McLaren's 911 rival confirmed for Oz

A cheaper McLaren supercar built to take on the likes of top-end Porsche 911s as well as cars from Mercedes-AMG and others will be a vital plank in the British sports car brand’s growth strategy Down Under.

The new model range, so far dubbed ‘Sports Series’, will make its international debut at the 2015 Geneva motor show in March.

It will feature a carbon-fibre chassis like its 650S and P1 stablemates and a mid-mounted V8, but the smaller, simpler and less powerful car is expected to sell in the low to mid-$300,000 range Down Under -- around $100,000 less than the existing 650S range.

McLaren Automotive’s sales and marketing head, Jolyon Nash, visited Australia last week to meet with local connections and customers. He told motoring.com.au that Australia could be a top-10 marketplace for the brand globally.

Key to growth is the Sports Series, he says.

“It makes McLaren a little bit more accessible,” Nash told motoring.com.au when quizzed on the Sports Series.

“We believe it will bring in a whole new range of customers into the McLaren family, which is very important for our long-term growth.

"If we attract customers into McLaren with our Sports Series there’s a pretty good chance a fair percentage of them would walk up the ladder into the 650 and the successors to 650.

“I think it’s going to be extremely important in markets like Australia, to raise the awareness for McLaren Automotive,” Nash said.

Nash contends the McLaren brand is well known Down Under via Formula 1, but less so in terms of its road cars.

“As a brand, McLaren is pretty well known in a market like Australia, but it’s predominantly F1. That’s great, because that’s the roots… but we need to raise awareness of McLaren as an automotive brand, and Sports Series will very much help us do that,” he stated.

Nash says the Sports Series will be the extent of the brand’s cascade downwards. The “accessible” McLaren will still be true to the brand, however, he insists.

“Whichever segment we’re in, we have to make sure our car is competitive… [It’s essentially] that we’re able to fulfill the brand promise of a McLaren,” he stated.

McLaren is likely to further leverage its Australian presence with an extension of its personalisation scheme announced overnight in the UK.

First launched at Pebble Beach in 2011, McLaren Special Operations (MSO) now includes five levels of "bespoke work", with the addition of MSO Defined to the pre-existing MSO Bespoke, MSO Heritage, MSO Limited and MSO Programmes services.

Available for the 650S, the entry-level customisation program includes a carbon-fibre aerodynamic kit and F1-inspired instrument cluster as part of the MSO Defined package.

MSO Bespoke offers unique paint, leather and stitching colours, plus stand-alone upholstery and body changes. Since it launched the 650S earlier this year, McLaren says 20 per cent of its vehicles have included a degree of MSO Bespoke content, rising to 95 per cent for the top-shelf P1.

MSO Limited is responsible for producing limited-run and special-edition examples of the 650S and 12C, including the McLaren 50 12C and 12C Spider built to celebrate the brand's 50th anniversary in 2013 and, more recently, the MSO 650S that debuted at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

MSO Heritage looks after the maintenance of McLaren F1 and Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren models, while the recently-launched MSO Programmes division encompasses the upcoming McLaren P1 GTR Driver Programme, in which each car will be built, maintained and prepared for exclusive customer track days at the world’s most iconic Formula 1 circuits.