Wednesday 15th August 2012

Can-Am Edition MP4-12C

McLaren reveals one-off Can-Am inspired special for Pebble Beach

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McLaren has announced a one-off, track-only MP4-12C design study to be shown at the Pebble Beach Concours event in California this weekend.

Concept based on GT3 race car

Created by McLaren GT, the automotive group's competition arm, the concept is based on the 12C GT3 racing variant.

The 12C Can-Am Edition has been created solely as a concept and won't be appearing in any race series any time soon. Freed from competition regulations, various engine tweaks and a redesigned cooling system have boosted power to 630hp, making it the most powerful 12C yet.

The concept is finished in traditional McLaren orange offset with satin black sections, in a shameless a homage to Bruce McLaren's monstrous Can-Am racers of the 60s and 70s.

This being new-age McLaren carbon fibre is used extensively throughout the concept, right the way down to the front and rear McLaren badges. New aero bits including a re-profiled front splitter, 'dive planes', huge fixed rear wing and enlarged rear diffuser all contributing to a 30 per cent increase in downforce over the regular GT3 car.

McLaren hasn't released any projected performance figures but with a 1,200kg dry weight it sounds like the rapid side of promising. McLaren says it's been created as an 'ultimate track car' study; there's no word yet on any plans for a limited production run but who's to say some well-stocked chequebooks among the Pebble Beach crowd won't convince them otherwise...

[tom felty]

that looks stunning

[HeMightBeBanned]

God I wish the standard car looked like this. This one gives me the horn!

[myhandle]

It's probably going to be some sort of equivalent to the Ferrari FXX and 599XX series. IE, customer pays heaps to drive the non-road legal car at special events, and becomes slightly involved in the development process.

[Crook]

How I wished it would be more like the Can-Am cars of old. The Spyder would have made a much better base surely?

[WCZ]

epic, hope it's not in an FXX style scheme though

[rev-erend]

Vastly disappointed not to see any trumpets sticking out.

[will261058]

Thats a belter!

[mat205125]

Surely for Can-Am, that wing needs to be 7 foot higher, and the engine needs to be at least 10 litres!

[Stew2000]

How can they call it Can-Am when it's based on the GT3.
A Can-Am Edition should/would have 750bhp.

[Dan Trent]

If you haven't already I urge you to click on the video link too - epic! Not the best view of the track but it's compensated for by the noise and view of the throttle linkage working away. No hiding the odd 'confidence lift' with that camera view either! "I *was* flat through there, honest!" and all that.

[CraigyMc]

rev-erend said:

Vastly disappointed not to see any trumpets sticking out.

Hard to engineer 8 trumpet intakes for two turbocharger intakes.

C

[MrKipling43]

Dan Trent said:

No hiding the odd 'confidence lift' with that camera view either! "I *was* flat through there, honest!" and all that.

Here's a fun fact about confidence lifts. During the V10 era, on the McLaren (and, I assume other) Formula One cars, if you backed out when you're at 100% throttle, the computer won't actually 'lift' until you're below 90%. Give you the confidence without the lift, and basically stops you being a pussy.

[NISaxoVTR]

More than a hint of F430GT to that front end, good job it wasn't painted red.

[Krikkit]

MrKipling43 said:

Dan Trent said:

No hiding the odd 'confidence lift' with that camera view either! "I *was* flat through there, honest!" and all that.

Here's a fun fact about confidence lifts. During the V10 era, on the McLaren (and, I assume other) Formula One cars, if you backed out when you're at 100% throttle, the computer won't actually 'lift' until you're below 90%. Give you the confidence without the lift, and basically stops you being a pussy.

What a factoid! Like.

[rev-erend]

CraigyMc said:

Hard to engineer 8 trumpet intakes for two turbocharger intakes.

C

Right .. they should have throw it out and fitted a 7 litre side oiler Ford V8

[Dave Hedgehog]

i have cum

[BelfastBoy]

Any chance that, if you threw them enough money, they could make your road-going MP4-12C look a bit like that?

[John_S4x4]

Looks nice, but hardly a Can-am version IMHO.

Like other have said, should ditch the turbos and go NA, with great big inlet trumpets. Do that on the spyder version, but get rid of all the glass, including cutting off the front windscreen.

[Krikkit]

BelfastBoy said:

Any chance that, if you threw them enough money, they could make your road-going MP4-12C look a bit like that?

I'm sure they would, would need a big cheque though, I imagine the crash regs make that very hard work.

[wildman0609]

Krikkit said:

I'm sure they would, would need a big cheque though, I imagine the crash regs make that very hard work.

crash regs don't apply to very limited production. can't remember the exact numbers but its in the double digits.