Goodwood billed the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed as the “A-Z of supercars”, as marques from Ferrari and McLaren to Lamborghini, Pagani and beyond arrived to debut, display and demonstrate their latest creations. While no official figure was released, it’s reasonable to estimate that more than 100 of the world’s most exotic and exclusive machines were in attendance.
Among them was Lanzante – the ultra-exclusive marque born from Dean Lanzante’s eponymous motor sport outfit, which famously won the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours in torrid conditions with the Ueno Clinic-liveried McLaren F1 GTR. Since then, the company has branched out to re-engineer some of the world’s most extraordinary machines, including the Formula 1-engined Porsche 930 TAG Turbo and the first road-legal Lamborghini Sesto Elemento and Pagani Huayra R.
Such is the radical nature of Lanzante’s recent creations – and those of the hypercar world in general – that only something truly extraordinary could cut through the noise at this year’s Festival of Speed. Lanzante duly delivered, unveiling its first car to wear the marque’s own badge: the 95-59 hypercar – named and created in tribute to the no. 59 McLaren F1 GTR that secured victory at La Sarthe.
“The 95‑59 is the result of everything I personally – and we as a business – have learned over three decades since winning Le Mans,” beams Dean Lanzante, moments after unveiling the car’s air-sculpted bodywork from beneath a Union Flag. “This is the car I’ve always wanted to build.”
Finished in the same shade of grey as the Le Mans-winning F1 GTR, its squinting headlights and taut, almost striated bodywork feel both fresh and familiar. Inside the 95‑59’s cabin you’ll find the most headline-grabbing feature: a three-seat layout that mirrors that of McLaren’s most legendary road car. “There is nothing quite like the experience of a central driving position,” Dean stresses.
Its familiar appearance stems in part from the fact that it looks as much like a McLaren P1 successor as that manufacturer’s own W1, which made its public debut just a few hundred metres away at the 2025 Festival of Speed. That’s no coincidence – the 95‑59 was penned by Paul Howse, the former McLaren designer who helped to create the brand’s contemporary design language. McLaren models designed by Howse include the 720S and P1.
After more than a decade at Woking, Howse stepped away from the industry, citing creative burn-out. “When I left, I felt like I was walking in a cloud of smoke,” he told Magneto magazine at Goodwood. “But taking time away gave me time to reset, and it reignited the passion that got me into design in the first place.”
Paul’s centrally focused philosophy informs the 95‑59’s entire design language, and it’s particularly obvious when looking at the side profile. “There’s a purity to a car with a central driving position,” he continues. “Everything flows from that one fixed point.”
That philosophy took its inspiration from unlikely sources. “The idea came from the image of a bullet going through an apple. I’m not sure where I saw it – probably on Instagram or something. There’s an explosive force, with everything pushing outwards from a tight, central core. That was my starting point,” he reveals.
Paul also cites the experimental aircraft flown by Tom Cruise at the beginning of Top Gun: Maverick as a further influence. “That experimental aircraft was actually on the mood board. Where you sit and the way the canopy wraps around you – there’s definitely a Top Gun vibe to the 95‑59, and it just feels like you’re in something fast.”
That philosophy runs through the newcomer’s entire design – from the exposed central carbonfibre section in the bonnet and the way surfaces seem to radiate from the monocoque, to the centrally mounted exhaust tip and the exposed transmission casing tucked behind the massive rear diffuser.
The overall effect is that the re-engineered, 750S-derived monocoque seems almost subtly on show, encased by the car’s swooping bodywork. This layered, three-dimensional design is heightened by the contrast between the Ueno Grey paint and the exposed carbonfibre beneath. It’s sleek yet intricate – a design that reveals more the longer you look.
“The 95‑59 really pops in louder colours,” Paul confirms. “But this is the first time we’ve actually seen it in daylight – you can really see the surfaces and how they behave,” he adds, watching as the car slowly rotates on its turntable.
It’s also striking that he didn’t choose to festoon the car with canards, wings and other aggressive aerodynamic addenda – particularly when it was directly inspired by a competition machine. The elegant shape – helped enormously by its notable lack of panel gaps – stands in stark contrast to the array of aggressive machinery lurking in the Supercar Paddock. And yet, for all its restraint, there’s a quiet menace to the 95-59 that hints at the ferocious 850bhp twin-turbocharged V8 beneath.
“I wanted to design something you could drive to dinner without feeling like a prat,” Paul laughs. “There are so many hypercars with big wings, splitters and flicks – it’s all been done to death. This had to be elegant, and make you feel special without trying too hard.”
Judging by the size of the crowd and their positive reaction at the Festival of Speed unveiling, Paul has succeeded; the 95-59 is a brilliant culmination of McLaren and Lanzante’s shared motor sport and carmaking lineage.
What makes the project even more impressive is the speed of its development. It took just 11 months to progress from sketch to pre-production prototype. “It’s such a small team,” Paul explains. “So there are no layers of management or workplace politics. If I wanted to change something, I could just do it. It’s refreshing after working at a large car company.”
For him, the launch was an emotional experience. “My boys were there, and the rest of my family,” he says. “To see their faces, to have them there for something like this… I felt so proud. It’s genuinely my favourite design.”
Fifty-nine Lanzante 95-59s will be built, at £1.3m apiece. First customer deliveries are scheduled for late 2025. For more information, click here.
