The McLaren Speedtail Will Have ‘More Than’ 987 Horsepower, Says CEO

Four liters, three seats, two turbos and nearly one thousand horsepower (probably).
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McLaren Automotive CEO Mike Flewitt confirmed that the British automaker’s upcoming “Ultimate Series” three-seat hypercar, the Speedtail, will make “more than” 987 horsepower.

“That architecture has gone from 426 bhp in a [570S] GT4 to I-can’t-tell-you-what-yet in a Speedtail, but it’s more than 1,000 ps,” Flewitt said of McLaren’s 4.0-liter, twin-turbo M840T V8, at a McLaren owners’ event according to Top Gear. Converted to America’s standard unit of power measurement, 1,000 ps is equivalent to 987 hp, some of which will reportedly be electric.

“We’ve got a slightly different hybrid application,” Flewitt said, comparing the P1 and Speedtail’s powertrains. “What we focus on are attributes rather than engines. I remember when we launched P1, people said we should have had a V12. That kind of missed the point—for us it was about what it did, and the character that comes out of it.”

Flewitt also reiterated what the automaker has stated in the past about the Speedtail; though it’ll be the fastest McLaren ever built, it won’t be gunning for world records of any kind.

“We’re not going for top speed for the sake of top speed,” Flewitt finished. “I spoke to my friend John Hennessey—he had his Venom F5 engine on a stand—and he’s going for 300 mph. I might come out with John and take the opportunity to do a high speed run with our car, but we’re not chasing a top speed for the sake of it.”

Each of the 106 Speedtails—which cost $2.2 million each—have already sold out. Clients will get to see the car before the end of 2018, but the rest of us might have to wait until 2019 when deliveries begin to see the Speedtail in the flesh. We can only hope that McLaren’s hyper-GT car is christened with a lengthy road trip on arrival.