McLaren MP4-12C Goes Topless

You submit a planning application and suddenly everyone knows what you’re up to, whether you wanted them to or not. Typical, isn’t it?

McLaren is building a new factory in Woking and the building plans have inadvertently revealed that they are planning to produce a soft top version of the recently released, and utterly beautiful, MP4-12C supercar.

An area designated Webasto RHT Sub Assembly is clearly shown on the plans. Webasto are renowned for advanced folding roofs and RHT usually refers to Retractable Hard Tops, so put two and two together and you get an exciting variant of the car, destined to give the spider versions from Lamborghini and Ferrari a run for their money!

McLaren haven’t confirmed or denied that the MP4-12C will have a convertible version, but state that the factory layout is just one of the options they’re looking at, and that the factory will build the MP4-12C coupe.

Based on similar competing models, the roof is likely to be lightweight and made from carbon fibre or aluminium, but we’ll have to wait and see how the mechanism actually works – given the novel way the doors open on the coupe model, we could be in for an interesting reveal! We’ll also have to wait for power and price details, but expect them to be in the same ballpark as the coupe model – certainly no slouch and you’ll probably need a large piggy bank!