The bitter rivalry between McLaren and Ferrari which has dominated F1 of recent times looks certain to spill over from the track to the showroom floor. In a typically bold move, McLaren is to ramp up production of its elite sports cars from 100 to 1,000 per year by 2011 and eventually to 4000 annually. The SLR McLaren sells at UKP 300,000 plus, but McLaren supremo Ron Dennis told the Financial Times earlier this week that volume production would enable McLaren to make a ‘far more affordable’ car and compete with its F1 rival Ferrari in the sports car market.
The McLaren Group has been one of ther most successful race car manufacturers in F1 history, and in 1992, the Gordon Murray penned F1 was created as the ultimate sports car. In 1998, the F1 was clocked at 240.1 mph (386.7 km/h) to officially become the world's fastest production road car.
The top speed record was broken in 2005, thirteen years after the car was first built, but to this day the F1 remains the fastest naturally-aspirated production car in the world – 17 years after its introduction.
We await the next, more affordable chapter with great expectation.
