By Tim Pollard
29 January 2009 13:11
We've caught McLaren's new supercar – internally codenamed the P11 – on winter test in Sweden. This generation of prototype appears to be wearing a slightly different disguise to the last time we published a P11 scoop (taken by a CAR Online reader) but we're pretty confident this is the junior McLaren supercar.
Our man in Sweden reports that the P11 is on test at a known industry facility and the fleet of rented Volvo back-up cars surrounding the Macca is a typical 'blocking' tactic used by engineers to prevent spy photographers getting too near to secret new cars.
The bodywork is certainly clad in different disguise panels to our previous P11 spyshots, but the basic silhouette, glasshouse and other details make us think this is the McLaren and not a rival supercar from Modena. Even the wheels match closely the items we're expecting on the production P11.
McLaren P11 and CAR Magazine
CAR's been following the McLaren P11's gestation with interest, after we landed an award-winning world-exclusive scoop back in 2007 with our first story on Woking's new supercar and last year we then published pictures of the actual clay design models.
The P11 is designed to be a rival to the Ferrari F430
– mixing the design purity of the legendary McLaren F1 with more affordable, low-to-mid volume manufacturing processes. It'll be powered by a V8 engine driving the rear wheels and electric performance is guaranteed by lightweight composite construction in parts of the car. We should see the car in 2010.
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