McLaren Confirms New Supercar With Room for Three
Mclaren is currently in a state of change. Their Formula 1 team is seeing some changes among the top brass, and now their car line is seeing the addition of something familiar: a supercar with seating for three. We know of its codename — dubbed BP23 — the number of seats, and that it will employ a hybrid powertrain; however, we don’t have many other details.
BP23 is shorthand for Bespoke Project 2, 3 seats (which makes you wonder what happened to Bespoke Project 1). This is not going to be a car to compete with the P1. McLaren flatly states that it’ll be a GT car with an emphasis on driver comfort for long journeys. There’s some challenges to overcoming a central driving position though, such as ease of entry and exit, and deciding how to take on the task of a drive-up window. Aside from that, there’s crash safety regulations to take into account. If the original F1 could pull it off without looking odd, the BP23 should come out fairly good-looking as well.
The idea of a three seat mid-engine car made by a Formula 1 firm actually can trace its roots further back than the McLaren F1. Matra was an F1 constructor famous for its howling V12 engines, but their road car was a humble, mid-engine 4-cylinder car with three seats in a line. The first was called the Bagheera, later succeeded by the Muerna. Unlike the McLaren, the driver was positioned to one side of the car rather than the center, and the passengers sat in line, rather than slightly aft of the driver.
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via [Driving]
