Reaching customers in 2019, McLaren’s new GT will be its most powerful and aerodynamic model yet
McLaren has decided to celebrate the P1’s fifth birthday by releasing more details of the hypercar’s successor codenamed BP23. Details have been divulged by McLaren before, but this latest glut of information, alongside pictures of a development mule donning that iconic central driving position, give us our best look yet at McLaren’s upcoming flagship.
The mule in question doesn’t look like much more than a camouflaged 720S at first sight, but you’ll soon notice ace test driver Andy Wallace sitting dead centre in the cockpit. Unfortunately, the car in question is not harbouring the hybridised BP23 power unit, instead this is just a development 720S with a displaced seating position. The mid-engined BP23 will ape the legendary F1 and its three-seat layout, but unlike the F1 it will appeal as more of a GT than out and out hypercar.
As a reminder, the BP23 will feature a hybridised powertrain with the highest power output yet seen in a McLaren road car. With the P1 at 986bhp, this would likely put the BP23 at over 1000bhp, perilously close to a couple other 1000bhp-plus hypercars due to reach customers in the next couple of years.
According to McLaren, the BP23 will also be the most aerodynamic McLaren yet. Being designed and built by McLaren Special Operations, the BP23 could also skew from McLaren’s current mainstream design direction, a theory confirmed by the early design sketch released by McLaren.
A total of 106 units are planned, the same amount as the McLaren F1, but every one has already been sold. Each customer car will be specified to the owners specific tastes and judging by its recent projects like the fuchsia 720S that graced pebble beach, taste will not be a guarantee.
MSO is the department of McLaren Automotive responsible for customer commissions. It offers five levels of service; MSO Defined (personalisation options for current production cars), MSO Limited (limited-edition cars, such as the 650S Le Mans), MSO Heritage (servicing and upgrading of older McLarens, including the F1) and MSO Programmes – which runs the McLaren P1 GTR Driver Programme.
The fifth ‘tier’ of MSO is the Bespoke division, which is where the BP23 will be developed. MSO Bespoke will build pretty much anything – from unique paint or trim, to significant bodywork or materials changes. Deploy the full force of MSO Bespoke, and you can have a unique one-off vehicle such as the McLaren X-1 – the first McLaren Bespoke car built for an anonymous client in 2012.
Due to reach customers in 2019, this third entry to the 1000bhp plus club for 2019 might not look as headline grabbing as the Mercedes-AMG Project Oneand Aston Martin Valkyrie on paper, but I wouldn’t bet against McLaren under delivering on its next hybrid hypercar.
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