Here is a McLaren that took me by surprise: the X-1 Concept.
It was made for an unnamed collector who wanted his own custom McLaren. Apparently it has been in the works for quite sometime and McLaren is just now ready to show it off at Pebble Beach.
I must say, it is a very odd looking car, bringing about styles and lines that I have either never seen before or haven’t seen in a very long time. Here are the cars that inspired McLaren:
Inspirational cars included a 1961 Facel Vega, a 1953 Chrysler D’Elegance Ghia, a 1959 Buick Electra, a 1939 Mercedes-Benz 540K and a 1971 Citroën SM. There were various examples of architecture – including the Guggenheim museums in New York and Bilbao – plus a Jaeger LeCoultre art deco clock, an Airstream trailer, a Thomas Mann Montblanc pen, a grand piano – and an eggplant. ‘The client liked the shiny texture of the finish,’ notes Stephenson. There was also a black-and-white photo of Audrey Hepburn.
When you read that list and look at the X-1, you can really see the inspiration at work. But will this car go into production? Probably not. It’s too dramatic and odd to become a production model and the customer wanted it to be his “special” McLaren. However, just because I say its an odd car, doesn’t mean its a bad car. Power specs have not been given, so I can’t say much about the performance but the styling of this is surprisingly attractive.
What I find most attractive about this car is how off-the-walls it is. Show this car and the MP4-12C to a random person who has never heard of McLaren, and odds are they would never guess they are made by the same manufacturer. Its quite a ballsy car, and I praise McLaren for having the cajones to create such an oddball.
