Among the most spectacular road cars, many are often born out of necessity to homologate a racing car. In recent years, these were usually thinly veiled competition cars. This was certainly the case with the Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Le Mans, which was built in 1997 to homologate the virtually identical Esperante GTR-1 for the GT1 class. Developed together with Reynard, the highly unconventional machine had a front-mounted engine even though the mid-engine configuration had been the norm for close to four decades. The V8-engined competition cars were nevertheless quite successful. Panoz only needed to build a single road car to meet the requirements and this unique machine was retained by the Braselton, Georgia based manufacturer. Especially for this year's Dubai Motor Show, the one-off Esperante GTR-1 Le Mans was meticulously restored. The press release sent along with these lovely studio images also mentioned that Panoz will now build additional examples, using the original chassis and body moulds. These 'replicas' will not come cheaply as prices start at $890,000.
A slightly more recent and equally elusive homologation special is the BMW M3 GTR Strassen Version. This car was created to allow BMW to run a V8-engined version of the E46 M3 in the American Le Mans Series. Winning seven races in a row, the car promptly won the constructors' and drivers' titles during the 2001 season. Porsche protested and instead of a limited run of ten cars, BMW had to produce 100 road cars and a total of 1,000 engines within a 12 month period to be permitted to run the cars in 2002. The German manufacturer was unable and perhaps also unwilling to meet the more stringent regulations and ended the ALMS campaign after a single season. None of the road cars were ever sold and of the six examples built, just three survive. The featured example made a very rare public appearance at this year's Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
Already featured earlier this year but still one of our all-time favourite homologation specials is this Toyota GT-One Road Car. Toyota built one or two and these were also never offered to the public after they fulfilled their homologation purpose.

Enjoy the links:

2001 BMW M3 GTR Strassen Version - Images, Specifications and Information

1997 Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Le Mans - Images, Specifications and Information

1998 Toyota GT-One Road Car - Images, Specifications and Information