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McLaren Unleashes 72 Photos and Full Specs of New MP4-12C Spider

Following the posh reveal of the MP4-12C Spider at the Pebble Beach weekend in California at the end of August, McLaren has now come out with a fresh gallery of images and detailed specifications of the open top model.

The big difference over the tweaked 2013 model year fixed-roof coupé version of the MP4-12C series is, of course, the Spider's Retractable Hard Top (RHT) with a fully automatic two-piece design that can be raised or lowered in under 17 seconds at speeds of up to 30 km/h (19 mph).

The great F. Scott Fitzerald summed it up perfectly: “Let me tell you about the rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them… unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand.”

Apparently, Neiman Marcus understands all too well, no matter if they were born rich, married into money or made their fortune by themselves. That’s why every year its Christmas Book catalogue includes, among other things, a limited edition of an automobile, which is priced accordingly.

This year, up until now, Fernando Alonso scored three wins in 14 races and apart from a single retirement in Belgium, he always finished with points. That’s the reason why, despite his Ferrari not being the fastest car on the grid, the two-time Formula 1 world champion was leading the 2012 driver’s championship.

At the Japanese Grand Prix that took place on Sunday morning at the Suzuka circuit, the Spaniard didn’t even make it past the first corner, retiring for the second time this season.

Right after the red lights went out signaling the start of the race, his Ferrari came in contact with Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus and spun at turn one.

Premium brands continue to roll out one model after another as fast as they can. In the past year alone, Porsche has revealed its brand-new 911 in four versions (with more still to follow), Bentley the Continental GTC open-top and Ferrari, its fastest model ever, to name but a few.

Moreover, the battle at the hypercar segment is heating up as Ferrari is readying its all-new Enzo replacement, Porsche the 918 Spyder and McLaren just a few days ago revealed its own weapon, the P1.

Surely then, with the rich of this world getting richer, those nameplates should be not affected by the economic crisis that rages in Europe and has hit mainstream car sales, seriously hurting companies like Fiat and Peugeot.

Sure the new Volkswagen Golf Mk7 and its kin, the Audi A3 and Seat Leon, along with the likes of the Renault Clio, Dacia Logan and Ford Mondeo, just to mention a few of the mainstream debuts at the Paris Motor Show, are the ones that matter in real-life terms, but it's cars like the McLaren P1 that keep us dreaming and…alive.

Although billed as a concept, in reality, the P1 is a pre-production teaser of the road car that will hit McLaren's glitzy showroom floors just before the end of 2013.

Deemed by many as the spiritual successor to the great F1 of the 1990s, McLaren says the P1 was designed with one simple goal: "to be the best driver’s car in the world on road and track".

We will have to wait for the production model to find out whether the McLaren P1 can live up to its promise, but in the meantime, we can ask your opinion about the hypercar's design and if it hits the right notes.

You have to give credit where credit is due: when McLaren managing director Anthony Sheriff visited the 2008 Paris Auto Show, he knew that McLaren staff had many ideas but they were all on paper.

Fast forward to today and McLaren has already released two production models, the MP4-12C and its open-top Spyder version, and will have delivered 1,500 cars by the end of 2012.

The 2012 Mondial de l'Automobile in Paris was the event chosen by McLaren Automotive to present the world debut of the brand-new P1 hypercar in pre-production trim, about a year before it goes on sale.

McLaren claims that the P1 draws inspiration from its racing division and its target is to produce the world’s best driving car both on the road and on the track.

"The McLaren P1 will be the result of 50 years of racing and road car heritage", says McLaren Automotive Executive Chairman Ron Dennis. "Twenty years ago we raised the supercar performance bar with the McLaren F1 and our goal with the McLaren P1 is to redefine it once again."

McLaren may not be willing to divulge any official technical details about its pre-production P1, at least not until the study's world debut at the Paris Motor Show on Thursday, but it has no problem showing us pictures of its upcoming Ferrari and Porsche challenger.

This new gallery gives us an all-around look at the new P1, which McLaren labels as a design study, but then goes on to say that it previews the final production version that will be unveiled in 2013 with the aim of going on sale within 12 months after its presentation.

Perhaps one of the first things you will notice in these new photos is the huge, retractable rear wing sitting behind the teardrop shaped roof and which was out of sight in the initial gallery.

The P1 design study for a modern day F1 may be all the talk these days, but McLaren has another new model up its sleeves, one that will be unveiled during the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend.

The new car is the limited run MP4-12C "SGP Edition", of which only three examples will be built, each carrying a price tag of S$1.28 million or about US$1.05 million / €800,000. While that may sound like a lot of cash, the folks over at TeamSpeed reported that two cars have already been spoken for leaving only one up for grabs.

It’s been a long wait but after countless spy shots and teaser images, McLaren Automotive has finally taken the covers off the new design study named P1 less than two weeks before it makes its world premiere at the Paris Motor Show.

Previously referred to as the P12, the new P1 is essentially a pre-production version of the model that will succeed the famed F1. McLaren said that it would unwrap the final design next year and have it on sale within 12 months.

"The McLaren P1 will be the result of 50 years of racing and road car heritage," says McLaren Automotive Executive Chairman Ron Dennis. "Twenty years ago we said the supercar performance bar with the McLaren F1 and our goal with the McLaren P1 is to redefine it once again."

Apparently, McLaren wants to keep us on our toes as it prepares for the presentation of a new model, which we believe to be the famed F1's successor either in concept or (less likely) final production form, at the Paris Motor Show on September 27.

The new teaser video and photos released by McLaren outline the shape of the car through a lightshow, providing some fresh details compared to the initial press image circulated around the internet earlier this month.

What you see above is a car. More specifically, it is the first teaser image of McLaren’s new supercar, which will be unveiled at the upcoming Paris Motor Show.

If it is the successor to the iconic F1 (perhaps in concept form), as the rumor mill suggests, then it is being revealed at least a year earlier than originally expected. It could be because company boss Ron Dennis, who is famous (or shall we say notorious) for his perfectionism wanted its launch to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the F1.

After the summer break, the Formula 1 season resumed this weekend. The Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium is one of the most interesting tracks in the calendar, with its famous Eau Rouge corner shorting out the boys from the men.

Two of the title contesters, however, never had the chance to go so far in Sunday’s race. In fact, they retired at the very first corner. Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren and Romain Grosjean’s Lotus collided, and the later hit the championship points’ leader, Fernando Alonso, marking the Ferrari driver's first retirement this year.

The Corvette is one of the longest standing nameplates in the sports car world with a history that spans seven decades across six generations of models.

The current iteration of the Corvette (C6) has been in production since 2004 (as a 2005 model) and will soon be replaced by an all-new version set to appear at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show next January with sales to follow later in the year.

The pinnacle of the series, the ZR1, is the fastest and most expensive (at $112,600) production Corvette ever, but how does it compare against two of the newest and most capable V8-powered supercars in the world, the Ferrari 458 Italia and the McLaren MP4-12C?

McLaren had quite a presence at this past weekend’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Monterey, California, as the British automaker showed three new models for the first time in public.

Aside from the track-focused 12C Can-Am Edition Concept and the one-off X-1that we have already told you about, McLaren also premiered the new 12C Spider that is available for order now with first deliveries planned to start early next year.

Ron Dennis is dead serious about everything he does. This is what has made McLaren a front-runner in Formula 1, filling its cabinets with countless trophies, and this is what has made him build a new car company from scratch.

If you already own a McLaren F1, a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and a McLaren MP4-12C, that’s practically all the production cars the Woking-based company has built so far, chances are that, apart from being very rich, you are a very good and respected client.

Borrowing a page from Ferrari, which has been in the business of building bespoke models for its affluent clients for decades, McLaren blew the covers off a one-of-a-kind production model based on the MP4-12C that was designed for an anonymous car enthusiast.

Named the McLaren X-1, the supercar will make its world premiere at an exclusive event later on Friday at the Pebble Beach Concours in Monterey, California.

The X-1 was built by McLaren Special Operations (MSO), which is the division of McLaren Automotive responsible for the delivery of bespoke projects.

"One of our clients who already owned a McLaren F1, a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and now a 12C, wanted a unique car," explains MSO Programme Director, Paul MacKenzie.

"The conversation began with our Executive Chairman Ron Dennis almost three years ago − before the 12C was even launched. The client wanted a machine that had all the capability of the 12C but wrapped in a unique body that reflected his needs and personality."

British sports car manufacturer McLaren wants to impress the crowds visiting this week's Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in California with a new racing concept variant of its MP4-12C supercar designed for the North American market.

The one-off 12C Can-Am Edition is the work of McLaren GT, which is the new racecar manufacturing arm of the McLaren Group.

The track-focused model is based on the 12C GT3 racecar and is finished in the firm's traditional orange hue as a tribute to the cars of Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme from the 1960s and 1970s and is contrasted by satin black and carbon fiber details.

Like the GT3, the Can-Am Edition features a wide body aero kit that includes carbon fibre front splitter, dive planes, rear wing and rear diffuser, all of which help to offer an increase in downforce of 30 per cent over the regular model.

It's been over a week since McLaren shared the first photos of the new MP4-12C Spider and now the British supercar brand wants to show us the open-top model in action through a CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) video and the official launch film shot on the winding mountain roads of Andalucía in Southern Spain using cinema-quality RED camera technology. Read more »

Mansory-Prepped McLaren MP4-12C for Sale in Abu Dhabi

If there's one place in the world you're guaranteed to find a Mansory-tuned McLaren MP4-12C it is Abu Dhabi, the capital and richest of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates.

We discovered this example at a high-end dealership in Abu Dhabi named Prestige Cars, which unsurprisingly, doesn't provide any details about the limited edition version of the MP4-12C other than that it is a 2012 model.

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McLaren Unleashes 72 Photos and Full Specs of New MP4-12C Spider

Neiman Marcus “Special Christmas Gift” is Limited-Edition Version of McLaren MP4-12C Spider

Formula 1: 2012 Japanese Grand Prix Race Report

Luxury Carmakers Lower 2013 Projections due to the Eurozone Debt Crisis

McLaren P1 Design: Love It, Hate It, or Somewhere In Between? [Poll, Plus New Videos and Photos]

McLaren's Ron Dennis and Franks Stephenson Walk us Through the P1 Concept in New Videos

McLaren Talks About its New P1 Hypercar Concept in Paris Auto Show Video

New Photo Gallery Offers a Better Look at McLaren's P1 Hypercar

McLaren to Reveal $1 Million MP4-12C "SGP Edition" at Singapore Grand Prix

New McLaren P1 Hypercar Design Study Reveals F1's Replacement, What do you Think?

What a Tease: New McLaren P12 Hypercar Outlined in Video and Photos

McLaren Teases New Paris Show-Bound Supercar; Could it be a Concept for the F1 Replacement?

Formula 1: Belgian Grand Prix Race Report

R&T Pits Corvette ZR1 Against Ferrari 458 Italia and McLaren MP4-12C in a V8 Showdown

McLaren Shows Off New 12C Spider in Monterey, Priced from $265,750 in the U.S. [w/Video]

Dark Knight Rises at Monterey: One-Off McLaren X-1 Concept in the Flesh and on Film

McLaren Presents One-Off X-1 Based on the MP4-12C and Created for One of its Clients

McLaren's New Track-Focused 12C Can-Am Edition Concept with 630HP

Watch the McLaren MP4-12C go from Coupe to Roadster in 17 Seconds

Mansory-Prepped McLaren MP4-12C for Sale in Abu Dhabi

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