986bhp McLaren P1 GTR set for Geneva

Top Gear can exclusively confirm that the new, 986bhp McLaren P1 GTR sounds exactly like a car. A car with an engine, no less.

We jest, of course, but we’ve just seen fresh pictures and a tantalising new video of the P1 GTR under a heavy Batman-esque music score and capped off with a good half-second worth of noise.

Still, you want to see new pictures of the P1 GTR, and we shall oblige. They come courtesy of the GTR’s exhausting test regime currently taking place across Europe and the Middle East, ahead of its debut later this year. That world premiere, McLaren has confirmed, will be the 2015 Geneva Motor Show in March.

“These tests,” say McLaren, “have pushed the performance of the car to its limits, and have been designed to further enhance cooling and aerodynamics over the design concept previewed at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in the summer of 2014.”

Until its debut then, we’ve got these pictures, and a few details. We know the McLaren P1 GTR sports a tweaked version of the already ballistic 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 and electric motor setup from the P1 road car, here producing 986bhp.

Then there’s the lower fixed suspension, the huge rear wing, a centrally mounted exhaust, a wider front track, a bigger splitter, new aero blades and quick release 19in racing alloys on bespoke Pirelli slicks.

No word on acceleration data, but we’re banking on the GTR trumping the road-going P1’s 0-62mph time of 2.8 seconds. And giving you a bit of a head rush too.

Only existing P1 owners – that’s 375 of them – will be offered the chance to snap up a GTR, though we’re still not sure now many will be built. Around 30, probably.

Source: www.topgear.com