SUPERCAR marque McLaren has finished exhaustive high-speed testing for its fastest-ever car with a series of runs at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The brand’s chief test driver, Kenny Brack, took the XP2 prototype of the new Speedtail hypercar up to its maximum speed of 250mph more than 30 times on a space shuttle landing runway.
The space centre testing marked the culmination of an extensive dynamic development programme at venues worldwide for what is McLaren’s most technically advanced machine.
The carbon-fibre-bodied, three-seat, hyper GT is propelled by a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain developing the greatest power (1070PS) and torque (1150Nm) of any McLaren road car.
This results in the Speedtail rocketing from a standing start to 300km/h (186mph) in less than 13 seconds.
Hand-building of the first of just 106 Speedtails has now begun at the firm’s site in Surrey.
McLaren boss Mike Flewitt said: “It’s fitting that the Speedtail’s high-speed test programme concluded with multiple maximum-speed runs at a location strongly associated with pushing the boundaries of extreme performance and engineering excellence.
“The Speedtail is a truly extraordinary car that epitomises McLaren’s pioneering spirit and perfectly illustrates our determination to continue to set new benchmarks for supercar and hypercar performance.”
