Festival of Speed". goodwood.com. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  25. ^ Accardi, Michael (13 October 2018). "McLaren Made The Best Porsche You Never Heard Of". Carbuzz. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  26. ^ Silvestro, Brian (10 October 2018). "Lanzante Is Putting Actual '80s Formula 1 Engines into Porsche 930s". Road & Track. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
  27. ^ "Lanzante Porsche 930 restomods get 750-hp real Formula One engines". Autoblog. Retrieved 4 February 2023.

External links[edit]

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