The McLaren P1 is a sports car produced by British marque McLaren Automotive. It is a plug-in hybrid with a mid-engine layout. It was first shown at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, with sales of the P1 beginning in the United Kingdom in October 2013 and all of the limited run of 375 units sold by November 2013. Production ended in early December 2015. The United States accounted for 34% of the units and Europe for 26%.
It is considered by the automotive press to be the successor to the McLaren F1, utilising hybrid power and Formula One technology, but does not have the same three-seat layout. It was later confirmed that the Speedtail served as the actual successor to the McLaren F1. The P1 has a mid-engine, rear wheel drive design that used a carbon fibre monocoque and roof structure safety cage concept called MonoCage, which is a development of the MonoCell first used in the MP4-12C and then in subsequent models. Its main competitors are the LaFerrari and the 918 Spyder. They are all similar in specifications and performance, and in a race around Silverstone circuit they were all within half a second of each other, the P1 finishing first at 58.24 seconds and the LaFerrari finishing last at 58.58 seconds; the 918 was in-between with 58.46 seconds.
Parts of the car were inspired by a sailfish that Frank Stephenson saw when on holiday in Miami.
58 units of the track-oriented P1 GTR and 5 units of its road legal counterpart, the P1 LM were produced after the initial run of 375 cars.
13 experimental prototypes 'XP', 5 validation prototypes 'VP', and 3 pre-production 'PP' cars were produced by McLaren before the production of the P1 started. A number of these 21 test cars have been refurbished, modified and sold to customers.
