Gregson Mathe
I think I need a change of pants as my McLaren fanboy-dom has hit warp factor 5. McLaren has just dropped and absolute bombshell on the automotive world and it comes in the form of a confirmation about their next hypercar. You’d think it’s be a P1 successor. You’d be wrong in the best possible way.
McLaren has announced a 3-seat hypercar planned in the near future. The F1, as you may remember, was a 3-seater. This is McLaren officially confirming an F1 sucessor! I could not be more excited. The F1 was the car that personally got me into cars at the tender young age of 9. The project is called BP23. BP2 meaning “Bespoke Project 2” and “3” referring to the 3 seat configuration.
According to a report by Business Insider, there will only be 106 BP23s made, exactly the same amount McLaren made of the F1 back in the 90s. What you might be wondering is what the “Bespoke Project” portion of the abbreviation means. Well that means it won’t be produced by Mclaren as a normal 650s or 570s would be. McLaren will hand over the production of the BP23 to McLaren Special Operations, or MSO.
The rumors were true earlier this year. Plebes like me cannot afford somethig like this and while no price has been announced, you can count on it being well above $1 million and potentially touching $2 million. McLaren is calling this a “Hyper-GT” according to CEO Mike Flewitt.
BP23 will borrow the three seat layout with central driving position made famous by the iconic McLaren F1, and it will be housed in a streamlined, shrink-wrapped carbon fiber body of great elegance. We are calling BP23 a ‘Hyper-GT’ because it’s a car designed for longer journeys but with the high levels of performance and driver engagement expected of any McLaren. A hybrid powertrain will make it one of the most powerful McLarens yet created but the car will also deliver the highest levels of refinement, enabling significant journeys to be undertaken with up to three people aboard.
Personally, I don’t buy the GT aspect of this car at all. 3-seat cars are not meant for a grand touring nature. The F1 wasn’t a grand tourer either and I foresee thing being something that makes the a 650s look like a Chevy Cobalt. I cannot wait to see what McLaren has in store, but I think there’s now a fair bit of pressure on Ferrari and Porsche. Will they follow suit the same way after the P1? Are they currently developing something similar? Even if they are, there’s no doubt the McLaren will be the best 3-seat car in the world.
In the mean time, here’s some F1 porn for your viewing pleasure.
(Source: Business Insider)
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