Welcome to the first instalment of Legends of the Meet. This is where we dive head-first into the sort of cars that don’t just turn up at Secret Meet — they define it. The ones that make grown adults forget how to breathe, make the paddock fall silent, and make you consider whether your own car keys should be posted straight into the nearest drain.
And where better to start than with the McLaren F1 GTR — a car that was never meant to exist, never meant to race, and yet somehow went on to humiliate the likes of Porsche and Ferrari at their own game.
The McLaren F1 road car was Gordon Murray’s magnum opus — a V12-powered cathedral to perfection. It had a gold-lined engine bay (because normal heat shielding is for peasants), and a central driving seat so you could pretend to be Ayrton Senna while driving to Waitrose.
Murray famously swore blind the F1 would never be turned into a racing car. Which is why, when a group of privateers asked if they could enter one at Le Mans, McLaren said, fine — but don’t come crying when it explodes.
Except it didn’t explode. In 1995, the McLaren F1 GTR — a slightly lightened road car with some stickers on it — won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright, beating prototypes purpose-built for the job. It was McLaren’s first attempt. One of the most expensive acts of beginners’ luck in motorsport history.
The F1 GTR didn’t just win Le Mans once. Between 1995 and 1997 it racked up wins in the BPR Global GT Series, the FIA GT Championship, and at Suzuka. Its combination of speed, reliability, and terrifying noise made it the GT1 benchmark, so much so that Mercedes and Porsche basically said “right, enough of that” and built the CLK GTR and 911 GT1 — cars designed purely to wipe the smug grin off McLaren’s face.
When an F1 GTR turns up at Secret Meet, it’s not just another car. It’s the reminder that sometimes the stars align — a road car built too well, a set of regulations written too loosely, and a bunch of slightly mad privateers with too much money — and the result is a car that rewrote history.
It’s the kind of legend that makes the hairs on your neck stand up. You don’t just see it. You feel the weight of what it did. And then you remember — this all started with a road car that was supposedly too good for racing.
That’s episode one. Next time, another legend, the Ferrari F40 LM. But for now, just be thankful you were alive in an era where a slightly modified road car turned up at Le Mans, casually trounced the field, and then came to Secret Meet so you could stand next to it and wonder if your knees were shaking because of the engine noise… or just the absurdity of it all.
