McLaren Automotive is readying the next installment in its Ultimate Series, a car it describes as being “The ultimate track car”.
Known internally as ‘P15’, the latest model in McLaren’s ambitious Track22 new product plan will be a successor to the P1 and P1 GTR and, spiritually at least, the F1. It should reach production before another Ultimate Series McLaren that’s on the way: the three-seat, ‘BP23’ Hyper-GT seen out testing in disguised form on the roads around Woking recently.
The firm describes the P15’s mission to be the “Most extreme, track-concentrated road car McLaren has yet designed.” Its exterior design is said to be ‘brutal’, with form very much following function, and the company openly acknowledges that everyday usability has been sacrificed to give the driver the most intense experience around a circuit.
At the car’s heart will be the latest 4-litre M840T engine, with power increased over the already potent 710bhp delivered by the unit in the 720S, and combined with a bespoke chassis around the latest MonoCell II tub along with even higher levels of downforce. Rumours suggest that 500 will be made, at around $921,000 each, but McLaren claims every car is already allocated to a customer.
We should know the P15’s official name by the end of the year, with the actual car revealed in full either at the same time or early in 2018, and those lucky 500 can probably expect their cars from the middle of next year onwards. Trackdays may never be the same again.
