2018 Mclaren 570 Spider on 2040-cars

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McLaren's 10,000th car shows how close it is to catching up with Ferrari and Lamborghini

The move from Formula One to road-worthy production cars isn't an easy one. Just over five years since production on the MP4-12C began, McLaren completed production of its 10,000th car. Even more noteworthy, it took 42 months to build the first 5,000 cars but only 22 months to make it to 10,000. The automaker, which until 2011 had only built a single line of road-going cars, appears to be on a roll with more volume and more models hitting the streets every year. McLaren is set to nearly double its year-over year sales in 2016. The automaker sold 1,654 cars in 2015 and expects to hit 3,000 sales in 2016. While those are good sales number for a relatively new full-line supercar manufacturer, they're still short of the competition. Lamborghini had its best year ever in 2015 with 3,245 cars sold. Ferrari plans to expand production to 9,000 cars annually by 2019. McLaren may be able to compete with the big boys on the track, but it still has a ways to go before it can match their sales. The 10,000th car to roll off the line was a 570S wrapped in Ceramic Grey, a color from McLaren Special Operations. MSO is the division behind awesome cars like the 679-horsepower McLaren MSO HS. The car will be held by the company for its Heritage Collection. The McLaren Sport Series (540C, 570S, and 570GT) were a big boon toward boosting the company's output. An additional production line was built, doubling output from 10 to 20 cars per day. We hope McLaren can continue this growth, and we're looking forward to more new products like the upcoming three-seat F1 successor. We just wish they could come up with some better names. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

McLaren 600LT Spider to show its drop top next week

McLaren is adding yet another Longtail variant to its expanding stable of supercars, as teased in the video above. The company doesn't explicitly say it, but it's clearly the McLaren 600LT Spider. The upturned exhaust is the first clue that it's based on the 600LT, and as the camera pans around, we see the car's shadow has a gap where the roof is missing. Since this new McLaren is a derivative of the 600LT coupe, we assume it will make the same 592 horsepower and 457 pound-feet of torque. Those ponies ought to sound much sweeter without a roof in the way. The 600LT Spider will probably weigh about 200 pounds less than the regular 570S Spider, similar to the weight difference between the coupes. And if the 570S Spider is anything to go by, there shouldn't be much, if any, difference in performance between fixed- and removable-roof 600LT models. McLaren will reveal the car on January 16, so we won't have to wait long for all the delectable details. When it launches, it will be the fifth McLaren model to have the Longtail's LT designation. It won't be the first convertible, though, since McLaren made a 675LT Spider a few years ago. Related Video:

Limited-edition McLaren Elva receives heritage-laced Gulf livery

McLaren tapped into its vast racing heritage to create a Gulf-themed version of the limited-edition Elva. Its partnership with the Pennsylvania-based oil company began in the 1960s, and it continues to this day. Like every Gulf-colored car released over the past few decades, the Elva receives light blue paint with orange accents. It's not the first model to feature this color combination, and it's undoubtedly not the last, but it wears it particularly well. It's not fitted with a windshield — it doesn't need one, according to McLaren — so the separation between the exterior and the interior is blurred, and even the dashboard and the door panels are light blue. Photos of the interior haven't been released, but we spot a pair of white seats separated by a Gulf-colored panel. Oddly, the car is not equipped with a rear-view mirror. McLaren Special Operations (MSO) has already applied heritage-inspired paint colors to two examples of the Elva, and both wore a dashboard-mounted mirror. McLaren announced plans to make 399 units of the Elva, but it dropped that number to 249 after analyzing feedback from its customers. Pricing starts at $1.7 million, and the Gulf-themed model displayed at the SpeedWeek event held on England's Goodwood track illustrates one way to customize the roadster. MSO's earlier creations paid homage to Bruce McLaren's 1964 M1A race car and his 1967 M6A racer, respectively. Ansar Ali, MSO's managing director, explained the Gulf-colored Elva celebrates the renewed partnership between McLaren and Gulf. Customers are now able to order the historic blue and orange combination directly from the factory regardless of whether they're buying an Elva, a 765LT, or another one of the British company's models. SpeedWeek starts today and runs through October 18. Spectators are exceptionally banned from the event due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but you can catch all of the action online. We're expecting to see a handful of new car launches, timed supercar laps, a huge auction, and, of course, dozens of race cars going flat-out. Related Video: