Originally Posted by Ludas

I don't like the design one bit. It looks like a dull chinese copy of a Noble M14.
Seriously, at least give the car some curves. If this is the final design there are no words for how dissapointed I am.

Originally Posted by PMac

I somewhat agree, but the problem with trying to compete at that level would be that whatever they come up with would need to trump not only the F1, but the Veyron as well. Not so easy to do these days, with the safety requirements. There's a reason the Veyron is so much heavier than an F1.

So, what's the market for another $1MM+ hypercar, versus the (relatively) thriving F4XX/Gallardo market segment? I can't fault their business reasoning.

Besides, taking the long view, the supercar market is reaching a point these days where rear-wheel drive cars are reaching performance limits dictated by tire adhesion more than anything else. 500HP+ in a light car is hard to deploy effectively (see the Koenigsegg v whatever videos - it's not until the thing hooks up that it starts to move away from the competitor). So, now we're seeing all the AWD supercars (Lambos, Veyron, 997TT, Audi R8, etc.). In order to keep up in a straight line, these cars are sacrificing driving pleasure, nimbleness, hang-out-the-tail-ability. For McLaren to build a viable Veyron-beater, it would essentially *have* to AWD, which would spoil other areas of the driving experience.

This is of course a generalization. Ferrari seem to do just fine with RWD, but their focus has never been on being the *absolute* fastest machine out there (not that they're slow, by any means), and no-one's arguing that a GT2 isn't quicker than a TT in every metric, but more and more, choosing a hypercar is about trading off ultimate driver enjoyment against ultimate bragging rights.

Originally Posted by D55L

BTW, there is one more important launch expected in not so far future - Pagani C9. This car will have so many things to amaze. I do not know much, but what I know amazed me already.