McLaren wants to take on Ferrari in luxury sports car segment

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McLaren’s automotive division is very small compared to any other auto manufacturer. So far their yearly production of SLR McLaren in partnership with Mercedes-Benz has been around 100 cars.

As the two companies are almost done with the SLR series McLaren has started their own supercar codenamed P11.

Now Ron Dennis, 15 per cent shareholder and head of McLaren hopes to get a chunk of the luxury sports car market with their own supercar by investing £250 million.

In 2011 McLaren hopes to produce 1,000 cars and eventually increase it to 4,000 units. Mr. Dennis believes that volume production would enable the company to make a more affordable car compared to the SLR McLaren and compete with Ferrari in the sports car market.

Mr. Dennis told FT that the company would like to build a standalone production plant in the UK, even though the capital required would be greater than using existing facilities on the continent such as the Magna plant in Austria. Up to 400 jobs would be created.

Despite global recession Mr. Dennis is optimistic and believes we will be out of recession by 2011. “My intention is within the next six months to create 400 new jobs and save 200 jobs. Where everybody is looking at trying to trim their costs, I want to grow.”

McLaren P11 will be powered by a mid-mounted 6.2-liter V8 AMG engine producing around 550-600 hp. This new supercar accelerates from 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) in less than 4 seconds. Top speed is expected to be around 200 mph (320 km/h).

Main competitors are Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari F430 and Porsche 911 Turbo. P11 will be priced from $200,000-$300,000.

For pictures of the P11 prototype click here.

Source: FT