824-HP McLaren Sabre is an exclusive new hypercar just for the US
The Sabre is the fastest two-seat McLaren yet, and only 15 will be built.
There's a lot to be said about the McLaren Sabre's design, but it's certainly not subtle.
McLaren's latest limited-run hypercar is here, and it's a whole lot rarer than anything else McLaren has put out in the past few years. Called the Sabre, it's essentially a production version of McLaren's Vision Gran Turismo concept car, and only 15 will be built. Strangely, the first official photos and info about the Sabre come not from McLaren itself but from the McLaren Beverly Hills dealership, which is delivering its first Sabre this week.
The Sabre is powered by McLaren's tried-and-true twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 engine, but it makes more power than in any other nonhybrid McLaren. There's 824 horsepower, to be exact, 34 more than in the Senna on which it's based, while the Sabre's 590 pound-feet of torque matches the Senna. With a top speed of 218 mph the Sabre is also the fastest two-seater that McLaren has ever made, but no other performance stats are given. The Sabre was designed and homologated specifically for the US market, which McLaren says allowed it to use ideas and innovations that wouldn't be possible if the car was globally homologated, although the company doesn't give any specifics as to what those innovations are.
While it's softer and less strange than the Senna, the Sabre still looks absolutely wild. We saw leaked images of the Sabre last September, and it seems like nothing has changed in its design. There's a long front overhang with a complicated splitter setup, tiny LED headlights and large vents in the hood. The Sabre ditches the Senna's huge side scoop in favor of a smaller intake, and there's a whole lot of aero trickery going on at the fenders and side skirts.
But the real showpiece is the Sabre's rear end, which is dominated by an absolutely gigantic wing. The complex wing is attached to the body via two huge endplates and a central fin that extends off of the vented engine cover, and it seems to be adjustable. The taillights are thin, vertical LED strips at each end, with the CHMSL in the center fin, giving the Sabre a unique light signature. The Sabre also has a massive diffuser, turbine-style wheels and a relatively small central exhaust outlet mounted at the tip of the rear end.
Dat wing.
The interior looks fairly similar to the Senna's, albeit less stripped out. The bucket seats are much more road-oriented, and this particular Sabre has Alcantara covering nearly every surface. It's got the same vertical touchscreen as the Senna and shares most of that car's buttons and controls, too.
I actually quite like the three-tone color scheme of this Sabre as it does a good job of showing off the complicated lines of the car. And hey, even if it were painted in one single color this thing would still look nuts, so why not really go all out? Of course, all 15 Sabres will be completely unique, with each one being commissioned through McLaren's Special Operations division. In the Instagram post below you can see a short video and production process photos of another Sabre finished in black carbon fiber with blue accents.
All 15 buyers worked closely with McLaren's designers and engineers throughout the development process, and the company says customer involvement with the project was higher than with any other McLaren creation. A couple of months ago the prospective customers headed to the Thermal Club race track in California, where McLaren had flown out the Sabre development prototype. (That explains some of the leaked photos we've been seeing for the past few months.) The buyers got to drive the prototype on-track with a coach in the passenger seat, and then got to relay their opinions to the engineers in Woking during private video calls.
One major thing that we don't know about the Sabre is how much it costs. My guess is that the starting price of the Sabre is around $5 million, with most (if not all) of them getting even closer to the $10 million mark. With deliveries of all 15 Sabres already commencing, let's hope we'll learn even more about the car soon.
