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Matt Robinson26 Oct 2018
NEWS

400km/h McLaren Speedtail already sold out

Long rear overhang, concept-car looks and ridiculous 400km/h-plus performance make McLaren’s F1 successor a hyper-GT like no other

Three-point-seven seconds is not a long time in the grand scheme of things, but when it applies to one startling fact about the upcoming McLaren Speedtail hyper-GT, 3.7 seconds becomes a gigantic number.

That’s because that's how much faster Speedtail hits 300km/h from rest -- when compared to nothing less than the mighty McLaren P1.

You might think the British sports car firm’s previous P1 petrol-electric hypercar -- debuted at the 2012 Paris motor show and launched almost exactly five years ago to this day -- was frighteningly fast, but the Speedtail is in another league altogether.

That said, it’s not as if McLaren’s new three-seat hypercar, which launches in 2019, is some kind of track-focussed car that majors on the business of going very quickly to the detriment of all else.

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Far from it; with a top speed of 403km/h, it’s comfortably the fastest thing McLaren has ever built -- including the legendary 1990s F1, which had a 391km/h maximum and from which the Speedtail takes so much inspiration, such as its three-seat, central driving position interior layout.

But the company insists it never wanted to go chasing even bigger numbers, because the Pirelli P Zero tyres fitted to it (235/35 ZR20 front, 315/30 ZR21 rear) not only have to deal with such immense velocities, but they also have to convey the owner and two companions to, say, the opera, in maximum comfort, so the sidewalls need some squidge in them.

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Gob-smacking performance

Still, the numbers that we do know about the McLaren Speedtail are terrific. It’s powered by a petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain that delivers a frankly insane 772kW (that’s 1050 metric horsepower, for reference).

It motivates a car made largely from both titanium deposition and thin-ply carbon-fibre, meaning the whole thing clocks 1430kg in total, dry weight.

With a 540kW/tonne weight-to-power ratio, that results in the jaw-dropping 0-300km/h figure of 12.8 seconds, utterly demolishing the P1’s equivalent stat of 16.5 seconds, and – as we’ve already said – the Speedtail will go beyond 400km/h.

Each one will cost £1.75 million plus local taxes, which (on a straight currency conversion) is $A3.2m before import duty, luxury car tax and on-road costs, and just 106 will be made from the end of 2019.

All McLaren Speedtails are already spoken for, and the lucky few owners will take delivery from early 2020.

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Design masterpiece

However, long before its performance will leave you breathless, the look of the McLaren hyper-GT should floor you.

Taking the carbon MonoCell II structure of a 720S and significantly adapting it for the Speedtail’s unique interior layout means the wheelbase of the car has extended by 50mm.

But where a 720S is 4543mm from tip to tail, the dramatic Speedtail is much longer – it’s just shy of a whopping 5200mm overall, much of this made up by the very feature that gives it its name.

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The long, tapering rear of the Speedtail is its party piece, you see. Not only is the distinctive engine cover area topped with the biggest carbon-fibre panel McLaren has ever made, but it features a pair of ailerons, inspired by NASA, that can fold two small flaps of the carbon upwards to create downforce on the rear, without the need for great towering spoilers like those on the McLaren Senna.

McLaren has a patent out on these little beauties, by the way, to make it the first manufacturer to feature such an obvious aviation-inspired device.

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Unique cockpit

Quite a lot more of the Speedtail’s make-up makes it feel more like a land-based fighter jet than a hyper-GT. The cockpit-esque glasshouse is all encompassing above the three-seat passenger compartment, with very little in the way of structural beams keeping it in place.

This floods the cabin with light, but if you’re worrying about glare, fear not; chromatic strips and LEDs embedded in the glass allow for portions of the surface to be darkened, meaning there is no need for sun visors within.

The driver, who sits centrally, has three screens arrayed in front of them – the centre one reading speed, tyre pressures/temps and engine revs, the left displaying navigation and climate functions, and the right controlling phone and media menus.

Secondary switches, for the lights and so on, are hidden lower down beneath the wheel, while the engine start/stop switch, the button-pad gear selectors and drive mode selector (there are just two modes, Comfort and Sport) are all mounted just above and in front of the driver’s head.

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There’s also an enigmatic blue button up there marked VELOCITY, about which McLaren will let us know more in due course.

Even the two rear seats look amazing, because they are moulded into the carbon MonoCell itself, to provide as much passenger room as possible.

All three chairs are covered in Aniline leather with areas of the material covered in low-slip, high-friction surfaces, to better hold the car’s occupants in place, and storage is taken care of by two gloveboxes (one on either side of the dash).

There’s further lockable storage under each passenger seat and a pair of trunks – one at the front and one at the back – which’ll take more than 160 litres of tailored, bespoke luggage between them.

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Amazing in the metal

Outside, the McLaren Speedtail is simply gorgeous. Having seen it at a sneak preview event just days after 72 of the 106 owners got their first glimpse of their impending new toy, its long and sensuous form makes it look like nothing else that has issued forth from the Woking-based company.

Rob Melville, McLaren’s Design Director, said that the Speedtail “really is a car where art and science meet – it’s a concept car for the road”.

And it’s hard to disagree. Slim front light clusters and bespoke LEDs are just about the only shapes familiar from other road-going McLarens, but from that point backwards, its swooping, fluidic bodywork gives it a presence like no other car we can think of.

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Furthermore, there are fixed aerodynamic discs on the front wheels, which are mounted on a spline through the hub and which have around 5mm of clearance to the spinning alloy behind. Owners can remove these if they want to, but the wheel covers are said to be ‘integral’ to the Speedtail’s aero when travelling at speed.

Still, the McLaren Speedtail doesn’t change the automotive game with its stunning appearance alone. No, it’s the power and pace, provided by a hybrid drivetrain based (most likely) on the company’s 4.0-litre M840T twin-turbo V8 that is what truly bends the mind.

And that massive gulf in speed between the Speedtail and the P1, which is represented by nothing more than 3.7 seconds on a spec sheet.

The McLaren Speedtail might be all about the big numbers, but it’s that temporal metric alone that sticks most vividly in our mind. This singular McLaren promises to be something extremely special indeed.

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Written byMatt Robinson
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