Photo: McLaren
From an engineering company, McLaren has blossomed into a fully-fledged automaker with a somewhat wide variety of performance cars. They range from the entry-level 57S that starts at $185,000 and goes all the way up to the P1 hybrid hypercar, every single unit of which has been sold out.
Right in the middle of it all is the 650S, a model that evolved from the MP4-12C and is one of the most respected performance machines on the planet. But given enough time, it could grow into something else, something Mark Vinnels, executive director of product development at the British carmaker, has told Top Gear.
According to him, McLaren now knows a lot about making hybrid go fast after the lessons it's learned with the P1 project. So while the 570S is a more affordable version of regular supercar technology, the 650S could become a cheaper alternative to the P1 hybrid tech.
"The biggest challenge for us is to achieve something that delivers a genuine performance benefit. "We're not prepared to support putting 100 or 200kg in a car unless it delivers a real, genuine driver benefit. But it would be foolish to say we're never going to do that [hybrid 650S] in the future, because it's something we try and pursue as we strive to make more efficient cars," Vinnels said.
But it might not be as simple as that. McLaren's hand could be forced by the future onslaught of the hybrid supercar. After Honda revived the NSX as a hybrid, it's pretty clear supercars are also going green as an expression of exoticism.
Porsche is in pursuit of racing glory in Le Mans endurance racing with its 919 race prototype, which is also hybrid. The technology will trickle down into the 911 sooner rather than later and who knows what will happen after that. A decade from now, a hybrid Corvette or Aston Martin could be very real.
According to him, McLaren now knows a lot about making hybrid go fast after the lessons it's learned with the P1 project. So while the 570S is a more affordable version of regular supercar technology, the 650S could become a cheaper alternative to the P1 hybrid tech.
"The biggest challenge for us is to achieve something that delivers a genuine performance benefit. "We're not prepared to support putting 100 or 200kg in a car unless it delivers a real, genuine driver benefit. But it would be foolish to say we're never going to do that [hybrid 650S] in the future, because it's something we try and pursue as we strive to make more efficient cars," Vinnels said.
But it might not be as simple as that. McLaren's hand could be forced by the future onslaught of the hybrid supercar. After Honda revived the NSX as a hybrid, it's pretty clear supercars are also going green as an expression of exoticism.
Porsche is in pursuit of racing glory in Le Mans endurance racing with its 919 race prototype, which is also hybrid. The technology will trickle down into the 911 sooner rather than later and who knows what will happen after that. A decade from now, a hybrid Corvette or Aston Martin could be very real.
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