If you’re laying out a couple of million dollars for a 250mph “Hyper GT”, odds are you’re not going to want to park next to an identical one.
McLaren thinks so too, and has set its McLaren Special Operations (MSO) personalization division to work. MSO will be on hand to make sure every one of the 106 Speedtails will be just as the customer wants it — no two should be truly alike.
Of course this opens up what McLaren terms an “almost limitless” range of options. Buyers can customize any visible part of the car, and not just in terms of color but also the materials used. With such a wide array of choices, how can you make sure your Speedtail is just right? It’s the $2.25m question, and McLaren has provided a little helping hand by way of an answer.
The Woking-based company has sent out a portfolio of design ideas to each of the 106 customers who’ve placed a deposit. “Colours & Materials Inspiration Story” presents three collections of Speedtail design studies, each containing multiple “themes” to spark inspiration.
This starts with the Dynamic collection. The Bloodline theme adds flashes of red to the various elements of the car, contrasting them with white and silver. That includes the bright red driver’s seat in aniline leather, with the passengers on semi-aniline white seats.
The Stratosphere theme is part of the Urbane collection. McLaren says this is intended to appear “discerning and refined”, with less aggressive coloring. It’s full of darker blues and grays, with gloss 1K full visual carbon fiber on the exterior.
Bridging the two is the Visionary collection, which includes the Astral theme. This, according to McLaren, takes inspiration from the UK’s nautical heritage. We’re not sure how the orange paint achieves that, but there’s lots of navy blue on the inside, along with a plush, quilted cabin.
When it comes to specifying their car, each owner gets a “bespoke liaison manager” to help turn their ideas into a finished car. They don’t have long though, as McLaren aims to get the first Speedtail on the road in early 2020.
Jo Lewis, head of colour and material design at McLaren, said:
“The McLaren Speedtail is our most ambitious project to date and all were sold months before the car was even unveiled. This level of faith in McLaren products demands that we strive to even greater heights of detail and excellence.
“As a result of meticulous study of colours, forms and textures by our design team, finding inspiration in areas that are uncharted in automotive design, we believe that we will achieve this with the look and feel of each individual Speedtail.
“Whilst only 106 customer cars will be built, it is important that each one is unique, so this tailored collection is quite simply, like no other – as is the McLaren Speedtail itself.”
See more articles on McLaren and McLaren Speedtail.
