Everything you need to know about McLaren

14 September 2025

McLaren versus Ferrari is a battle that has been played out on race tracks around the world since the 1960s. But today it is also a battle that is fought in the most upmarket automotive showrooms.

McLaren dipped its toe into the road market in the early 1990s with a single car that became a legend, called the F1. But it has been a proper road car manufacturer for less than two decades – and in that short time its futuristic factory in Surrey has produced a succession of machines that have each earned a significant place at the very top of the automotive food chain – the supercar sector.

The company has rapidly become a serious competitor to much longer established supercar makers, and none more so than Ferrari. Every time a new McLaren is launched, it is always compared first and foremost to the latest equivalent rival from Maranello.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing for McLaren, however, and very recently the marque has gained new owners as it seeks to move on from profitability issues and find its place in the new automotive electric era.

Everything you need to know about McLaren

So who or what is McLaren?

Like Ferrari, McLaren is a brand with its history firmly in international motorsport. Bruce McLaren was a New Zealand racing driver who came to the UK in 1958 and rose to compete in Formula 1, building his own cars from 1964. Sadly, a promising career was cut short when he was killed testing a sports car at Goodwood in 1970.

Continuing on without its founder and leader, the McLaren team’s form fluctuated through the 1970s, winning the F1 World Championship in 1974 and 1976 (the latter with British driver James Hunt), but struggling badly towards the end of the decade. In 1980, the team merged with a junior racing team run by a young team principal called Ron Dennis – he turned McLaren into the most successful team of the 1980s and ‘90s, winning numerous championships with drivers such as Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.

In 1988 Gordon Murray, McLaren’s hugely regarded designer of its racing cars, persuaded Dennis to embark on a project to create “the ultimate road-going supercar”. The result was the McLaren F1, a revolutionary mid-engined three-seater in which the passengers sat either side of and slightly behind the driver.

A separate company called McLaren Cars was set up to build the new model. Production lasted only four years between 1992 and 1998 and just 106 were built, the car quickly gaining cult status. Several found their way into international GT racing and a McLaren F1 won the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours.

McLaren Cars’ next project was to design a car for its F1 engine supplier, Mercedes-Benz. The 626hp V8-engined Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren was manufactured between 2003 and 2010 at a brand-new technology centre (the company really didn’t like it being called a ‘factory’), designed by famed architect Norman Foster and built in Woking, Surrey. Today, the site is home to both the race team and road car production.

The road car company was relaunched in 2010 and separated more clearly from the race team, taking the name McLaren Automotive. The first car, the 12C, was launched in 2011 as a mid-engined supercar in either coupé or open-top versions. The company quickly expanded its plans to develop a three-pronged range dubbed Sports, Super and Ultimate.

The parent McLaren Group was racked by politics in the 2010s, with Ron Dennis eventually selling his shares and departing. The road car company continued to produce much admired supercars, but struggled to achieve profitability. McLaren Automotive posted an £873 million loss in 2023 and its largest shareholder, the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain, acquired the entire McLaren Group in early 2024.

Last December, McLaren Automotive was sold on to CYVN Holdings, an investment firm mostly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi. CYVN also owns around 20% of Chinese electric vehicle brand Nio and also acquired Forseven, a UK-based start-up that had already signed up several prominent talents in electric automotive.

The final element was to acquire Gordon Murray Technologies, a company set up by the former McLaren designer and which had developed innovative new manufacturing processes to make more cost-effective vehicles of lighter weight.

Forseven and McLaren Automotive were merged under the new name of McLaren Group Holdings. The company is now develop the brand’s first electric car, which several sources have speculated could be an SUV, as well as expanding into other areas of the automotive market.

What models does McLaren have and what else is coming?

McLaren’s cars are exclusive and effectively all limited editions – model ranges do not tend to go on for many years before being replaced with a new model and a new name. The 600LT, for example, was built for only three years between 2018 and 2020 and the 720S lasted five, discontinued in 2022.

Currently there is a four-strong model range, and if anything made by McLaren could be considered entry-level, it is the GTS, effectively an updated version of the GT, a car made between 2019 and 2024 and one that tended to be less of an attraction to the marque’s affluent buyers than its more potent sisters.

The updates encompass more power, less weight and bolder styling, and the GTS is pitched as a grand tourer that anyone who could afford its £185,000 starting price might drive on a daily basis, rather than an out-and-out supercar. It employs the company’s signature drivetrain format of a mid-mounted 4.0-litre V8 engine, with 635hp and a 3.2-second 0-62mph time.

Current McLaren range on our Expert Rating Index

McLaren 750S

McLaren Artura

McLaren GTS

The Artura is McLaren’s first plug-in hybrid. Launched in 2022 and costing from £223,000, it mates an electric motor to a twin-turbo V6 petrol engine for 671hp. Seen as a prime rival to the Ferrari 296 GTB, the Artura is offered as a coupé or an open-top Spider.

The 750S launched in 2023 as a direct supercar successor to the popular 720S. It uses the mid-mounted 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 driving the rear wheels and putting out 750 horsepower. Like the Artura it passes 62mph in under three seconds and has a claimed top speed of 206mph. Again, and typical of McLaren, it can also be had as a Spider.

Finally there is the W1, unveiled in October 2024, pitched as a 50^th anniversary celebration of McLaren’s first GP victory and the third offering in the brand’s ultimate series – preceeded by the original F1 of the 1990s and the P1 which was made between 2013 and 2015. The W1 pumps out an astonishing 1275hp from its hybrid drivetrain and all of the 399 planned production run are already sold, despite a price tag of “circa £2 million…”

What’s coming next from McLaren is open to speculation. The merger with electric start-up Forseven suggests more electric models are in the pipeline, and company management has promised more details of future McLarens before the end of 2025 – industry sources suggest a wider range could be in the pipeline, with both electric and high performance internal combustion engines. These could include a long-rumoured SUV.

Where can I try a McLaren car?

Being a niche manufacturer of supercars, McLaren’s dealers are plush, luxury sites but few in number with a couple having reverted from sales to only service in recent times.

There are now just seven retail outlets in the UK, with one in Scotland and none in Wales – and, remarkably, none in central London as its former flagship showroom in Knightsbridge is “temporarily closed”.

The potential buyer with well over six figures burning a hole in their pocket has a choice of Ascot, Birmingham, Glasgow, Hatfield, Leeds, Manchester or the New Forest, while there are also service facilities in Bristol, Guildford and Petersfield.

What makes McLaren different to the rest?

McLaren is a very young supercar maker, competing against marques with some of the most glittering histories such as Aston Martin, Lamborghini and the daddy of them all, Ferrari.

But the upstart manufacturer from Woking has made the most of its own glorious motorsport history to ensure that its road cars are equally special and instantly recognisable – when you see a McLaren on the road, you know what it is.

A McLaren fact to impress your friends

McLaren has landed on Mars. McLaren Composites, one of the several companies in the group alongside the car manufacturer, produced ultra-light bodyshell parts for the Beagle 2 lander sent to the red planet in 2003.

Sadly contact was lost with the spacecraft just as it approached the surface, but it was found 12 years later, not far from its intended landing point.

Summary

McLaren’s road car ambitions have come a long way in a short time and the manufacturer has established a reputation for models that sits alongside the success of its F1 team.

But McLaren still needs to make more money from its road cars than it currently does, and the recent major changes of ownership suggest that the next few years will be crucial to cement the future for the UK’s leading supercar company.