Since its unveiling at last year’s Paris Auto Show, McLaren’s new hypercar, the P1, has generated quite a lot of interest. If that’s natural with any such car, in the case of the P1 it has been amplified by a.) the fact that the company is keeping its cards very close to its chest concerning a lot of the details and b.) that it will be launched in the same year as its direct rivals, i.e. the Ferrari “F150” and the Porsche 918 Spyder.
Now the Woking outfit has issued a press release informing us that the development of the P1 continues “ahead of its next global appearance”. Well, that will probably be Geneva in March then.
Still, McLaren informs us that its team of engineers and racing drivers are testing a fleet of “XP” P1s around the globe and cooperating closely with suppliers like Pirelli (tires), Akebono (brakes) and Mobil 1 (lubrication) to achieve their goals of producing the best supercar for road and track.
The XP moniker, which stands for “experimental”, has been around since the original F1. In fact, its designer, Gordon Murray, owns and drives the XP3 car. We guess though that, with McLaren being a fully-fledged supercar manufacturer now, its XP “fleet” will be substantially larger…
Apart from some images of the P1 wearing a track-inspired camouflage, which does nothing to hide its styling that as we’ve already seen, is all but identical to the concept, the automaker also released a new video of its hypercar being driven in anger – along with a short glimpse of the interior.
You can watch it, along with the image gallery of both the test and concept cars, right after the break.
By Andrew Tsaousis
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