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- McLaren – Special Operations X-1 Concept
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- McLaren – Special Operations X-1 Concept
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- McLaren – Special Operations X-1 Concept
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- McLaren – Special Operations X-1 Concept
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- McLaren – Special Operations X-1 Concept
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- McLaren – Special Operations X-1 Concept
McLaren Special Operations (MSO), the division of McLaren Automotive in charge of bespoke projects, plans to unveil this custom X-1 concept supercar at Pebble Beach, California, during the Concours d’Elegance this weekend, which is an annual, week-long celebration of automotive history and heritage.
Boasting a unique carbon MonoCell body, created by the company, the McLaren X-1 is finished in all black with silver accents and an auto cover for it’s back wheels. Additional details are provided with the official press release below:
The X-1 is the most ambitious example yet of MSO’s expertise. It has a whole new body made of advanced materials. Everything is bespoke, even down to the lights and wheels, necessitating new testing and homologation meaning the car took two and a half years to build, a process that began before the styling was signed off.
The X-1 had its own development programme because crucially, this wasn’t to be a fragile concept car that would never see tarmac. It was to be a usable car, road legal and capable of travelling at supercar speeds. It also had to comfortably seat two adults so although the 12C was already as shrink-wrapped as it could be from a packaging perspective, the ingenious flexibility of the MonoCell allowed the creation of a completely different form while maintaining the engineering purity of a McLaren.
A full CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) aerodynamic testing schedule ensured high-speed stability, and the car also completed approximately 625 miles of testing including two intensive testing stints at the Idiada circuit in Spain with chief McLaren test driver, Chris Goodwin. After testing, the whole car was meticulously rebuilt, by hand to concours standard.
