Two neon pink McLaren 720S GT3s will race in Japan this year

By topgear, 01 February 2019

With every new year comes a whole host of different motorsport announcements about who will be racing where and in what cars. Usually this news goes pretty much unnoticed until the start of said racing season, but this year manufacturers have been going all out to make sure their cars are noticed.

As you’ll well know by now, one way to get our attention here at TG is to slap a retro livery on your car, and McLaren has done just that – with this eye-popping 720S GT3 that will compete over in Japan this year. 

The neon pink and graphite colours were first used back in 1996, when they adorned the iconic F1 GTR that dominated the All-Japan Grand Touring Championship – and this updated version certainly isn’t a quiet tribute.

Simply throwing on some retro paint seemingly wasn’t enough for McLaren though, so they’re also providing some former team members to complete the throwback. Legendary owner Kazumichi Goh will once again take the reins as team principal, and Hiroyoshi Donuma will return as chief engineer.

To be known as ‘McLaren Customer Racing Japan’, the 2019 team will run cars in the Super GT300 and Super Taikyu championships, with both then coming together to launch a two-pronged attack on the 10 hours of Suzuka.

To us, this is retro racing done right. What do you reckon to the design?