About 50 of McLaren's recently unveiled MP4-12Cs are being sold to sports car enthusiasts in Hong Kong, out of the 1,000 cars the company will produce in the first year. The city's first allocation of the supercar, with a price tag of about HK$3.9 million, has already been snapped up and buyers are hungrily eating into next year's quota. The warm reception received by the 12C - which is fitted with a 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8 engine capable of reaching 330km/h - will be welcome to McLaren as it aims to become more than a one-model producer.
Ian Gorsuch, McLaren Automotive's director for the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, says the 12C will be the core around which a range of cars will be rolled out over the next four years. The company expects to boost its annual output to 4,200 cars within a few years.
As the carmaker looks to spread its wings, an 'Innovation' team has been set up under former Formula One technician Dick Glover that is tasked with 'looking over the horizon' beyond prevailing trends.
'We want to be at the cutting edge of the cutting edge,' Gorsuch says. 'If you don't keep looking over the horizon, the others will catch up quickly. Ferrari, Lamborghini, they're aggressive, they're clever and they're snapping at our heels.'
His comment suggests McLaren believes the 12C will be as dominant on the road as the F1, its legendary predecessor. The F1 toppled the record for the world's fastest road car in 1998, its last production year, when it hit a top speed of 386km/h.
Anticipation ahead of the 12C's launch stoked debate over whether it could dethrone the 458 Italia - produced by Formula One circuit competitor Ferrari and launched in 2009 - as the current king of the road. Gorsuch is confident the 12C can reign. 'We're almost exactly the same price, but for that we've got a more powerful car, a faster car, a more environmentally friendly car, a more spacious car, a more usable car - and it's rarer.'