McLaren Elva finally gets a windscreen to help flog a few more

The McLaren Elva – McLaren’s roofless Ultimate Series offering – is now being offered with a windscreen as McLaren try to flog the last of the run.

It’s eighteen months since the McLaren Elva was revealed as yet another take on McLaren’s basic recipe, this time with the USP of having no glass and no roof. Yep, the Elva’s as open as an open car get.

Sitting alongside the Senna and Longtail at the top of McLaren’s range, the Elva uses the same 4.0 litre twin-turbo V8 as every other McLaren, here with 804bhp heading to the back wheels and good for 62mph in 3.0 seconds. Which would, you’d expect, mean wearing a Mutley helmet and goggles. But McLaren has a crafty way (sort of) round that.

Called AAMS (Active Air Management System) it moves the air which is heading for the cockpit and creates a sort of calm bubble in the cabin to save you from the worst of the wind battering. It’s clever, although apparently no use over 70mph and of limited use at slow speeds. So it’s a narrow window of protection.

But now you can have your Elva with a windscreen, as promised from the off, with the ‘windscreen’ version of the Elva now being built as McLaren strives to find buyers for the 249 units it said it was building after they cut production from the planned 399 cars to help exclusivity (take that as being unable to flog 399 cars). In fact, there will now only be 149 Elvas made.

So in comes a windscreen to make the Elva road-legal in more places (and save you from a wind battering) with carbon fibre frame, auto wipers, heated glass and sun visors, all of which adds just 20kg, helped by dumping the AAMS.

If you want and Elva with a windscreen, McLaren will welcome you with open arms, always assuming you have at least £1.5 million to chuck their way.