The McLaren P1 LM is just days removed from its official debut at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed and it’s already made a ridiculous impression by destroying the Goodwood hill climb record for a road-legal car with a lap time of 47.07 seconds.

Piloted by former Indy 500 driver Kenny Brack, the road-legal Lazante McLaren P1 GTR set a blistering lap despite clear evidence that Brack was struggling to get control of the road-legal beast throughout the lap. From the start of his lap, Brack immediately oversteered the car in the first right-hand turn before spending a majority of the lap bucking and dancing around. Through it all, he manages to extend his lead in each section of the track over Mike Skinner’s at-that-time fastest lap before crossing the line in scintillating fashion.

While it’s true that Olly Clark’s Subaru WRX STI “Gobstopper II” posted the quickest lap with an incredible time of 46.29 seconds, he did it with a race car as opposed to Brack’s “heavily modified” road-legal hypercar. A lot of impressive times were posted in Goodwood this year, but an argument can be made of Brack’s insane lap time of the P1 LM. At the very least, it’s going to be the time-to-beat when other production cars make a run atop the Goodwood hill climb in the future.

Continue after the jump to read the full story.

Why it matters

Kenny Brack may have only finished second in the overall lap times at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed, but if there was any need – not that there needed to be – to show off the quality of the McLaren P1 LM, Brack’s lap time showcased it and then some.

Remember, the P1 LM is the most powerful version of the McLaren P1 that’s legal for road use. It comes with the same hybrid drivetrain as the standard P1, but tuned to deliver the same amount of power as the GTR, the exact car from which it’s based on. That equates to a total output of 986 horsepower, 83 ponies more than the “standard” P1. That bump up in power allows the P1 LM to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in a bewildering 2.4 seconds to go with a top speed of 217 mph.

Now imagine if Brack had a cleaner lap time than the one he had when he posted the 47.07 seconds. It’s obvious even by just watching the video that the former Indy 500 winner didn’t have a smooth lap. Yet he still posted that time, which ended up being just 0.78 seconds slower than Olly Clark’s lap time with the Subaru Impreza “Gobstopper II.” It’s safe to say that had he posted a cleaner lap time, we might be having a different discussion altogether.

None of that takes away from the abilities of the McLaren P1 LM. In a word, it’s astounding. It also explains why McLaren, together with the help of racing specialist Lazante, will only build five units of this road-legal hypercar.

It’s so awesome that the world can’t take more than five of it in existence. That may not be the official reason, but that’s the narrative I’m going with.

McLaren P1 LM

Read our full review on the McLaren P1 LM here.