A racing certainty; Formula 1 champion wants to put Britain in pole position on sports car front.

Byline: Edward Stephens

AT LAST, an all-new, British-conceived, designed and built supercar to match - and maybe better - some of the most iconic names in exclusive, high-performance motoring.

The name on the bonnet is just as legendary as those of the cars which it will rival when it goes on sale in 2011.

For this sleek and sexy beauty comes from McLaren and under its skin lies all the expertise developed by the company in almost 30 years of competing - and winning - at the very highest level of motorsport. But as well as building racing cars, McLaren has 20 years' experience in sports car design, engineering and production. This, combined with inspirational success in Formula 1, has driven Ron Dennis, McLaren Automotive chairman, to reveal plans for what he calls the ultimate line-up of technology-led and customerfocused performance cars for the 21st century.

The rules in the sports car world are, it seems, about to be rewritten.

"It is a long-held dream of mine to launch a range of high-performance sports cars that set new standards in the industry," says Dennis.

"I believe we are now perfectly placed to open up this new chapter in McLaren's history as well as play a part in the regeneration of hi-tech manufacturing in the UK and global automotive environment."

The first car from the new company, the McLaren MP4-12C, is a high-performance two-seat, mid-engine model in what McLaren calls the 'core' sports car market segment in the pounds 125,000 to pounds 175,000 price range.

But although it will be priced at around pounds 150,000 to compete with the likes of the Ferrari 458, Lamborghini Gallardo, Porsche 911 Turbo, Bentley Continental GT and Aston Martin DB9, McLaren says it will boast the kind of technology and performance now exclusive to 'ultimate' sector sports cars.

By that he means millionaire machines such as the Bugatti Veyron, and cars from the likes of Pagani and Koenigsegg.

All the parts of the McLaren MP4-12C, from the engine right down to the tailormade switches and buttons, are pure McLaren; nothing has come from another manufacturer's parts bin, says the company.

At its heart, the new McLaren features a revolutionary carbon-fibre chassis structure, the Carbon Mono-Cell. It is the first time a car in this market has been based around such a strong and lightweight engineering solution and the first time any car has featured a onepiece carbon fibre structure. It is powered by a midmounted, twin-turbocharged, 600bhp, 3.8-litre, V8 engine which drives the back wheels via a seven speed, paddle-operated, dual-clutch gearbox. No performance figures are available as yet - but rest assured it will be very fast, with a 0-60 time in the region of three seconds.

McLaren says the arrival of its new car marks the start of a new era in 'core' segment sports cars with smaller capacity, lighter weight, higher efficiency and more economical power units.

The MP4-12C is the first in a range of high-performance sports cars from McLaren and it will be built at an initial rate of 1,000 a year at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking.

CAPTION(S):

Supercar: The all-new, British McLaren MP4-12C has all the expertise of a top racing pedigree.