F1...P1...HS ?

This could just be the best McLaren you've never heard of. We get the inside story on the ultra-exclusive, 675LT-based MSO HS

- by ANTONY INGRAM PHOTO

AN ACQUAINTANCE OF MINE HAS A COLLECTION THAT includes one of just about every car McLaren has made, and of all of them, the HS is among his absolute favourites.’

I'm standing with James Banks, formerly head of Bespoke Cars at McLaren Special Operations (MSO), and we're surveying one of the most exclusive projects the division ever worked on – and, by more than one account, one of the best cars ever to wear a McLaren badge, despite few people knowing it even exists.

Should an MSO HS ever pass you in traffic, you certainly wouldn't miss it, but you probably wouldn't realise you'd seen anything out of the ordinary; perhaps a well-specified 650S or maybe a 675LT whose owner ticked the box for the carbon pack. There's little on a quick glance to suggest it's one of only 25 cars, each built on the same line as the P1 hypercar rather than the standard Super Series production line, and each a little different, tailored to the tastes of 25 handpicked MSO clients. Never publicised, never wafted under the noses of the press, a real 'in the know' kind of car.

The HS (it stands for High Sport) shows a different side to MSO than the one you're probably familiar with. Search the internet for MSO commissions and you'll mostly be presented with strikingly coloured versions of McLaren's mainline cars, or one-off builds like the 12C-based X-1. The HS demonstrates MSO's capacity for tackling engineering challenges as well as visual ones; many of the parts were designed, tested and manufactured solely for this car, with quality levels equal to or better than those on mainstream McLarens.