Call that a supercar?
£1.75m McLaren up in smoke... at a petrol station!
SEEING a broken-down supercar – especially one worth £1.75million – would usually prompt a spot of schadenfreude.
But on this occasion, passing motorists were probably rather worried to see smoke emerging from a silver McLaren... as it was stranded on a petrol station forecourt.
The British firm’s fastest ever road car, the 250mph Speedtail is set to be released next year. But this prototype was stopped in its tracks on Thursday, when two McLaren employees were seen dousing it with fire extinguishers. Luckily, the driver and a colleague managed to move the car away from the pumps in time to avert a catastrophe at the BP garage near Guildford, Surrey.
A witness said: ‘It was a bit of a drama with the petrol station closing the pumps.’
McLaren is investigating the incident. A spokesman said the car ‘experienced what we believe at this stage to be an electrical fault’, adding: ‘As a precautionary measure, having seen a small amount of smoke emanating from the vehicle, McLaren employees moved the car away from the fuel pumps and discharged dry powder extinguishers over the rear of the car.’
They said the car was ‘subsequently recovered to McLaren premises’, with nobody hurt in the incident.
All 106 models of the 2020 Speedtail, a petrol-electric hybrid, have already been sold. Described as a ‘spiritual successor’ to the McLaren F1, the Speedtail’s driver sits in the centre of the vehicle with space for a passenger on either side – one of several design features the two models share.