McLaren is making a manual supercar. The automaker's latest Instagram post seems to imply a new car with a manual transmission is coming. A short teaser video opens with footage of the McLaren M6GT, the automaker's first road car, which had a five-speed manual transmission. Only three prototypes were ever made.
The video then cuts to showing the new car, ending with a shot of a hand pulling back a shifter. The clip includes Bruce McLaren saying: "Somewhere down the line, I think it is bound to happen. I hope it happens." Rumors about a manual-equipped McLaren surfaced a month ago when a report alleged that the automaker planned to produce fewer than 100 such vehicles.
View Price on AmazonThe supercar is allegedly known internally at the company as the P50, but little else is known. There are no clear shots of the new car in the teaser, but the brief glimpses we do get appear to show it taking some design inspiration from the original M6GT. It’s also unclear which powertrain McLaren will pair with its new gearbox, but we suspect it will be the V8.
The teaser video ends with a date—August 14—during Monterey Car Week. The car is expected to cost more than the McLaren W1, which has a $2.1 million price tag. McLaren’s manual-equipped supercar will debut just weeks after Ferrari put a “manual” in the 12Cilindri. Manual is in quotation marks because Ferrari's shifter is not a traditional manual transmission.
Ferrari has introduced a shift-by-wire system, pairing a dual-clutch transmission with a traditional stick shift. It includes both manual and automatic drive modes and even features a clutch pedal and a gated shifter. It’s unclear if McLaren will feature a shift-by-wire system or an old-fashioned manual gearbox.
Source: motor1.com
