If the world needs another supercar, McLaren is happy to oblige.
At next week’s Paris auto show, the British sports car maker with a rich history in Formula 1 racing will unveil its second of three modern road-going exotics hailing from the technical center and sparkling new manufacturing facility in Woking, U.K.
Known currently as the P1, this dramatically shaped 2-seater stands as a design study, but a production version will be unveiled next year and is expected to be on sale within 12 months, the auto maker vows.
Details about the car will not come out until next Thursday’s press conference, but three photos released by McLaren suggest the car will have a mid-engine architecture, much like the MP4-12C, the first of the trio of new McLarens.
Through August, the auto maker said it sold 450 MP4-12C coupes in the U.S. since going on sale early this year, and convertible Spider versions will be delivered early next year.
Photos of the P1, painted in Volcanic Orange like the 12C, suggest the new car is intended to dazzle. The vehicle has short overhangs, large wheels, road-hugging demeanor and light-emitting diodes that outline a fierce-looking back end punctuated with a single stainless-steel exhaust port that appears to be the size of a mail slot.
The P1 – no word yet whether that name will stick with the production car – will reside in the lineup above the 12C in performance and price, McLaren executives say.
In the U.S., the 12C Spider carries a base price of $265,750, a $25,000 premium over the coupe. As for performance, the twin-turbo 3.8L V-8 in the 12C produces 616 hp and can propel the car, with its carbon-fiber chassis, to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 3.1 seconds.
The P1 promises to be even faster and more expensive.
“Twenty years ago, we raised the supercar performance bar with the McLaren F1, and our goal with P1 is to redefine it once again,” McLaren Automotive Executive Chairman Ron Dennis says in a press release.
McLaren Automotive Managing Director Antony Sheriff promises the P1 “will be the most exciting, most capable, most technologically advanced and most dynamically accomplished supercar ever made.”
This year’s Paris exhibition represents McLaren’s first appearance at an international auto show, and yet another shot across the bow of rival Ferrari.
