McLaren Says It Won't Build a Four-door or SUV, but It Might Make a Stupid 2+2
Here is sentence that nobody has ever uttered: “Honey, you have to take the kids to school in the McLaren today because the Kia is in the shop and it’s our only other mode of transportation.”
Despite this, the automaker that has continuously brought the world road-going hypercars and track day darlings has also considered building a car with a backseat for quite some time. While most supercar manufacturers have at least mulled over something for the entire family, McLaren seems among the worst-suited for the task.
McLaren CEO Mike Flewit told Auto Express at the Shanghai Motor Show that, if his company did produce a four-seater, it would likely be in the form of a grand tourer.
This is blasphemy — everyone knows that it’s McLaren’s job to produce road-legal track cars. Flewit also said it would only come in the 2+2 setup, as the company isn’t interested in building something with four doors. This is stupid — everyone knows that the 2+2 configuration only works if your children are born without legs or can miraculously stay five for the rest of their lives.
“I can see four seats, but not four doors,” Flewit explained. “It could be either Sports Series or Ultimate Series and I could see the GT further enhance its usability and further move in that direction if that vehicle could have at least a 2+2 configuration.”
“We’d look at it, see if it’s what the market wants and see if it would still have the driving attributes that you’d want from our cars – you would have to use a slightly longer wheelbase so you would lose a little of the agility that’s there. But if what you got back was more attractive than what else is in that segment then maybe, yes.”
So, customers would be offered something akin to an extended wheelbase P1 or 570GT with more docile dynamics? While the majority of McLaren owners probably never approach their car’s physical peak, it’s still difficult to imagine them accepting something less capable on paper. It’s equally hard to conceptualize any supercar manufacturer constructing a coupe with fully functioning rear seats.
Weirdly, the CEO vowed never to produce an SUV — a segment even Lamborghini is trying to get in on — during a discussion where he considered bringing a hypothetical 2+2 into existence “if it’s what the market wants.”
“It’s something we would continue to look at and as much as you’d get me to stand on stage and swear we’d never build an SUV, I wouldn’t take that position on a 2+2,” he said.
[Image: McLaren]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Just thanking the writer for telling me how to feel about this story from the "stupid" headline. Please keep saving my precious time like that. And never, ever leave me responsible for making up my own mind, OK? The way the writing on this site is going, in five years you can just publish the word "stupid" five times a day and call it good.
Two weeks after I bought my '84 944 in 1991 I had to fold the rear seats down to accommodate my musical gear ( I was A/B/Ying two half-stacks at the time. Great rig ). I never once folded them back up until 1994, when I did so to show the eventual buyer of my battered and anemic old Porsche that it really did have rear seats. They were beyond useless. Fast forward to my 2006 Mustang: same rear seat utility but without the hatchback and, thus, even less utility. The fact that I was usually the only person ever in the car mitigated this seating drawback nicely but I'd never buy a 2+2 and expect to carry three passengers.