STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
The McLaren Senna was not built for setting the fastest time on a straightaway like the one the Sun Valley Tour de Force offers in its No-Speed Limit testing grounds on Highway 75.
It is a cornering car designed to set the fastest lap times on an oval race car track. On straightaway runs, it clocks just under 200 miles per hour, below the 230-plus times Bugatti cars and others have set at the sun valley Tour deforce. Charged with making turns, it leaves others in the dust.
The Senna was one of the stars of the Sun Valley Tour de Force Car Show Friday night. Hundreds of men, women and children flooded Sun Valley’s Festival Meadow, braving record heat and blazing sun to admire everything from a shiny blue Rolls Royce to a blue and white McLaren Rally Pebble Beach car.
Joining them was Bruno Sena who signed posters and engaged in chit chat with adults and youth. The Senna was named for his father, Ayrton Senna, a Formula 1 driver who was the first to ever win in every class of FIA World Endurance Championship.
“He was the best,” said one admiring race car enthusiast. “He had drive—the kind of drive you see in top Olympic athletes.”
The shiny blue Senna sat so low it touched the blades of grass in Festival Meadow. Its innovative aerodynamics generate extreme levels of downforce, pushing it down into the road at a high rate of speed.
The hypercar, built in Woking, England, starts at $1 million, has crisp braking, an 800-horsepower engine and a thunderous roar and 19-inch wheels in front and 20-inch wheels in rear. Its huge braking wing goes vertical.
It is the first of its sort that can be driven on the road, but it was designed to live on a race track.
One McLaren representative noted that if you’re not in a go kart by age 4, chances are you’ll never get a chance to drive a race car like the McLaren Senna.
Kids are tabbed for their skills and drive at 4 and selected by Formula to train by the time they’re 11 or 12.
“You have to want it,” the representative said. “You live your life to win.”