McLaren P1: Middle East demand outstrips supply & new P1 photos

McLaren has issued a new set of photos of the P1 supercar to celebrate the opening of McLaren Manama at the Bahrain World Trade Center, ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

We had the launch of the McLaren P1 at Geneva in March and we’ll get the first proper look at the P1 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July when it makes its dynamic debut on the hillclimb. In the meantime, McLaren want to keep the P1 in the news.

So the opening of McLaren Manama –  a joint venture between McLaren Automotive, Mumtalakat, and Al Ghassan Motors – at the Bahrain World Trade Centre is an opportunity to get the P1 front and centre as McLaren promotes both the new showroom and the upcoming 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix.

But it won’t just be the P1 in McLaren’s new Bahrain showroom, it will also be the getting the Formula One gloss too with the MP4-25 – Jenson Button’s car in his 2010 season with McLaren – going on display to garner footfall in the new showroom.

To give us a reason to report on the new showroom in Bahrain, McLaren has released more images from the photo shoot earlier this year at the Bahrain International Circuit when they were busy drumming up interest in the P1, and they’re such beautifully lit and shot images we couldn’t not publish them.

What’s also come out of McLaren’s Bahrain adventures is the news that demand in the Middle East for the P1 – with just 375 being built – is actually greater than supply, even at £866k.

But then, there are probably 375 petrolheads in Bahrain alone who can afford to drop that amount of money on a P1 without batting an eyelid.