Pump up the Volume: McLaren to target 4000 sales annually
Click above for a high-res gallery of the McLaren P11
With the SLR speeding out of the picture following the debut of the Stirling Moss edition speedster, the only vehicles McLaren will be producing are the handful of Formula One racers it'll need to defend its title this season. But that's about to change, as newly refocused McLaren chief Ron Dennis has revealed in an interview with London's Financial Times.
With an eye towards Ferrari, which manages to sustain its racing efforts on the back of its 60-year experience producing road cars, McLaren plans to expand its sales from it current 100 units per year up to 1000 units annually by 2011 and up to 4,000 in the long-term. However, recognizing that investing in such capacity could be a prohibitively expensive venture, Dennis hinted that production could be outsourced to an independent coachbuilder.
Gallery: McLaren P11 - spy shots
[Source: Financial Times via World Car Fans]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ken Stamper 10:39AM (2/10/2009)
If they can bring this to the US with a MSRP under $30,000, put me at the front of the queue!
Ah well...
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bill 10:43AM (2/10/2009)
McLaren makes really great cars, but their timing really is bad. The McLaren F1 came out just in time to catch a major down turn in the world economy, and it had a less than favorable impact on sales. Will this turn out the same?
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gkoenig 6:03PM (2/10/2009)
I think the timing is actually very good.
It takes years to develop a car, get the supply chain in order and build up the sales infrastructure. Car companies don't plan for where the economy is today, they plan for where it will be 5-10 years from now. If you believe that things are never going to be getting better within the next 2-5 years, than yea... awful time to build a car. But only the most dire predictions are saying that this is a big depression.
Also, don't forget that a tough economy is the perfect time to innovate. Skilled people are looking for jobs, so you don't pay as much in salary. Office space is inexpensive. Suppliers are begging for long term contracts that they can book now and are willing to make good deals. Same with long term commodity prices for things like carbon and aluminum.
I'll quote Steve Jobs quoting Wayne Gretzky; "I don't skate to where the puck is, I skate to where it is going."
L.S. 10:54AM (2/10/2009)
That's one mean looking car, even with all the camo.
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Ligor 12:37PM (2/10/2009)
i don't see it
looks more Lexus like than Viper like with the camo on
tom 11:27AM (2/10/2009)
They better not attempt to charge even a third of what Ferrari charges. Ferrari is Ferrari. McLaren is a corrupt company that is just using the name 'McLaren' to get away with anything.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/formula1/2007-09-13-mclaren-spying_N.htm
The McLaren F1 was a great car, but these guys really irk me in more recent times, and Ron Dennis doesn't seem like a trustworthy person.
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Franz 1:30PM (2/10/2009)
I always amuses me when you guys talk about the whole McLaren/Ferrari scandal like it was an all McLaren affair. Nigel Stepney was a Ferrari employee... McLaren didn't go looking for the data, he stole it and was trying to peddle it to the highest bidder. He went to Honda too but Nick Fry was smart enough to turn him down. I'm not saying McLaren doesn't deserve any blame for receiving the data however because the rules on intellectual property within the sport were quite clear, but the corruption originated within the ranks of Ferrari.
Also, saying that Ron Dennis doesn't appear trustworthy is a bit of a stretch in this instance, since he told Coughlan to break off any dealings he had with Stepney as soon as he found out... he even went as far as to basically rat his own team out to Mosely when Fernando Alonso was trying to blackmail him. He was the one who called for the investigation. The only thing I'd blame Dennis for was being unbelievably clueless about all those shenanigans going on within his organization.
tom 11:28AM (2/10/2009)
But at least they were able to bribe Toyota and Timo Glock to steal the F1 championship, even though Hamilton drove like crap in the rain on the last race, was outdriven by a rookie, and effectively gave up the championship for the second year in a row! :p
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Manolo 10:18PM (2/13/2009)
One more spy shot of a car I couldn't care less and I'll puke...
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Manolo 2:04PM (2/10/2009)
One more spy shot of a car I couldn't care less about and I'll puke...
;-)
What is all the fuss about spy shots?
I don't get it, honest...
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Steve 2:20PM (2/10/2009)
This car looks hideous, even in it's preliminary clay model shots (which may or may not have been correct). If they want to appeal to people, they need to design something fresh and out of the box, instead of dipping back what looks to be at LEAST 7 or 8 years for the clay model I saw, and these shots I'm seeing.
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Jei 3:58PM (2/10/2009)
M-B should've continued to jointly develop this new supercar. As the SLR starts its final laps, it would've been nice for M-B to offer up a smaller, slicker supercoupe. I know M-B is working on the reincarnate to the classic Gullwing coupe, but something like this McLaren is polarizing.
...no digs on the Black Series, but making another car with McLaren proves legendary.
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Caz 4:37PM (2/10/2009)
That's a nice F430 bodykit..
..but where are the pics of the new McLaren???
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RLQ 8:27PM (2/10/2009)
That's a bit much for a car of that type.
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