McLaren shifts focus on 650S, MP4 12C production to take a halt

World's fastest car in 90's the McLaren F1 went off the production line in 1998 ( launched in '92). After a long discontinuation of production cars, almost for 13 years (except the fling with Merc for MB SLR McLaren), the England super car maker launched the MP4-12C in 2009 and later the hybrid hyper car McLaren P1 in 2013.

Now, to fill the gap between the lineup toping P1 and the base starting model MP4-12C ('Starting model' that's lame word for a capable 12C!). McLaren unveiled the 650S at the recently concluded 84th Geneva Motor Show. The car will sit between the 12C and the P1. The powerful 650S was unveiled in two versions – Spider and Coupe and is expected that the car will hit the global market by mid 2014 with a hefty base price of £195,000 nearly £20,000 more than the 12C.

"There's an element of customers wanting the newest and best," explained Richard Molyneux, McLaren's chief financial officer. "The 650S is partly a reaction to that, and our partly down to our own learning. There's no point learning lessons like the big OEMs and then waiting six years to put them on a new model," he concluded.

The 650S carries the legacy of 12 C by using the same engine specification with a little tweak in power production. The 3.8-litre V8 engine develops a maximum power out of 650bhp, 58bhp more than the MP4 12C model. The car is capable of achieving 100kmph from standstill in mere 3 seconds and 200kmph mark in 8.4 seconds. The car maxes out at 333kmph.

As of now, the company pulled the plug of the MP4-12C- both the spider and coupe from the production line for a brief time to focus completely  on the 650s. The automaker doesn't have larger capacity production line, recently the company spend 50 million pounds for the construction of dedicated production facility of the road cars. It seems like the British boutique automaker is entering into a mainstream super car maker by rapidly increasing the product portfolio, with multiple addition thats never been seen before!