McLaren is back at the Le Mans 24 Hours, 29 years after the F1 GTR’s first-time-out, against-the-odds victory in 1995 – and 26 since a car bearing its name took part in the great race. Yet probably more significant are the 13 years since its sportscars started racing again in the international GT arena in 2011. It’s taken a long time for one of the most famous names in motor racing to once again grace the grid for the French enduro. The absence finally ends with a trio of 720S GT3 Evos entered in the new-for-2024 LMGT3 class this year.
McLaren relaunched as a maker of road-going sportscars in 2009. Deliveries of the first fruit of what had become McLaren Automotive – as opposed to McLaren Cars in the days of the F1 – kicked off in 2011, the same year that the MP4-12C hit the track in a short schedule of races ahead of its full release the following season. The MP4-12C racer and its successors were built to the GT3 regulations,
