McLaren and Hermes partner to create dream car

Real estate mogul Manny Khoshbin has a profound affection for seven-figure hypercars and an equally deep obsession with French luxury goods maker Hermès. In the past few years, he has purchased a $2.5 million Pagani Huayra and a $3 million Bugatti Chiron, which he then paid exorbitantly to have both of them customized by Hermès. But his latest purchase outshines both of those. Khoshbin has purchased one of only 106 $2.5 million McLaren Speedtails—the British boutique exotic-car brand’s hybrid-powered, super-aerodynamic, three-seat flagship—and then shipped it off to Hermès for extensive customization. Knowing this collaboration would happen, Khoshbin chose the 24th Speedtail off the production line, to honor Charles-Émile Hermès, son of the company’s founder, who moved the Hermès workshop, and retail store, to 24 Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris.

The resulting vehicle, which took a year to complete, features one-off touches found only on Khoshbin’s car. Hermès’s block-H brand iconography is etched or laser-cut into the midnight blue door covers and engine cover. The geographical coordinates to the Hermès atelier are printed on one of the digital side-view mirrors (the coordinates to the McLaren factory is on the other). The aerodynamic disc-like front-wheel covers are printed around the hub with “one-of-one, dressed by Hermès” and “VIN24.” And, perhaps most compellingly, thick Hermès handbag leather, in creamy white and golden brown, lines the seats, sills, dash, pillars, floor, headliner, steering wheel, and the front and rear luggage compartments.

Hermès sent Khoshbin a matching caramel-colored leather key-fob holder for the key to the Speedtail, as well as matching driving gloves. It also created a custom-made one-off overnight bag from the same leather, sized to fit perfectly in the trapezoidal front trunk (or “frunk,” in the popular parlance).

The McLaren Speedtail sports a twin-turbocharged 746 horsepower 4.0-liter V8 engine that, in combination with a 308 hp electric motor, produces a peak of 1,035 horsepower. This is enough to rocket the slippery gull-winged coupe from zero to 60 m.p.h. in around 2.9 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 250 m.p.h.