McLaren Speedtail

McLaren Automotive recently unveiled the Speedtail, the next in the company’s McLaren Ultimate Series and its first Hyper-GT. The car features a beautiful, aerodynamic design and incredible power.

McLaren Automotive unveiled its first Hyper-GT

McLaren will produce just 106 of the vehicles, and all of them are already reserved at a price of £1.75 million, or about $2.2 million, plus taxes. About a third of the buyers are in the United States, according to Car and Driver, where the cars will not be street-legal. At its top speed, the Mclaren Speedtail can hit 250 miles per hour, even more than the record top speed of the McLaren F1. It can go from 0 to 300 kilometers per her, or 186 mph, in just 12.8 seconds.

This speed is made possible in part by the car’s aerodynamic design. Its teardrop-shaped body and cockpit and the reduced number of shutlines create an uninterrupted flow of air from the front of the vehicle to the back. The carbon fiber front-wheel static aero covers, active rear ailerons and retractable digital rearview camera, which take the place of mirrors, add to the aerodynamics.

Underneath the LED headlights are slim vertical ducts that provide cooling to the car’s low-temperature radiators. Any airflow that doesn’t go into the LTR ducts flows over the Speedtail’s bonnet and into two upper front clam intakes. It is then ducted through the body and around the wheelarch before exiting from the lower door vents. This decreases the amount of air moving around the side of the vehicle to minimize turbulence.

The car is also exceptionally lightweight. It’s built around a McLaren Monocage carbon fiber structure and has a carbon fiber body, carbon ceramic brakes and aluminum active suspension. All in all, it weighs about 3,153 pounds without fluids. The Speedtail is narrower than the Mclaren P1 but measures about half a meter longer at nearly 17 feet.

The car’s powertrain, which is a gas-electric hybrid, also contributes, of course. It provides

1,050 PS, which equals about 1,036 horsepower.

To achieve the car’s top speed, you need to enter Velocity mode, which optimizes the powertrain for high speeds, angles the active rear ailerons and retracts the rear-view cameras. It also lowers the Speedtail by 1.4 inches, bringing the car’s highest point to just 3 feet 8 inches.

McLaren even developed a tire designed especially for the Speedtail’s high speeds with Pirelli, a McLaren technology partner.

The cockpit of the Speedtail provides a unique experience. The driver’s seat is positioned in the center of the cockpit, and there is seating for two in the rear of the vehicle. The car’s windscreen curves upward to the meet the roof and glazed upper portion of the dihedral doors. The glass rearquarterlights extend back behind the rear seats. The glass cockpit lets in a large amount of light but also features electrochromic technology that allows the driver to turn parts of the glass opaque. This capability replaces the need for sun visors.

The car has storage space in both the tail and nose, and McLaren will provide a luggage set to every owner that matches the interior of the Speedtail. The interior model features both aniline leather and a new lightweight semi-aniline leather.

The look of each Speedtail will be tailored to the specifications of each owner, and McLaren has said that it is highly unlikely that any two Speedtails will be exactly the same. Buyers will be able to choose unique stitching patterns, colors and decorative forms to be created in the leather.

At a recent private preview held in London, future Speedtail owners saw a design model of the car with a silver, non-metallic paint and natural leather as well as leather finished in black, dark glacier and cool white colors.

McLaren will begin deliveries of the Speedtail in 2020.