The150,000-Euro baby


These pictures prove that early development work is well under way on the 'baby' McLaren, with plans to sell as many as 2000 cars a year to rival the likes of the Ferrari 360 Modena, Lamborghini Gallardo and all-new Audi R8. Although McLaren engineers are remaining tight-lipped about the project, we have learnt that feasibility studies are currently being carried out on the car at one of Mercedes’ secret test-centres in Germany.

McLaren is hoping to use carbonfibre construction for the new car, although there are doubts about the economic viability of using the material for a car with a projected price tag of about 150,000 Euros.

Sources couldn't be budged on whether the new car, thought to be code-named P8, will have a three-seat arrangement similar to that of the F1, but equally our source doggedly refused to confirm the new car as a conventional two-seater. One possibility is that the third seat would be mounted centrally towards the rear, the reverse of the F1's layout. It will be mid-engined though, partly to make it distinct from the front-engined Mercedes SLR McLaren.

And it’s already certain that the car will have to be built by Mercedes, as McLaren's new Woking factory is tied up producing the SLR and doesn't have the spare capacity. It seems that the SLR, the brainchild of Ron Dennis, was originally designed to be the definitive GT car. Ferrari's 550 Maranello was the original target car for the project but it became clear that the SLR would be in a different league when the first projected performance figures were calculated using the higher-than-expected output from the supercharged Mercedes V8. This would in fact leave space for a smaller car, probably called the Mercedes SLS McLaren.

Article from http://www.worldcarfans.com/spyphoto...es-sls-mclaren

 

How that rendering was gotten from only that chassis is beyond me... The guy responsible for that rendering truly has a 6th sense

 

Sweet! Hopefully we'll have a 6-speed this time too.

 

Man, i'd just drive around in the chassis there.

 

2nd that. whatever that is it's hot.

 

and i love the nav system in the passenger seat.

 

Got to have the NAV dude, its a must !

 

I like the artist's rendering, and love the idea of McLaren jumping into this sector.

 

CLS headlights, SLR hood/ fr bumper and from the doors back it's all Chrysler ME 4-12

 

You're on to something. These possibilities always pop into my mind when eyeing any Merc, "dude, it's a Chrysler."

I do though have a weak spot for most of AMG's vehicles and Mclaren F1. This artists' rendering does looks pretty slick. Me likey.

 

That "Nav" is a laptop for testing heh

 

Not to be behind Audi. Typical rival of R8 with its design. Will be interesting

 

Looks like he is shifting gears.

 

I noticed that too.

 

Wow, Worldcarfans really screwed up big time on this one.

The car pictured above is not the prototype of an upcoming McLaren model. As somebody on another forum pointed out on another forum, it's "the experimental handling vehicle" built by students of the University of Technology in Munich!
http://www.ftm.mw.tum.de/english/study/ehv.htm
http://www.ehv-projekt.de/rollout.pdf


Not that Worldcarfans ever had much credibilty, at least in my opinion. They're posting speculations and pointless photoshops all the time! Point in case, the "artists rendering" above, which, as ZAMIRZ already pointed out, is just a photoshopped Chrysler ME 4-12.