What's the news?
McLaren will have its largest stand yet at the Geneva Motor Show, where it will announce a new addition to the Sports Series - likely to be the 540S 'baby' Macca - and also show off a couple of carbon-loaded specials of its rarest models.
McLaren Special Operations (MSO) has taken one of the 375 road-legal P1 hypercars and absolutely slathered the thing in carbon fibre. It's what MSO calls a 'full visual carbon fibre body' and it has been hand-laid with a bespoke Lio Blue tinted lacquer. Such a treatment has been available to P1 customers since earlier in 2016, but this is the first time anyone has seen it publicly. The P1 by MSO also has gloss black alloy wheels, an interior retrimmed in carbon black Alcantara with contrast blue stitching and a 24-carat gold exhaust heatshield, a direct homage to the mighty McLaren F1.
The 675LT Spider, one of the 500 built that have already all been accounted for, also features lotsa carbon. Finished in the MSO Defined shade of Ceramic Grey, additional carbon fibre compared to the, er, regular LT includes: the retractable hardtop, finished in satin CF, which can be operated up to 40km/h and which saves a whole kilogramme of weight; CF louvres on the front wings; the Longtail Airbrake has body colour on the top and natural weave CF underneath; and there's more of the desirable material on the front bumper end plates, side skirts, side intakes and rear bumper. Inside are a pair of black Alcantara racing seats with Xenon Yellow stitching, while controls within are finished in the 675LT Spider-specific hue of Solis. Like the P1 by MSO, the 675LT has the same top quality gold heatshield.
Performance is unchanged for the Spider, so the 3.8-litre biturbo V8 churns out 675hp and 700Nm, enough for sensational performance data of 0-100km/h in 2.9 seconds, 0-200km/h in 8.1 seconds and a 326km/h top speed.
Anything else?
Alongside the two carbon creations and the 540S... sorry, unnamed Sports Series addition, will be the recently confirmed 650S GT3 race car, so there's plenty to drool over on McLaren's Geneva stand.