[boblaw]

http://www.motorauthority.com/mclare...-level-p8.html

Having recently parted company from Mercedes Benz, hired a new design director and started work on a new supercar, the team at McLaren is now as busy as ever. The company is actually working on three new models, an entry-level sports car expected to cost around the $100,000 mark, a new V8 model aimed at the likes of the Ferrari F430 and Lamborghini Gallardo, and a flagship supercar that is to be the successor to the legendary F1.

The first of this new trio will be the mid-level V8 supercar, currently going by its internal codename of ‘P11’ and spotted recently undergoing cold weather testing in Northern Europe. The second will be a flagship supercar, but unlike the P11, it will be a clean sheet design and production numbers will be extremely limited.

"For the F1 replacement, there are not the restrictions on us, like with P11," McLaren design boss Frank Stephenson revealed to AutoWeek. "This one will be my influence from start to finish."

It’s still early to speculate as to what mechanical package McLaren has for its F1 successor, but at least we know with Stephenson on board the car’s styling should be safe. Previous projects the American designer has worked on include Maserati’s stunning MC12, the Alfa Romeo MiTo, and the Ferrari F430.

There are few details on McLaren’s third model, the P8, but Stephenson has revealed that it will be designed as a rival to the upper range Porsche 911s, as well as the Audi R8.

McLaren is serious about its future models, having already poached Stephenson from Ferrari, the company has now announced that BMW's longstanding corporate communications manager Mark Harrison will head up its PR function. This is a shrewd move as the company has an ambitious plan to boost production from its current output level of around 100 SLR supercars per year to more than 1,000 P11s by 2011, and eventually up to 4,000 cars per year once the F1 successor and P8 arrive in the middle of the next decade.

[ragingclue]

This will be interesting.

An everyman's McLaren (and by that I mean the $100k area)....

[BoostedBMW]

Very cool... it will be nice to see what they come up with.

[OBI_agent]

Sweet.....I like competition...better for consumers....And I hope they live up to our expectations.