Yesterday, McLaren brought the P1 to New York City to give potential customers and journalists who missed its Paris debut a firsthand look at the new supercar.
It's a gorgeous vehicle that is sure to be incredibly fast (no official numbers yet), but it will not take the world's fastest production car crown away from the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.
That's a good thing for McLaren drivers.
Marcus Korbach, the P1 brand manager, says the automaker did not even try to regain the record formerly held by the McLaren F1. To give the car enough power to break the 267.856 mph record, engineers would have had to add so much weight, the P1's handling would have suffered, he said.
Instead, McLaren wanted to "build a drivable car" that can be handled by non-professionals. It will prove its prowess on corners, not straightaways.
That's what it did with the MP4-12C, a move that made the new coupe one of Business Insider's Most Innovative Cars Of The Year. If the car is impossible to control, the ability to hit 200 mph is not only useless, it's deadly.
McLaren will make at most 500 of the P1, to boost the car's value. For the lucky drivers who get their hands on one, it's sure to be a sublime drive.
The P1 has a lot of styling cues we haven't seen anywhere else. Korbach says they are all there for aerodynamics, not just looks.
McLaren is already taking orders for the new car.
The estimated price: $1.1 million.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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