First pics: McLaren 12C concept racer

McLaren is showing this dramatic track-focused concept at this weeks' Pebble Beach Concours in Monterey, California. The one-off 12C Can-Am Edition design study is finished in historic McLaren orange, in tribute to the cars so successfully driven by Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme in the 1960s and 1970s, with satin black roof, door and bumper sections, and clear-coated carbon-fibre side radiator vanes, wing mirrors and engine cover.

Like the successful GT3 race car, the Can-Am Edition is based on a standard, road-going 12C carbon-fibre monocell chassis, but its familiar 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 has been tweaked to deliver up to 470kW, making it the hottest 12C yet - particularly as it weighs just 1200kg.

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All of which takes some controlling, and behind the Can-Am's black satin-finished forged lightweight racing alloys and Pirelli slicks, there's a specially-developed braking system by Akebono.

McLaren Formula One boffins were called in to help with the aerodynamics, and they provided 30 percent extra downforce with a new carbon-fibre front splitter, carbon-fibre dive planes, and an imposing carbon-fibre wing, mounted on polished aluminium brackets above a carbon-fibre diffuser that takes up most of

Inside, the 12C Can-Am Edition has two black race seats, complete with full six-point harnesses, a full race-specification roll-cage, a GT3 steering wheel (copied from Lewis Hamilton's MP4-24 Formula 1 car) and built-in aircon - which is now mandatory in a growing number of race series.