Odds are, you’re in one of two camps on McLaren’s styling.
When we first saw photos teasing this new McLaren Ultimate Series model, opinions in the TFL office quickly split into two camps. Either you think, “That’s a pretty good looking car,” or you think “Wow, that looks like a soap dish. In fact, all McLarens look like soap dishes.”
Yes, you may think we have cogent arguments about the state of the automotive industry, automakers’ decisions to use a certain engine in a new model — or forego the combustion engine altogether — and so on. But no, today’s argument centered around whether the hyper-rare, ultra-exclusive and majorly expensive McLaren looks like a common household item. On the subject of exclusivity, McLaren will limit production on this new Ultimate Series model to 399 units. Before its launch, the company brought it to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. I wonder if a similar argument broke out there.
To be absolutely clear, I don’t think this McLaren Ultimate Series roadster, whatever its name will be, looks like a soap dish. It does, however, look like it takes styling cues from other McLarens. There’s some Senna touches here, a few Speedtail touches there, but there’s no windshield on this track-focused model. According to McLaren, this car will “differ from both the McLaren Senna’s focus on being the ultimate road-legal track car and the Speedtail’s high-speed aerodynamic efficiency by offering the purest distillation of road-focused driving pleasure and an unrivaled sense of driver connection with the surrounding environment.” No mention of soap dishes, of course.
McLaren says this Ultimate Series model will come to market in late 2020. Pricing will fall somewhere between the $958,966 Senna and the $2.25 million Speedtail.
