For the past two weeks McLaren has teased us with images and videos that looked to have been made in an Ibiza nightclub, but finally the Woking outfit has lifted the lid on the P1, the long awaited follow up to the F1 hypercar.
Set to be officially unveiled at the Paris Motor Show the P1 has (according to McLaren) taken much of its technological and spiritual inspiration from the company's racing division. Part of this technology is believed to be a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) that could see peak power output figures of as much as nearly 1,000hp. While powerful, the P1 has not been designed with the Bugatti Veyron's top speed in mind and instead will aim to be the best driver's car in the world on road and track.
The model to be unveiled in Paris will officially be tagged as a design study with a production version slated to be shown next year ahead of going on sale. We do not expect the production model will differ too significantly from the car we will see in Paris however.
While no technical data has been revealed at this time the P1 is expected to be powered by a modified version of the MP4-12C's 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 engine supplemented by a KERS system. Technical data notwithstanding McLaren seems bullish about the prospects for the P1 with Managing Director Anthony Sheriff saying: "Our goal is to make the McLaren P1 the most exciting, most capable, most technologically advanced and most dynamically accomplished supercar ever made."
When the McLaren P1 goes into production it will sit above the 12C and 12C Spider, in terms of both price and performance.