The McLaren P1, the next generation ultimate supercar from McLaren, has made its Middle East debut at a special unveiling in Manama, Bahrain. Privileged guests of McLaren Automotive, its majority shareholder, Mumtalakat, and its retail partner in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Al Ghassan Motors, were given a unique overview of the car by Paul Mackenzie, McLaren P1 Project Director. Mackenzie said: “This unique car is designed with one aim in mind: to be the best driver's car in the world on road and track. With our history of making ground-breaking sports cars such as the McLaren F1, the SLR and more recently, the 12C and 12C Spider, the McLaren P1 is rightly anticipated as one of the decade's most exciting cars. It is both a combination of McLaren's 50 years of racing and road car heritage and our shareholders' vision for the future of our performance car business." Developed as a road car that offers genuine Formula 1-inspired racing car track performance, the McLaren P1 showcases McLaren Automotive's advanced motorsport-based engineering, prioritizing high performance through state-of-the-art technology. It will feature notable advances in weight reduction, packaging, high-speed performance, materials (especially carbon fiber), powertrain and in aerodynamics.The new model was designed from the outset to prioritize aerodynamic performance, and has benefited from the same testing technologies used on McLaren's Formula 1 cars. It has much higher levels of downforce than any current road car – 600kg is achieved well below maximum speed, and is similar to current sports racing cars. As with the legendary McLaren F1 road car, the McLaren P1 is a mid-engine design that uses a carbon fiber monocoque and roof structure safety cage concept called the MonoCage, which is a development of the MonoCell used in the current 12C and 12C Spider. All the body panels are carbon fiber to reduce weight. McLaren Automotive Regional Director for the Middle East & Africa, Mark Harrison added: “The McLaren P1 is set to be the most exciting, most capable, most technologically advanced and most dynamically accomplished supercar ever made: this is the challenge we have set our development engineers before committing the car to production. The arrival of this design study in Bahrain is generating huge excitement and we have a very strong initial order bank in the Middle East despite the fact we have not yet confirmed the car for production."Sheikh Ghassan A H Al Sulaiman, President and CEO, Al Ghassan Motors, said: “This is a genuinely once in a lifetime opportunity for a passionate sports car retailer like Al Ghassan Motors. To launch the spiritual successor to the McLaren F1 is a key reason why we partnered with McLaren. Our customers and teams at our Bahrain and Saudi Arabia businesses cannot wait for this car to be confirmed and production to begin: I believe we have the most passionate sports car fans in the world in this region and this car will genuinely set their pulses racing." — SG
