MCLAREN GOES AFTER FERRARI, ON THE ROAD THIS TIME

McLaren Automotive, a division of the McLaren Group, has confirmed that it’s working on a new supercar to take on cars like the Ferrari F430 and Porsche’s 911 GT range. According to CEO Ron Dennis a new facility in the UK will oversee complete production and employ about 800 people.

The supercar currently being codenamed the P11, has been spied undergoing testing over the past year or so. It will be launched in 2011. That’s not to say however, that the P11 will be McLaren’s only product. An entire range of sports cars will come out of that UK factory in the same way that Porsche rolls off its Boxster, Cayman and 911 models. The company has of course, also been a partner to Daimler AG in the design and manufacturing of the 2003 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

In 1993 McLaren presented its first supercar, the McLaren F1. It was a culmination of the brand’s founder Bruce McLaren, F1 Team owner Ron Dennis and South African designer Gordon Murray’s collective vision of a road-going McLaren car.

Under the bonnet roared a naturally aspirated 6.1-litre V12 engine supplied by BMW. McLaren had asked that the engine produce 410kW but this was exceeded to ultimately make 468kW. They say it was able to go from 0 – 100km/h in 3.3 seconds and that top speed was 386km/h. And this was back in 1993.

Only 64 McLaren F1s were ever made for the road at a price tag of around US$1.2 million each. Some of them are still owned by celebrities like musician Wyclef, talk show host Jay Leno, comedian Rowan “Mr Bean” Atkinson, Ron Dennis himself, fashion designer Ralph Lauren, musician Eric Clapton and racing driver Michael Schumacher.