New McLaren P1 Spider revealed

Lanzante has revealed a one-off commission of a McLaren P1 Spider at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. For the British specialist who has also converts the track-only P1 GTR into the road-legal P1 GTR LM, this is the firm’s first conversion that has required a substantial level of engineering and design work to complete. 

Consultant on the coupe to spider conversion was Paul Howse, the former McLaren designer responsible for the original P1’s design. This collaboration has kept the exterior design as close to Howse’s original as possible, yet despite this the process was a complex one, as the Coupe’s roof structure, snorkel intake and door supports all required substantial re-engineering. 

As a result the fundamental structural changes amounted to a considerable amount of work due to the roof and supporting structures being built right into the P1’ MonoCage. In removing the roof structure the lower half of the carbonfibre tub has had to be strengthened to ensure overall structural integrity isn’t compromised – a critical consideration for a car that retains the P1’s 903bhp V8.

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Along with a redesign of the structure, the rear deck has been completely reworked with a sunken rear deck flanked by two bespoke buttresses that form both roll-over protection and house small intakes that directly feed the hybrid powertrain’s turbos. 

The rear clamshell is also new, and the doors no longer incorporate a window frame as they do on the Coupe, but the front quarter windows have had to be retained. There is a removable roof insert should the driver be caught out in the rain, but the Spider has largely been designed as an open-top hypercar. As such, the interior has been finished with new UV-stable materials on the seats, doors and dashboard. 

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Mechanically, the Spider is identical to the Coupe sharing its 903bhp twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8 engine hybrid powertrain. The same can be said of its active chassis, still featuring McLaren’s trademark hydraulically cross-linked suspension design and total lack of anti-roll bars or a rear limited-slip differential. 

While only the one P1 Spider has so far been commissioned, Lanzante is prepared to build up to five units for other customers. Prices for the conversion haven’t been revealed, but with values of the Coupe already well over seven figures, it won’t be cheap – especially considering the sheer amount of bespoke engineering required.