- Lightweight but powerful vehicle being built at McLaren’s state-of-the-art factory
- It is being seen as the spiritual successor of the three-seater McLaren F1 supercar of the 1990s
A new 200mph British supercar has broken cover with a scintillating £800,000 price-tag to match.
The new flagship two-seater McLaren P1 will accelerate from rest to 62mph in under three seconds and is set to be one of the stars of next week’s Paris Motor Show.
The super-lightweight but powerful supercar is being built at McLaren’s state of the art factory in Woking, Surrey and has the ambition of being the best road and track car in the world for drivers.
It is about the same size as a Porsche 911 but is being seen as the spiritual successor of the legendary three-seater Mclaren F1 supercar of the 1990s – one of which ‘Mr Bean’ star Rowan Atkinson famously pranged.
State-of-the-art: The super-lightweight but powerful supercar (pictured) is being built at McLaren’s factory in Woking, Surrey
One simple goal’: Manufacturers have described the vehicle as the best driver’s car on the road
A McLaren spokesman said: ‘McLaren Automotive will use its first ever international motor show appearance to preview its next generation ultimate supercar – the McLaren P1 – which takes much of its technological and spiritual inspiration from the company’s Racing division.
‘The McLaren P1 has one simple goal: to be the best driver’s car in the world on road and track.’
A prototype of the P1 car is to go on show in Paris next Thursday with a production version to follow and go on sale in September next year.
Weight is kept down thanks to its super-strong but very light carbon-fibre structure.
McLaren Automotive executive chairman Ron Dennis said:‘The McLaren P1 will be the result of 50 years of racing and road car heritage
‘Twenty years ago we raised the supercar performance bar with the McLaren F1 and our goal with the McLaren P1 is to redefine it once again.’
Hot wheels: The P1 is seen as the spiritual successor of the legendary three-seater Mclaren F1 supercar of the 1990s (pictured)
Counting the cost: This was what was left of Rowan Atkinson’s £640,000 McLaren F1 sports car after a prang in 2011
McLaren automotive managing director Antony Sheriff said; ‘Our aim is not necessarily to be the fastest in absolute top speed but to be the quickest and most rewarding series production road car on a circuit.’
He added:’It is the true test of a supercar’s all round ability and a much more important technical statement. Our goal is to make the McLaren P1 the most exciting, most capable, most technologically advanced and most dynamically accomplished supercar ever made.’
When the flagship McLaren P1 goes into production later next year, it will sit above the existing 12C and 12C Spider, in terms of both price and performance with a price of around £800,000.
Rowan Atkinson during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit. The comedian crashed his supercar last year
Johnny English star Rowan Atkinson spoke in September last year about the £1million crash that wrecked his own original McLaren F1 supercar noting: ’I can’t blame the car’, he confessed ruefully. ‘It was wet.‘
And so high was the expected repair bill he added: ’I haven’t had the estimate. But I have had the estimate for the estimate.’
His Woking-built supercar is capable of 230mph, and accelerates from 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds.
He was hurt when he crashed the three-seater McLaren F1 supercar into a tree in Cambridgeshire in early August 2011.
The Blackadder and Mr Bean star suffered a shoulder injury and wounded pride in the accident, near Peterborough. He walked from the car, which caught fire, after the crash on the A605 at Haddon and waited for an ambulance.
Atkinson, 56, was admitted to Peterborough City Hospital but later discharged with ‘a minor shoulder injury’ following the crash.
Only a few weeks earlier, he had staunchly defended the McLaren to Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson: ’You’ve got to live with it. I have lived with it for 14 years, I’ve done a lot of miles in it, I’ve done 37,000 miles – which for a McLaren is a lot.’.
He even loaned the car to the programme on a previous occasion, when it was driven by another Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond without incident. In 1999, Atkinson damaged the bonnet of the car in a low speed shut.
In 1995 former BMW boss Dr Bernd Pischetsrieder, himself wrote-off a McLaren F1 in 1995 when he was head of the German car giant. That he and his passengers survived was put down to the strength of the car’s carbon-fibre space-frame.
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