McLaren BP23

First teaser (I hate teasers!) of the 106 run, all sold out, 2019 three seat McLaren 'BP23':

McLaren's New Three-Seater Will Be the Most Powerful and Aerodynamic McLaren Ever

New McLaren BP23 details | PistonHeads

Any more to add from our FChat close friends of McLaren, please do so below

Alex

 

That rear looks terrible IMO. If this is suppose to be a heritage car then they should take a page from the FORD GT book and make the new car look like a modern F1 and not a whole new car with 3 seats and call it an F1 Part 2. Glorious NA V12 - Nope, Manual - Nope, Lighter than a Miata - NOPE, Zero nannies and driver aides - NOPE, Pure and raw driving experience - NOPE.

 

It's a Chiron competitor. I don't see a link between this and the F1 other than 3 seats. Mclaren wants this to be a 250 mph GT car.

 

Who said it's supposed to be a heritage car that looks like an F1?

 

Mike Flewitt said quite the opposite in interviews at Geneva. Not a new F1, despite the opinion that some headlines/articles are trying to force.

>8^)
ER

 

What I would like to know is who is in charge of this project? If it doesn't have a guy at the level of a Gordon Murray spearheading it all, it will not be a worthy successor to the F1, regardless of how well it performs.

 

It's not supposed to be a worthy successor to the F1. In reality that will never happen as analog cars are a thing of the past.

It's just a new McLaren that happens to share the seating configuration.

>8^)
ER

 

I like it. It looks exotic. But you can't really see much other than its basic shape. Sorta like the regera.

I hear McLaren have consulted with a few folks from the US that are very knowledgeable with very high speed cars (ie bonneville).

I don't think Gordon Murray has anything to do with it AFAIK. GM doesn't have the skills in hybrid technology from what conversations I've had with him.

 

I see some Regera in the design of the rear.

 

I'm not so sure McLaren would agree with your statement.

 

If we consider the words of CEO Mike Flewitt to be the position McLaren has taken on this project then I believe I'm correct. These three articles all interpret Flewitt's words the exact same way I do.

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/geneva-motor-show/new-sketch-reveals-mclarens-three-seat-hypercar-will-be-its-fastest-ever-road-car

McLaren's Three-Seat Hypercar Will Be Its "Fastest" Street Car Yet - The Drive

McLaren's Upcoming Three-Seater Is Not a Successor to the Legendary F1

>8^)
ER

 

Its not a F1 remake, although I'm not sure what that means really. It won't look like the F1 and it wont have the BMW V12 (or any V12 for that matter) and it wont be a race car (its low downforce). What it will have is 3 seats and go really really fast. Its more designed for looks, comfort and top speed. So more like a bugatti in that respect.

 

Nor will there likely be another production-based car to win Le Mans OA ...

 

That's not true. Every McLaren Automotive car, even the 12C, has surpassed the F1 in performance and handling. That's not to take anything away from the F1 but rather to point out that the company has a whole bunch of people who are at least at Gordon Murray's caliber now including some who worked with him on the original F1 and on the Formula One race cars.

The BP23 design design brief is pretty similar to the F1 which is a very, very fast luxurious 3 seater world-class supercar. Let's not forget the F1 was McLaren's answer to the Acura NSX. A super car you could use regularly but made with Formula One style materials and engineering so it would be light and fast. But when you see one going around a track today you realize that 20-year-old technology is no match for even the 12C/650S let alone 675LT, P1 or the new 720S. They had an amazing NA V12 engine and a central driving position but they don't have anywhere near the quality of suspension, tires, steering, transmission and brakes of today's cars nor would you expect them to being 20-years old now. But they had top speed and, at the time, crushing market-acceleration.

BP23 will share the most positive attributes of the F1 including high top speed, great acceleration, lightness, exotic materials, luxurious interior and being a useable 3-seat central-driving position hypercar. But it will have modern McLaren technology underneath, a roomier cabin, and a friendlier driving environment. It is going to be an absolutely amazing car! It will out-accelerate and out-handle the F1, which is already true of every McLaren Automotive product today, but with a level of styling and luxury worthy of a $2M hypercar.

 

There's so much wrong with this paragraph, I do not know where to start. You don't seem to know who Gordon Murray is. Claiming that McLaren has a "whole bunch of people who are at least at Gordon Murray's caliber" is just an ignorant statement. If that was true, they would be dominating Formula 1 right now.

With respects to the F1 road car - it isn't just about performance numbers. Why do you think the original F1 sells for $10 million +? A very large part of that is because of Gordon Murray. I highly doubt any of their supercars succeeding the F1 will ever approach the F1 in value or spirit.

 

Will it have viceral driving experince like an F1, a purity of purpose like an F1. Seems near impossible to me, given paddles hybridization, engine layout, power steering and electronic suspension.

what makes the F1 and rocket are Murry's single minded pursuit of exellence lightness and purity of purpose. I dont see any new car that has these attributes. The closest was the recently departed Zonda.

On paper yes the new cars are faster. They also have irrelevant and unuseable speed and sacrifice much to post those paper numbers.

The sucess formula these days is, relative comfort, ease to drive for the talentless, better paper numbers to back it all up and marketing for rarity..

The F1 was never an easy proposition, a fair number of experinced people overcooked it quite easily and crashed. Even Mr bean who drove his for 30k miles still crashed. But his comment on the car still rings true to me, "you could own it for a lifetime and you would still be discoverng new layers of its talent."

Or as I like to say, its not just how fast you go, but also how you go fast.

These new cars are better in very way the same way the acura Nsx is better than the old NSX, except imo it misses the central point.

Purity of purpose is a hard sell in a mrket that wants bragging rights but not really the reality, witness lotus. To me f the moderns the eprformante seems closest in vison. Light NA and elegant engineering.

720 may be awesome too.

 

Actually I had a good chat with him back in December.

It sells for huge money because it was the most amazing car on the road at the time. But so was my 1960 300SL in it's time and today a run-of-the-mill Toyota Camry can smoke it around any race track! It's still amazing fun to drive and it still represents an amazing engineering accomplishment from the past, as does the F1 which adds supreme rarity to the mix.

BTW, I'm a huge fan of the McLaren F1!

 

How are you defining "visceral driving experience" and "purity of purpose"?

 

Chatting with him is one thing - anyone can have a chat with anyone. Being familiar with what he has done in his F1 career can be another thing entirely.

Anyone familiar with his legacy in F1 would know that he was a very special designer - McLaren wishes they had a bunch of employees of his caliber right now!

 

Marknc is pretty plugged in with all things mclaren.

I'd say he's Mclarens #1 fan boy -

 

Meh, I don't buy into the Gordon Murray thing. He's a nice guy, super talented but its not like everything he touches is gold. He has lots of other projects, you can buy one of his convertible pickup trucks or a 3 wheel car and they're not expensive (and he likes it that way).

 

Not true. Others here get that award.

But Marknc knows what he's talking about.

 

Maybe not, but the F1 was, and still is gold.

It will be very interesting to see how the new Red Bull/Aston Martin is received, as it has a similar pedigree with Adrian Newey.........

 

To be clear I was replying to the "you don't seem to know who Gordon Murray is" remark. My reply we simply to indicate that I do know who he is. I've followed small portions of his work for a long time. If it weren't for the F1 road car I probably wouldn't be in this forum. I also agree he was a very special designer. But nothing as complex as a Formula One car, or road cars like F1/P1/675LT/650S/12C/570S/570GT and now 720S, gets designed or engineered by just one person. It takes several really, really smart people to pull of these kinds of accomplishments. I guarantee you if asked Gordon Murray who on the development team was smarter than him he'll have at least a few names to give you. Brilliant people surround themselves with people who are more brilliant than they are.

We weren't talking about Formula One. We were talking about McLaren Automotive and they couldn't have achieved what they've achieved, in so short a time, if my statement weren't true. I don't know any of the folks currently at the F1 division but I've met several McLaren Automotive people and they're very, very smart.

 

I've bought a few cars from them and given them a lot of feedback.

I might be

I like Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes and others too but because so many other people also like them, and know so much more about those brands, I don't feel the need to defend them. McLaren is the new upstart so it's fun to cheer them on an watch how quickly they're maturing. I don't have enough money to get on the inside track of more than one brand so I stick closer to McLaren because I feel like I got in on the ground floor and, even though I had Porsche, Mercedes, Audi and Ferraris before McLaren, ever since my first 12C their cars felt in-tune with me than the other brands. I still do absolutely love my Ferrari FF however.