By: IOL Motoring Staff
Woking, Surrey - Throughout the quiet months of the northern hemisphere winter, McLaren has been working on the development programme of what is intended to be its fastest and most exclusive limited-edition sports car yet.
The track-only P1GTR will make its world debut in its definitive format at the Geneva Motors Show in March, ahead of the start of (very limited) production later this year and the launch of the bespoke Driver Programme.
Chief test driver Chris Goodwin has done thousands of kilometres of extreme testing at locations in Britain and Europe, as well as lap after lap in the heat of Bahrain and Qatar, specifically with the aim of improving the car's cooling and aerodynamics, as compared to the design concept that was shown at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in August 2014.
LIGHTER = FASTER
But, most of all, the programme has concentrated on optimising the fine-tuning the car's petrol-electric powertrain for the track and significantly reducing its weight using motorsport-derived technology.
The GTR's power-to-weight ratio is already more than 10 percent better than that of the street-legal P1, at about 515kW per ton, and Goodwin reckons there's more to come, making this one of the fastest cars yet to wear the McLaren 'tick mark' - worthy to carry the GTR badge, made famous by Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing's 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours victory in the factory F1 GTR prototype.
In the next few weeks the customers who have joined the GTR Driver Programme will be invited to the Technology Centre at Woking for fitting, the first step towards getting out on some of the world's most iconic circuits in one of the most extreme track-day specials yet built.