McLaren P1 Design Study Paris Motor Show 03

McLaren steps out of the oval track, snubs all other automakers with a hypercar to their name, says the P1 won’t just be about absolute top speed, but ‘the quickest and most rewarding series production road car on a circuit’. The McLaren P1 wants to be the best driver’s car in the world on road and track. If the MP4-12C is any indication of what McLaren is capable of, rest assured the P1 will take you round the world lightning quick, without rattling your spine.

McLaren P1 Design Study Paris Motor Show 02

At the Paris Motor Show, Mondial de l’Automobile 2012, McLaren will preview the P1, as a design study. The production version will hit McLaren showroom in a years duration. The Paris Motor Show is also McLaren’s first international motor show appearance.

McLaren P1 Design Study Paris Motor Show 01

‘The McLaren P1 will be the result of 50 years of racing and road car heritage,’ says McLaren Automotive Executive Chairman Ron Dennis. ‘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.’

Details are scarce, but more will be revealed at the Paris Motor Show. When the McLaren P1 goes into production later next year, it will displace the MP4-12C as the flagship McLaren, in terms of both price and performance.

‘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,’ says McLaren Automotive Managing Director Antony Sheriff. ‘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.’

McLaren says it was able to bring the performance of £500,000 cars to market at a third of the price thanks to the unique one-piece moulded carbon chassis, drawing from their Formula 1 experience. ‘All future McLarens will continue the themes presented by the 12C: innovation, integration of Formula 1 technology, and ultimate performance’, adds McLaren. It wouldn’t be too far fetched to assume the P1 will have at its core a moulded carbon chassis.