McLaren P1 bare carbon fibre option

McLaren are considering a full bare carbon fibre option for the P1 (pictured)

With the McLaren P1 now getting close to hitting the road as a customer car (and arriving at Goodwood on the move in July), the lucky few with pockets deep enough to buy a car that will cost them pushing on £1 million are busy poring over the options for the P1.

We spoke to one such customer over the weekend who was busy deciding which boxes to tick on the P1 spec sheet, and he was under the impression that McLaren were offering a full bare carbon fibre option for the P1, and at no cost. Which didn’t sound right.

It didn’t sound right because a bare carbon fibre option us usually one of those ‘How much!’ boxes on hypercar option lists that make your eyes water (Pagani want £100k for bare carbon fibre on the Huayra), so the idea that McLaren would do it as a freebie seemed unlikely. Our deep-pocketed friend had convinced himself that McLaren were happy to offer bare carbon fibre for free as their carbon panels are made using a fully automated production system and so, the theory goes, are perfect in every respect before the paint is slapped on.

Unlike other supercar makers, who charge through the nose for bare carbon fibre as, they say, it takes a huge amount of man hours to make sure the weave is perfect, McLaren should be able to do it for no costs (in fact, they’d save the cost of a paint job). But it’s not true.

McLaren do offer bare carbon fibre as a no cost option for the roof, front bumper section and the sections within the doors (as you can see in the photo above), but they don’t offer a full bare carbon option, or at least not yet.

McLaren tell us that after a number of requests from P1 customers a full bare carbon fibre option for the P1 is being discussed, but it won’t come within the no-cost carbon fibre panels option already on offer.

No doubt McLaren will acquiesce to the requests for a full bare carbon fibre option on the P1, but so far we don’t know how much they’ll want for it.

We’ll update when McLaren decides.

By Cars UK