The W1 is coming back – with a twist
The name of the most powerful Australian-built production car – the HSV GTSR W1 – will soon grace a new vehicle showroom of a different calibre.
The successor to the McLaren P1 hypercar – and its legendary F1 forebear – will revive one of Australia’s most significant motoring nameplates.
McLaren has confirmed the next model in what it calls the ‘1’ car lineage will be known as the W1, when it is unveiled this Sunday, 6 October 2024 at 1:00 pm BST (11:00 pm AEDT).
Rather than a homage to the 2017 HSV GTSR W1, the most powerful Australian-made production car, the British supercar specialist says the W1 name “celebrates McLaren’s World Championship mindset”.
General Motors holds the Australian automobile trademark for ‘GTSR-W1’, rather than simply ‘W1’ – which may not be distinctive enough to trademark.
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Few details of the new McLaren have been confirmed, but reports indicate the vehicle – codenamed P18 – will use far more advanced mechanicals than the supercharged V8 in Australia’s home-grown W1.
Industry journal Automotive News reports the McLaren W1 will use an all-new V8 engine, matched with a hybrid system claimed to be 70 per cent lighter than the brand’s current systems.
A power output of about 1200 horsepower (895kW) is cited – 20 per cent more than the 735kW P1, and nearly double the output of the 474kW GTSR W1.
It will be a plug-in hybrid, according to Automotive News – following in the tyre tracks of the V6 Artura – using a battery developed for McLaren’s Formula One cars.
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While fewer than 400 McLaren W1s will reportedly be built, it may not be as rare as the HSV GTSR W1 sedan, of which just 298 were produced for public sale – 275 for Australia and 23 for New Zealand.
The 25 owners of the track-only McLaren Solus GT will reportedly be given ‘first dibs’ on a production allocation for the new hypercar.
Prices are said to start from about $US2 million ($AU2.9 million), McLaren dealers in the US are said to have been told.
According to Automotive News, the McLaren W1 was developed in the company’s F1 wind tunnel, and will debut a new hydraulic suspension system incorporating 3D-printed parts.
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It will reportedly be the first McLaren to ditch the brand’s signature ‘butterfly’ doors for a top-hinged ‘gullwing’ design famous for its use on the DeLorean DMC-12, as well as the Mercedes-Benz 300SL of 1954 and SLS AMG of 2010.
Design features described to the publication by McLaren dealers who have seen the car include a P1-esque hydraulically-actuated rear wing, centre-mounted dual titanium exhaust outlets, and ‘snorkels’ behind the side windows.
They also reportedly saw an active front splitter, new interpretations of McLaren’s ‘eye socket’ headlights, ‘floating’ wheel arches, a full-width carbon-fibre rear diffuser, and side skirts claimed to “sport aero elements from the Formula One race car”.
The McLaren W1 is due to be unveiled on 6 October 2024, the 50th anniversary of McLaren winning its first Formula One Constructors’ World Championship with drivers including Emerson Fittipaldi, who also won the 1974 World Drivers’ Championship.
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