On May 21, McLaren unveiled a colorful Senna wearing a special paint job. Called the Senna Sempre livery, the car is an ode to Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna and no, it's not for sale. But the model-making professionals at Amalgam have a few you can buy, capturing all the colorful details in an exquisite 1:8-scale replica.
This is the latest special build from Amalgam, and as we've come to expect from the UK-based company, the craftsmanship is incredible. It's one thing to build a small-scale replica with parts that match the real deal, but the special Senna Sempre paintwork is meticulously recreated right down to Senna's dot-matrix face on the rear fenders. Go ahead, tell us which of the images below is the replica. We'll wait.
On the full-size car, this was a challenging hand-painted project for McLaren's MSO team. Amalgam doesn't mention their process for recreating the livery on a small scale, but the 1:8 Senna replica took 3,000 hours to design and manufacture all-in. The actual assembly process for each car is another 300 hours, all done by hand. Aside from the special paint, there's a precisely detailed interior seen through the open doors. The twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 is visible through the engine cover. And behind the Pirelli-shod wheels are "massive" McLaren brakes with cross-drilled rotors.
McLaren will display the special Senna this weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix, where Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will race their McLaren MCL38 Formula 1 cars with a similar livery. The Senna in question is a pre-production one-off lifted-from McLaren's heritage collection. But Amalgam plans to make 30 of its scale replicas for fans and collectors.
Be prepared to pay real-car money for it, though. Pricing for the United States is $21,385—about the same as a brand new Chevrolet Trax.
