In an effort to attract more members of the One Percent, carmakers are touting their ability to personalize cars for individual customers almost as much as the cars themselves.
If a supercar just isn’t special enough, McLaren Special Operations (MSO) can help. The British carmaker will show the MSO 650S Coupe Concept throughout China in the coming weeks, demonstrating MSO’s capabilities to the world’s biggest car market.
The 650S’ styling is already a dramatic improvement over that of the MP4-12C on which its based, but MSO upped the cool factor with a few subtle additions.
The car is finished in “Agrigan Black”, a metallic black with ruby red flakes that makes the 650S look like a stealth fighter. A carbon-fiber front splitter, air intakes, and side blades add to the menacing look.
At the back, the MSO 650S features a “GT3” race-inspired rear bumper, carbon-fiber air brake, and a unique rear diffuser. There’s also a set of stain-black alloy wheels, and a few dress-up parts for the engine bay.
On the inside, this bespoke supercar gets fixed carbon-fiber seats based on the ones used in the P1 hybrid and shod in carbon black leather. The seats not only save weight, but place the occupants lower in the car.
Unchanged is the 650S’ 3.8-liter, twin-turbocharged V8, which produces 641 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque. Coupled to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, it will get the 650S from 0 to 60 mph in around 2.9 seconds, and on to a top speed of 207 mph.
McLaren says it is “monitoring reaction” to determine whether to produce the MSO 650S but, in the meantime, the carbon-fiber side blades and rear diffuser are available now for both the 650S and the (soon-to-be-discontinued) 12C.
