Not to be confused with a Peel P50. Not that you could.
It appears that behind close doors, McLaren has something interesting cooking. Called the ‘P15,’ the project will spawn a track-focused road-legal car, fulfilling the brief that management gave the engineering team to create “the most extreme, track-focused road car.” Though the project has yet to be officially confirmed by McLaren, it’s said that this 500-unit limited-run hypercar already has customers vying for it ahead of its expected 2018 Geneva Motor Show debut.
Described in an Autocar report as a “track weapon,” project P15 is a result of the engineering team being told that they have the “freedom to prioritise performance.” Motivation will come from a the same 3.8-litre V8 that powers all of McLaren’s current crop of cars, though it’s expected to produce some 588kW (which actually eclipses the mechanical output of the P1 hypercar minus its electric powertrain). The P15 will also be incredibly light, and as a result will likely do the century sprint in a time comparable to the P1 hypercar and the P1 GTR, around the 2.5- to 2.7-second mark.
That lightness will be down to the employment of a Monocage II one-piece carbon-fibre tub, though it’s been stressed that the exotic lightweight material is being used only where it delivers performance, and not just where it’s aesthetically-pleasing. The styling of the car was described by an insider as “brutal,” with one source going as far as to say:
“This is the ultimate distillation of form following function. Whichever part of the car you look at, you will visually understand the function of the components.” – Source
With its track-focused nature, the P15 will “set new standards” for the use of active aerodynamics, or so it’s claimed. This will result in the use of things like self-adjusting spoilers on both ends, with a smattering of ducts and scoops that will open and close as when needed. The ride-height of the car will also likely be adjustable, as to maintain absolute efficiency. This is supported by McLaren having filed two patents earlier this year related to active aerodynamics, which is set to be a hallmark of the brands’ next-generation of supercars and hypercars.
Despite the “brutal” and functional styling, it’s telling that the design of the P15 was signed off by Rob Melville, the company’s new design boss. It’s likely that while the car won’t look like any road-going McLaren before it, it will still retain signature design features that will likely have had to be adjusted and suited to the cars’ performance goals. The same goes for the interior, which will be stripped back and entirely functional, while still holding dear the cabin design language that we’ve been made familiar with through the marque’s latest cars.
The P15 won’t be alone though, at least not for long. As the P15 will be a road-legal car, that leaves enough room for a track-exclusive model that will be even more uncompromised and pared-back, and will likely be offered exclusively to owners/buyers of P15 road cars. A significant price premium is expected for the GTR, well above the £840,000 (or just under $1.4-million in our money) that is speculated for the road car. A brief look back at the P1 GTR serves as a reminder that that track-only variant well-over double the price of a standard P1 hypercar, which itself commanded £866,000 ($1.5-million new, thereabouts).
What is entirely clear at this point is that the P15 won’t hit showrooms bearing that name. As the P1 showed, McLaren will likely dive into its past to find a name with historic relevance. Aside from that, there’s little else we know about the P15, though it’ll have to share its placement in the Ultimate Series of cars along with the three-seater ‘Hyper-GT’ that will be built in the same vain as the McLaren F1 from the turn of the century.
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