McLaren's new ultimate track car will be here in the spring

The subject of much-frenzied speculation for months now, the newest McLaren is officially described as the ultimate road-legal track car. Thought to be codenamed P15, it will be the first Ultimate Series model since the P1 and P1 GTR, and it will arrive ahead of BP23, the three-seat, central driving position hyper-GT due in 2019.

The new track-orientated machine will eschew GT features for a pure performance focus. “Its mission is to be the most extreme, track-concentrated road car McLaren has yet designed,” says the firm. Its design is described as “brutal” and “the purest expression yet of the company’s ‘form follows function’ philosophy.”

Road legal? Yes, but McLaren also says that in order to give the most intensive driver experience on a circuit, the car will sacrifice (their word) daily usability.

To justify its Ultimate Series billing it will have to be faster on a circuit than both P1 and P1 GTR, a tall order. There’s no confirmation yet, but expect a new aero package for more downforce than any McLaren road car before it, along with a drastic weight loss programme, trimming possibly hundreds of kilos off the P1’s tonne-and-a half. 

Will the diet include the junking of the hybrid electric drivetrain for a simpler, purer, extreme V8 experience?

We’ll know the answer to that in four months’ time when super-Mac is officially unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show.