McLaren readies cheaper £126k 540C for Shanghai 2015 debut

Published: 03 April 2015

► New McLaren 540C set for Shanghai
► Lower £126,000 price confirmed
► It’ll be the cheapest McLaren road car ever

McLaren is putting the finishing touches to its 540C, the cheapest Sports Series car which will make its world debut in Shanghai on 20 April 2015.

This will be an important announcement – at £126,000, the McLaren 540C will by some margin become the cheapest road car ever built by Woking.

What do we know about the McLaren 540C?

This multi-output strategy isn’t anything new from McLaren. It’s already following the same approach with the Super Series mid-line cars where it produces the 650S and, for Asia only, the lower-powered 620C.

No prizes for guessing, then, that the 540C will be a decontented, detuned version of the £143,250 570S shown at the 2015 New York motor show.

Expect a marginally less aggressive bodykit and aero package, a lower power output – down to 540ps, or 533bhp – and a marginally stingier standard equipment to achieve that £126k price tag.

An everyday McLaren

The Sports Series is designed to be a more usable kind of supercar and Woking has paid great attention to ergonomics and practicality. It’s scalloped out the carbon tub to ease access, made sure the doors open wider and tuned the drivetrain to be friendlier for everyday driving without losing any of the ferocious McLaren performance.

Click here for the full story on the 570S – and find out why the so-called junior McLaren is still capable of reaching 62mph in just 3.2sec.

Doesn’t sound very junior to us…

By Tim Pollard

Group digital editorial director, car news magnet, crafter of words

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