Armed with enough cash, anyone could walk into a McLaren showroom and drive away with one of Woking’s finest supercars, but it takes a determined individual with deep enough pockets to have one made bespoke just for them. The company’s customisation arm McLaren Special Operations (MSO) was set up for just such a purpose, and it has just revealed its latest (well, sort of) creation, based on the 675LT.
First, a bit of history. McLaren stumbled upon success in sports car racing in 1995 (including winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans) with the F1 GTR, but purpose-built homologated race cars such as the Porsche 911 GT1 began to crowd the supposedly road car-derived GT1 class the following year. As such, the company was forced to make significant modifications to the GTR for the new FIA GT1 Championship in 1997, to make it both faster and lighter than before – just to keep pace with the others.
The resulting car bore several upgrades – including a stretched tail end that earned it the “Longtail” nickname – and while it didn’t end up winning the championship, it still proved competitive. It won five out of the 11 rounds and finished second and third at Le Mans that year, with the distinctive Gulf Oil and Davidoff-sponsored GTC Racing car ending up behind the winning TWR Porsche WSC-95 prototype.
McLaren channeled the spirit of the Longtail with the 675LT – a faster, more serious version of the 650S with a longer active rear spoiler/airbrake. But one buyer wanted to take the idea of a Longtail-aping modern McLaren and run with it, and MSO duly delivered with this striking 1,000-hour build.
Around 800 of those hours came from painting and airbrushing the unique light blue, black and red livery, created with agreement from Gulf Oil International for use on the car. The theme is continued through the Dayglo Orange 20-inch multi-spoke alloy wheels, while louvered front wings, roof scoop upgrade and carbon fibre airbrake from the MSO options range have also been fitted.
Inside, the wheels’ orange hue is slathered on the sill badges bearing the customer’s initials, which can also be found embroidered in blue on the MSO Bespoke racing seats – upholstered in Carbon Black Alcantara. Elsewhere, the handling and powertrain knobs on the Active Dynamics Panel are finished in Gulf Blue, and the air vent bezels and starter button surround in Gulf Orange. The MSO Defined seat belts are also orange.
“Transforming the existing car from its original single colour paintwork to a tribute to the McLaren F1 GTR ‘Longtail’ in Gulf Racing livery was incredibly demanding in its own right, but was only part of the brief,” said MSO managing director Ansar Ali. “We also replaced numerous standard 675LT components with MSO parts and further personalised the car to clearly identify it with its owner.”
It’s the latter bits that give away the owner of the car. While McLaren did not specifically mention his name, those initials spell out “TTJ” – this stands for Tunku Temenggong Johor, the title of Johor prince Tunku Idris Iskandar Ismail. Those of you who indulge in supercar spotting will be familiar with the car, which has been seen both on his Instagram profile and on public roads in Malaysia since late last year.
The rest of the mechanicals remain unchanged, so TTJ’s 675LT continues to use a 3.8 litre twin-turbocharged V8 that produces 675 PS and 700 Nm of torque, as well as a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. So equipped, it will blitz the zero-to-100 km/h mark in just 2.9 seconds before hitting a top speed of 330 km/h.
The Johor royal family has long had a penchant for automobiles – check out some of the examples from the collection of Sultan Ibrahim Ismail and Tunku Mahkota Johor Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim.
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Do more real charitable work than superficial ones… Then maybe the johorean may love them again
Alredi did charity but then kena slandered by fake news. Apa mau buat?
Just shadap lah u, i heard enough.
Fed up of this john. Dah lah kalah teruk teruk, yet want to come here cause trouble.
Tak malu ke?
Wow, everything has a political angle?
So, for the past 2 GEs, your factions lost.. but we don’t see any of you shutting up. Now that you’ve won, you don’t seem to be shutting up either. This is the standard of democracy in a “New Malaysia”? Luckily the smarter Malaysians can already see that we’re sliding towards being a failed state from 10 years ago! LOL…
Theres no such thing as democracy except their democracy, and everyone else must shutup in their democracy. This is New MY where Gestapo rules.
This is not democracy when you are trying to create disharmony by spreading falsehood. Your purpose is to stir hate to the new Gov bcoz your party lost. Nothing more.
This New MY abolish Fake news Act.
@Oracle
If you wanna know what is disharmony and falsehood, look into the oracle mirror. Wakakaka!
“Your purpose is to stir hate to the new Gov bcoz your party lost. Nothing more.”
LOLLLLL the irony!!! What was PR doing after GE13? Please refer to the above..
FYI, in a democracy, there’s such a thing as a political opposition for checks and balance. The fact that you morons don’t understand that just proves that Malaysia deserves autocratic rule.
Thankfully I’ve already left the country before it descended further into idiocy!! This just proves it LOLLL
johor sultan sold 4 billion worth of land to foreign developers during 2014. they can easily afford a fleet of mclarens.
So nice to pay tax just to see rich kids use it to buy big boy toys to go on the road with bodyguards. Why am I paying tax again?
To feed ur new diktator & cronies.
We have to undo 60 years of corruption and damage to the country. We need money now to rebuild
Not by robbing the poor. Go ask your filthy rich PM, Elders, & cronies.
Don’t need. Just see how much jewelries and cash the previous PM has in his house. The rakyat is now wondering where do all these came from.
Hear, hear! From the Rakyat Malaysia!
Yep. We use our hard earned income & savings to buy Luxury car, Handbag & Yachts
I respect U DK for daring enuff to say what many dare not say. Cheers…
FYI the Johor royalty doesn’t need your tax, dumbasses. They have plenty of business interests e.g. in the Berjaya group. They also make tons of money from Singapore every year. Don’t perasan like your tax dollars are funding the royals’ lifestyle, so syiok sendiri. Ask yourself, is your income tax even enough to pay a 1-year salary of a civil servant? Is it even enough to fix a 20-meter stretch of highway?
Meanwhile normal civilians pours their hard earn money into tabung harapan.
Correction: Not “normal civilians”. Easily-fooled simpletons who do not understand what is “government debt” and “external debt”.
Do u think they get to make that if they were not somebody becoz of their status? Their purpose is not to do business.. like that come off their high horse and compete like everybody else la.. then can see if they can make same living as the rest of common folks.
If they dun get to do business, then u pipu will complain that they suck on ur measly taxpayer money like above comment. At least if they make profit then its win-win for all.
Buat business pun salah, tak buat business pun salah. Winliaolor!
Your dumb argument makes no sense. It’s like asking the son of a billionaire to come off his high horse and start from zero.
Why should he? If he’s born into privilege, from a long line of tycoons or aristocrats, that’s his luck. Same goes for the royals. Their wealth stretch back for hundreds of years. Before you idiots started paying income taxes, before we had Merdeka, the sultans were already wealthy beyond belief.. and you think their future generations have no right to inherit that wealth?
True dat, bro DK. Daulat tuanku!
Daulat 1mdb! Ohhwai
I agree with you Donkey but the problem is your party representative john says that the rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer and he is blaming the new Gov for it. In the same logic, should we blame the royalty for not enriching the poor like how john blames the new Gov?
Sila give proof our tax monies don’t go to any royals and I will tarik balik my statement. Until then, your statement holds no water.
Isn’t it strange that in a court of law, its the accuser that needs to show proof of the accusation and not the other way. Ah, but that’s nothing strange in New Malaysia now. That’s how things go.
Sure TTJ loves LHD
The royalty gets richer while the poor gets poorer
Dont be lazy and work harder
At least they use their own money and not beg from rakyat.
#TabungTarakHarapan
Tabung Harapan was set up so that Malaysians have an official account to donate to and to avoid donors from being duped into scams. The government never ask people to donate.
Some say donation taboleh wor. Mesti tunjuk resit. Mesti open account for audit. So bila Tabung Haprak & Tabung LGE mau audit?
U bodoh kah? The donation amount is shown to all everyday on the website and it’s not like the donation from a mysterious prince of some eastern country.
Bodohkah? I ask for nama u show figures for what? Everyone oso knows how much prince donate lor. But the point is, everyone asking for name. So why not same same?
1 person donate and millions of Malaysians donate sama kah? And this is not an investigation into corruption, why need names? Guna otak lah.
The prince donate in his capacity as country representative, so meaning his donation represents 32 million pipu donation. Thats hugely more than ur Tabung Harapan. So asking for 32 million pipu names is reasonable but asking 2 million pipu is not? Bodohkah?
Lol. Asking 1 person name = Asking 32 million people names? What koolaid are u on?
And u said no audit? This will show how stupid u are, john:
“Govt to appoint external audit firm, ensure Tabung Harapan’s transparency” – LGE
Now, can u admit that u are wrong and just shadap like what TMJ said?
It’s not beg lah, not like begging from Arab to donate into some VVIP personal account.
Who says he went to beg? Got proof or just more of ur fail-rytales? But certain theres proof ur leader went Down South with a begging bowl back in 98. Hahaha!
They got their wealth from their vast business interests, the land and properties that they own, and their generations of gold and money that have accumulated in the royal households for centuries.
Blame your father and ancestors if you’re broke and not born into privilege.
Life’s like that. Enjoy what you have. Work for what you don’t. Wish the luckier ones well. Btw… nice dream cars. Thanks PT for the eye and mind candy. Moving on…
Can’t agree more. Those that always whine about people who are wealthy don’t understand how the economy works. If someone is wealthier than you, it doesn’t mean they stole from you to make themselves wealthy. Is Robert Kuok a billionaire because he stole from your father, yourself and 100,000 other Malaysians? No. He built up his business empire with his connections and with political support, and with a healthy dose of hard work.
It’s clear why poor people remain poor- because of the mentality of poverty. They just blame the whole world and say others gained at their expense, without striving to make themselves more successful.
Glad you didnt use former PM as example 》
If someone is wealthier than you, it doesn’t mean they stole from you to make themselves wealthy.
You should tell that to your colleague, john who likes to blame the new Gov. Ask him to stop whining about being poor bcoz it only show his mentality of poverty. Thank you
We all agree that hard work is needed but does your troller called john, who is jobless, trolls 24/7 on PT agrees?