McLaren have released a trio of images showing their most recent prototype for their grand touring supercar. We typically associate GT cars, especially British ones, with a front-mid layout accompanied by a long bonnet, and often a V12 engine. This one in particular will have none of those attributes.
The car looks like a longer and more slender and elegant take on the aesthetic already established by McLaren’s road cars like the 570GT and 720S, retaining the same carbon monocell core. Ever since the 12C, certain cars of theirs have enjoyed a secret reputation for offering sublime ride quality thanks to a hydraulically actuated suspension.
Creating a car much more at home on long distance high speed drives, therefore, seems like a talent just waiting to be tapped. That said, we know so little about the final car and what will actually be its final specification. The Woking-based automaker has warned that it will “rule-breaking”.
Given it’s elongated body and primary role as a high speed tourer, the car will understandably share quite a bit with the McLaren Speedtail. Mounted amidship will be the company’s 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine. No doubt it will be tuned differently from, say, a Senna, lending itself more to low-rev acceleration and torque with low harshness and vibration levels. At its nose and tail, larger more practical boots.
It will also be able to cover long distances in “supreme comfort”; a phrase we’re more accustomed to hearing from Bentley or Rolls Royce. The prototype seen here, and others just like it, have collectively undergone an extensive evaluation programme covering tens of thousands of kilometres in extremes of hot and cold climates.
Next, these cars will be making a 1,600km journey from the McLaren Technology Centre in England to the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain, to undergo even more pre-production trials to further test and tune its high speed stability, ride quality, and refinement levels.
The cabin, too, will share cues from the three-seater Speedtail and will definitely be markedly more luxuriously appointed than any McLaren road car that’s come before, while also retaining a uncluttered, modern motif.
For more on McLaren cars, check out our Showroom.
