Chassis No. SBM15ACB7KW800181

Senna No. 181 of 500

McLaren's Ultimate Series has always been about cars built beyond the ordinary boundaries of performance. The F1 defined the idea in the 1990s; the P1 reinvented it for the hybrid era. The Senna took a different approach, it stripped the idea of a road car back to its essential ingredients: weight, power, aerodynamics, and-most importantly-the driver.

Its name was no coincidence. Ayrton Senna, one of the greatest drivers ever, won three Formula One World Championships with McLaren, in 1988, 1990, and 1991. At the heart of McLaren's most dominant era, Senna drove the Honda twin-turbocharged V6-powered MP4/4 to the 1988 title, as the team won 15 of 16 Grands Prix and Senna set a new record for pole positions in a single season. More than simply a champion, he came to embody an almost obsessive pursuit of the limit: a driver willing to explore every last fraction of performance from both himself and his machine.

The McLaren that bears his name was conceived in much the same spirit. The Senna was not designed to be the fastest car in a straight line. It was designed to be at its most effective where a circuit becomes interesting: under braking, through a corner, and on the way out of it.

Production was limited to just 500 examples, each hand-built at McLaren's production center in England, and all 500 were sold directly to the customer. The Senna was conceived with a far more demanding objective than exclusivity alone: to push the limits of a road-legal car and make the circuit its natural habitat.

To achieve that, McLaren began with the most fundamental performance advantage of all: less weight. At 1,198 kilograms, the Senna was the lightest road car McLaren had produced since the F1. At this level, weight reduction is no longer a matter of counting kilograms. It becomes a matter of counting grams. The carbon-fiber Monocage chassis forms the core of the car, surrounded by carbon-fiber body panels. Even components that would normally escape scrutiny became opportunities for reduction. Each door weighs just nine kilograms. The seats, constructed largely from carbon fiber with only a small amount of cushioning, weigh approximately 3.35 kilograms apiece.

That philosophy also explains one of the Senna's most important omissions: there is no electric motor. No hybrid system. No battery pack. Where the P1 embraced hybrid technology to add another dimension to performance, the Senna deliberately left it behind. The result was a saving of roughly 200 kilograms compared with the sort of mass that a high-performance hybrid system would require. What remained was wonderfully straightforward.

Behind the driver sits a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 producing 800 horsepower and 800 Nm of torque. It is an engine with little interest in understatement, delivering its power through a seven-speed seamless-shift gearbox. The numbers are immediate: zero to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds, zero to 200 km/h in 6.8 seconds, and a top speed of 340 km/h.

Its double-wishbone suspension, adaptive dampers and RaceActive Chassis Control were developed to allow the chassis to work across a remarkably broad range of conditions. An open differential with brake steer works alongside ABS, traction control and electronic stability control, while launch control and Variable Drift Control give the driver increasingly direct control over how the car uses its considerable reserves. The Senna is therefore not simply powerful. It is configurable, communicative and, above all, intended to remain alive beneath the driver.

But it is in the air that the Senna reveals its true purpose. Its flat underbody manages airflow beneath the car, while active aerodynamic elements and a movable rear wing work to keep it planted to the track, generating up to 800 kilograms of downforce at 250 km/h.

That focus continues inside the cockpit. Glass panels in the lower sections of the doors bring the road closer to the driver, while the cabin leaves the mechanical world deliberately exposed. Gearshifts, clicks and the sounds of the transmission remain audible, creating an unusually direct connection between driver, machine and circuit. Nothing is allowed to come between the two. It is pure driver engagement and perhaps the most fitting philosophy for a car carrying Senna's name.

Ordered in August 2017 under its internal McLaren P15 code name, before the car had even been publicly unveiled, this Senna number 181, of just 500 examples produced, was delivered new in Switzerland through McLaren Lugano, finished in striking Volcano Orange with Azura Blue fender inners, aero blades and brake calipers and fitted with Ultra-Lightweight nine-spoke wheels in Gloss Black.

The car was specified with an unusually rich selection of options, totaling nearly CHF 40'000, balancing circuit-focused equipment with features intended to make the car more comfortable and usable on the road. Among them are air conditioning; Orange six-point harness; a seven-speaker Bowers & Wilkins audio system; parking sensors and a rear parking camera; a vehicle tracking system; and McLaren Track Telemetry with camera for recording and monitoring track performance. The specification is completed by Gorilla Glass lower door panels and a glass upper rear bulkhead.

In 2024, the Senna changed hands and passed to its current owner with just 130 km on the odometer-one kilometer less than at the time of cataloging. Its most recent service was carried out by McLaren Milano in November 2023, at 126 km, with the detailed invoice included in the file. The documentation also includes its purchase order and invoice.

For those who missed the opportunity or simply did not have access to one of the original allocations, this Senna represents a rare second chance to acquire the third Ultimate Series McLaren. With mileage still remarkably close to that of its original delivery, this is an exceptional opportunity to own one of the most formidable cars ever to emerge from Woking.