The controversial design of the McLaren Senna won’t win it any beauty contests, but that’s OK with its creators, as their sole focus was on performance.
In fact, this is McLaren’s most extreme and aggressive creation yet, and every component “delivers very high levels of performance”, according to the brand’s design officials.
Design Director Rob Melville and Senior Designer Esteban Pallazo, the two men behind the styling of the Senna, took it to YouTube to explain why the hypercar looks the way it does. They say that it’s a huge departure from the usual design language, created to take “everything to a new level”.
It may not be to everyone’s taste at the moment, especially since it bears the name of one of the greatest F1 drivers ever, but the McLaren Senna is an absolute beast. With 2.8sec for the 0-100km/h (0-62mph) acceleration, it’s just as fast as the McLaren P1.
At high-speed cornering, everything changes, though, as according to the Woking-based manufacturer, the Senna is quicker not only than the P1, but the much more powerful, 986 HP (1,000 PS) P1 GTR, too. The Senna has 800PS (789hp) and 800Nm (590lb-ft) of torque, generated by the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 and flat-out, it will do 340km/h (211mph), or 10km/h (6mph) less compared to the road-legal P1.
The two designers claim that the main idea behind the Senna is to make everyone want to drive it, but getting one is going to be a challenge, given that only 500 units will be made and all of them have already been spoken for.