New McLaren to take on the Audi R8

The 'Baby' McLaren - expected on sale in 2012

When Ron Dennis left McLaren F1 recently, he said he wasn’t putting his feet up, but had so many other things to do within McLaren that he’d be busier than ever. We’ve brought various bits of information about the McLaren P11 – the F430 / LP560 size car – recently, a project that will certainly keep Ron busy, but there’s more information coming out on the new ‘Baby’ McLaren today.

Auto Express is reporting that the new baby McLaren is well on the way, and even supplied the rendering we have here. We knew this car was coming, as Ron Dennis had said McLaren aims to be producing 4,000 cars a year before long, but this is the clearest indication of what it will be.

Pitched at around the £80k mark, putting the Porsche 911 and the Audi R8 bang in its firing line, the new McLaren will be based on the same chassis as the P11, but probably be smaller than the R8. Power is most likely to come from a normally aspirated Mercedes V12 rather than the turbo version used on the P11. But performance will still be pretty impressive, with a low to mid 4 seconds 0-60 and close to 200mph.

But don’t get too excited yet; the baby McLaren is at least 3 years away. But also in the pipeline we’re told is what will effectively be a replacement for the greatest supercar of all time – the McLaren F1. With the way technology has moved on in the last decade, that will be some car!