Road-legal, Race-ready, and Le Mans Hypercar Client Programmes

Following Ferrari’s historic third win in a row at Le Mans last week, there was a lot more to talk about than pure racing. While the on-track action of the 2025 edition of the iconic French endurance race was thrilling from start to finish, there was off-track action that caught our fuel-induced attention! Of course, there was the one-off road-legal Porsche 963 RSP finished in very fitting Martini Silver, but we also had McLaren’s announcement to enter Le Mans by 2027 and offer a client programme. So, hot off the heels of an action-packed running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, let’s take a look at all these client-oriented racing programmes!

Porsche 963 RSP

Leave it to Porsche to steal the show outside of Le Mans, when at Le Mans, with something from Le Mans, celebrating something historic related to Le Mans. The Porsche 963 RSP is a unique, road-legal Porsche 963 Le Mans Hypercar, made for Roger Searle Penske (the RSP in the name), the legendary American racing driver, team owner and businessman. Long intertwined with the German manufacturer, Penske has celebrated many successes with Porsche. As a driver, he came 1st in class, with Bob Holbert, in a Porsche 718 RS 61 in the 1961 running of the Sebring 12 Hours, for instance. As founder and owner of Penske Racing (now Team Penske), he has won over 500 races and more than 40 titles. This includes 20 wins in the Indy 500, no less than 17 Indy Car Championships and multiple victories in the Daytona 24 Hours.

Penske’s story also involves the iconic Porsche 917, the two-time Le Mans-winning race car from the 1970s. Although Penske is not tied to those outright victories, he did campaign the monstrously powerful Porsche 917-30 (the Turbo-Panzer) in the Can-Am Racing Series.  The 917-30 had a flat-12 twin-turbocharged engine in a magnesium chassis and fibreglass bodywork. The car produced up to 1,500 horsepower in qualifying trim, which is as insane as it sounds! Piloted by Mark Donahue, it won all but two races in the 1973 season, effectively killing off the series altogether. But another 917 is even more important to the significance of this new 963 RSP, and that is the one commissioned by Count Rossi di Montelera (of the Martini & Rossi drinks company) in 1975. Chassis No. 030 raced only once and was converted for road use, finished in silver and with a leather-clad interior.

Porsche now comes full circle in more ways than one, as it celebrates not only its partnership and successes with Roger Penske and his team, but also the 50th anniversary of putting the 917 on the road, legally. Finished in the same Martini Silver and with a similar tone of leather for the interior (notice the hilarious 3D-printed cup holder!), the Porsche 963 RSP is quite something! Of course, some safety modifications have been made, but essentially it is the car you see racing at Le Mans and other circuits around the globe!

The aero is tweaked here and there, and it gets new headlights with indicators and all, plus a horn! A neat detail is the fender vents, inspired by those on the 917’s front arches. The ride height is raised a bit, the suspension has been softened a touch, and the engine’s mapping has been smoothed out to make it more compliant with public roads, but other than that, it’s pretty much a full-on race car for the road! That means the 4.6-litre twin-turbo V8 still produces 680 horsepower, and it’s very much capable of very illegal speeds!

Aston Martin Valkyrie LM Pro

It was big news when Aston Martin announced it was taking its extreme Valkyrie hypercar to Le Mans, followed by the news that the manufacturer was also building ten client cars based on the race-prepped Valkyrie. It was developed to be the most cutting-edge, ludicrous, track-oriented road car imaginable by Aston Martin, packing a ton of influence from advanced racing series as Formula 1. The project involved Red Bull Racing Advanced Technologies, with Adrian Newey as one of the project leaders. The concept was first shown in 2016, and a running developmental prototype made its debut in 2017, before production commenced in 2024.

The car is powered by a 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 developed by Cosworth, producing 1,000 horsepower at 10,500 rpm, with a redline of 11,100 rpm. A hybrid system bumped the power to 1,160 horsepower, meaning it surpassed the 1:1 power-to-weight ratio, as the car weighs only 1,030 kg. That’s simply unheard of in a production car, and as such, the performance is just nuts; zero to 100kph in 2,6 seconds, and a top speed of more than 350kph. Add to that some seriously advanced aerodynamics, and it should be no surprise that the Valkyrie is blisteringly fast around a race track. A track-focused Valkyrie AMR Pro was also released, along with a Valkyrie Spyder, with production totalling 275 cars. In 2023, Aston Martin stated it would return to Le Mans with the Valkyrie AMR-LMH, making its debut in 2025 as the only Hypercar entry to find its origins in a road car.

While Aston Martin’s return might not have been as glorious as many had hoped, the flowing hills around Le Mans are still trembling with the howl of that mighty V12 in the back of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH! You can have a listen for yourself down below of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH during the Le Mans test day. Surprisingly, the car does not have a hybrid drivetrain, unlike pretty much all its competitors. Instead, it relies solely on its 6.5-litre V12, although it has been modified to meet regulations, obviously. It qualified 15th and 20th at Le Mans, with both cars making it to the finish line in 12th and 14th place, respectively.

During the week leading up to Le Mans, pretty much simultaneously with Porsche’s news of the 963 RSP, Aston Martin announced a Valkyrie AMR-LMH client programme. That means we now have a road car turned race car, turned client race car. Made to celebrate the brand’s return to the famous French endurance race, ten very fortunate people will have the chance to buy an unrestricted version of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH, a car nearly identical to the one raced at Le Mans but without the ballast weight and performance restrictions. Each owner will also get to experience a fully immersive racing development programme. What an experience that must be, right?

Ferrari 499P Modificata

Aston Martin isn’t the only one to offer a client car based on its Le Mans racing machine; Ferrari did something similar in 2023, based on its 499P. Then, a one-time and now a three-time Le Mans winner, the 499P is Ferrari’s entrant on the highest level of endurance racing. It marked a return to top-class racing at Le Mans for Ferrari, but also the crowbar needed to break the dry spell it faced after the Scuderia’s last overall win in 1964 (Ford famously ended the Italian’s reign a year later).

The Modificata programme offers Ferrari’s most loyal customers a chance to experience what it’s like to drive a Le Mans Hypercar on track. Similar to its XX and F1 Clienti programmes, the cars are shipped to various circuits around the world for their owners to be enjoyed. And similarly to the Valkyrie AMR-LMH client cars, Ferrari doesn’t have to account for things such as power restrictions, fuel economy or ballast weight. And if you can read between the lines here, it means it’s actually faster than the actual 499P that has conquered Le Mans three times in a row! On paper, that is, as extracting those levels of performance out of such an advanced car is not something many can do!

The 499P Modificata comes with the same 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6, derived from the Ferrari 296 GT3. The modifications include a more powerful front-axle electric motor that’s always engaged, as opposed to at specified speeds when racing at Le Mans. The total combined output is 858 horsepower when engaging the “push to pass” mode. Ferrari hasn’t stated how many have been built, but given that it’s strictly limited to its closest clients and costs them EUR 5 million a pop, it’s probably single digits, or maybe 10 at best. Quite something, still….

McLaren 2027 LMH Programme

Last in line, and the least detailed at the moment, is McLaren’s new Hypercar. Announced for 2027, it would mean the first time the British manufacturers enter Le Mans in the top-tier class following its spectacular and unexpected win in 1995, with the iconic F1 GTR. It was McLaren’s first attempt at Le Mans, and being victorious on your debut is something only Ferrari has done. Based on the legendary F1 developed by Gordon Murray, it faced stiff competition from production-based GT1 cars like itself and much faster prototype WSC cars. Nevertheless, it triumphed in part due to its reliability and in part because of the overnight heavy rain.

Now, 30 years on from that maiden win, McLaren announced it’s having another crack at it from 2027 onwards. And to put action to words, it also announced a client programme based on the LM Hypercar that will be developed for competition. The goal is to win the Triple Crown in racing in a single season, which means McLaren aims to win the Monaco Grand Prix (originally the F1 championship as a whole), the Indy 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours in the same year! The only individual to have achieved this is Graham Hill, albeit not in a single year. As a manufacturer, McLaren has completed it, but again, not in one season.

Not much about the car itself is known or confirmed by now, other than the fact that the cars (both LMDh and the client car) will use a race-built twin-turbo V6 hybrid powertrain. McLaren will partner with Dallara, the well-known and highly capable constructor from Italy, for the development of the chassis, which it also partners with in its IndyCar programme. The Project: Endurance ownership experience will include two years of McLaren’s customer track programme. Sounds exciting, and I, for one, am very much looking forward to more Hypercars on track for Le Mans!

Editorial Note: The images portrayed in this article are sourced from and used with permission of Porsche AG and Aston Martin Lagonda LLC, McLaren Group Limited and Ferrari S.p.A. unless stated otherwise.