McLaren BP23 “faster than the F1”
The next hypercar from Woking, the McLaren BP23, will definitely have three seats and will go even faster than the ground-breaking McLaren F1.
McLaren BP23
Doing 340km/h probably seems unnecessary, but hey, trains do it, so why can’t cars? It’s been a long, long time since the brilliant, bucket-list F1 hit the roads. It was an epic car at a time when epic cars arrived with monotonous regularity.
The BP23 is sort of in the same boat – McLaren’s own P1 is a hybrid-powered rocket, there’s the Senna and various wild motor show and real machines on the way.
The BP23 is the third Ultimate Series car and the second this year alone. McLaren is calling it a hyper GT, a car to cross continents.
Just 106 will be made available…er, were made available. They’re all sold at around £1.6 million (US$2.22m) so, like the Senna, you can’t have one. Or can you? That number – 106 – is a reference to the amazing F1 and its Asian financial-crisis affected run in the 1990s.
McLaren is willing to tell us that the BP23 will have a P1-like hybrid powertrain capable of pushing through 391km/h (243mph). That’s faster than the BMW V12-powered F1, which managed “only” 396.4km/h (240.1mph).
The company is also happy to tell us that in exchange for all that money, McLaren Special Operations will tailor the car to the owner’s exact tastes. Let’s hope the Sultan of Brunei’s brother isn’t in line for a BP23.
Thankfully, BP23 is just an internal codename. The real name will break cover along with Rob Melville’s team’s final design “before the end of the year”. It has already been an extraordinary year for McLaren, with the 720S coming on stream, the announcement of the Senna, Senna GTR and no doubt one or two more cars by year’s end.
Building a car to surpass the F1 will be a huge challenge, so McLaren’s engineering team are super-keen.
Will we ever drive one? Who knows. Sometimes, though, thinking about it is better than doing it.
Hah. Who am I kidding?
Want more McLaren? Here’s our review of the McLaren 570S Coupe, fresh off the hard drive
Peter Anderson is the Editor and founder of the theredline.com.au. He’s been writing about cars for years and finds it difficult to talk about anything else.
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