McLaren Could Build An F1-Like Three-Seater, Rules Out An SUV

Unlike modern McLarens, the Gordon Murray-designed F1 selflessly offered seating for three, even though it was a purpose build, high performance machine.

Brilliantly engineered, Woking’s first supercar’s layout with the driver positioned at the center and two passengers flanking him was certainly unique, but wasn’t followed up in any modern McLaren, all of which are strictly two-seaters.

When asked about a potential four-seat McLaren, the company’s Global Corporate Comms Manager, Duncan Forrester, told Motoring that the idea might be explored, albeit the demand for such a vehicle is limited: “I think we’ll play with it, but I don’t think there’s much of an appetite for a family McLaren”, he said.

With no plans on expanding its model range beyond the current three tiers – Sports Series, Super Series and Ultimate Series – it’s hard to see where a four seater McLaren will fit in the line-up.

However, it is plausible for the company to develop a longer, more spacious machine, just like the 570 GT.

“If you said to a designer “go fill your boots” of course [they’d love to create a 2+2 sports car]. But the thing is, if you were to look at three seats, as an example, the immediate point of reference for that is the F1 production car. So that car is iconic. So you’d have to look and think: how could you do that again? Do you want to do that?”

As always, the answer depends very much on customer demand and factory capacity. Things are pretty straightforward when it comes to crossovers, no matter how lucrative the market or the fact that nearly all rivals, bar Ferrari, are going in.

“We are not going to build an SUV. I can tell you that straight out. What we know is that today we build, I would argue, the world’s best two-seater mid-engine sports car. That’s what we’re known for and that’s what our strength is. That’s what our DNA is and that’s what our customers ask us for.”