Where will you be on December 10? Well, if you’re a fan of McLaren cars (and not so much their race team) you’ll presumably be glued to your computer screens at one minute past midnight. According to McLaren off of twitter earlier yesterday (Nov. 14, 2017) they will be taking the wraps off its McLaren P15, a part of their Ultimate series, whose only other model is the bonkers fast McLaren P1 and its P1 GTR upgrade. McLaren calls this car a road-legal track car unlike anything they’ve built, so ya, I’m pretty excited about this car even though I can’t afford one. Check out the teaser shot of the P15 below!
We can now confirm our new Ultimate Series – codenamed P15 – will be revealed on December 10th. At exactly one minute past midnight, the world will get its first sight of a road-legal track car unlike anything we've built before. It's time to get excited.#McLaren #UltimateSeries pic.twitter.com/A71efmM0fn
— McLaren Automotive (@McLarenAuto) November 14, 2017
It’s hard to believe, but the McLaren P1 has already been around for more than five years, first debuting at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. But with only 375 units made and sold, McLaren has this slot empty in their ultimate lineup. The P1 was a monster of a car with a total output of 906 HP and 723 lb-ft thanks to a twin-turbocharged V8 paired to an electric motor.
The P1 engine on its own made 727 HP and 531 lb-ft. According to Autocar, this engine has been reworked to now produce close to 789 HP, close to a nine percent increase. Although there has been no official word if that engine will be paired with an electric assist of any kind, we do know that pound for pound, the P15 will outperform the P1 thanks to it being a featherweight. Rumors peg the P15 to come in around 3,300 pounds without a driver.
This is the ultimate distillation of form following function. Whichever part of the car you look at, you will visually understand the function of the components.”
And this isn’t even how bonkers McLaren plans to get as their rumored B23 Hyper GT car will absolutely blow this P15 out of the water.
As an aside, since McLaren never dropped the official Nurburgring time for the bog-standard P1, we’ll be curious if there will be any assaults on ’round the ‘Ring with the P15. The 6:43 lap time set by their P1 LM thanks to Lanzante Racing will be quite the time to beat.
