McLaren pauses MP4 12C production to focus on 650S

McLaren's fill-the-space-between-MP4-and-P1 product is, for some odd reason, called the 650S. The name with many hyphens would've defined the car in the best possible way - don't you think? Launched at the Geneva Auto Show earlier this month, the 650S created quite a buzz. And now it's creating some more of it.

McLaren, it is believed, will temporarily pause the production of its entry-level (sounds absurd using this term for such an automobile!) product - MP4-12C. Apparently, McLaren's CFO, Richard Molyneux, has suggested that the buyers in the supercar space are progressive and would want the newer product - 650S in this case - and that's the reason for the fleeting suspension in production of the 12C.

McLaren had an order book going into 4 years for the 12C couple of years ago, so considering that the company has completely removed the 12C from the production line, I expect it to get back on it sooner rather than later.

Another factor that might have compelled McLaren to suspend 12C's production is related to economics. McLaren had invested 50 million Pounds in its production facility dedicated to the road-going cars; additionally, its net accumulated loss amounted to over 53 million Pounds in 2011. The P1, and now, crucially, the 650S may be key to push McLaren to profitability because of higher operating margins.

As for the 650S, it shares its architecture with the 12C. And its back-side. The front-end has P1 written all over it. The engine is the same 3.8-litre V8 that powers the 12C but it has been tuned to churn out 650 horses. McLaren says that the 650S can accelerate from 0-100km/h in 3 seconds, 0-200km/h in 8.4 seconds and will max out at 333km/h. That's serious performance from whichever angle you look at it!

On the other hand, the MP4-12C, or popularly known as 12C, is the first production vehicle since the plug was pulled on the F1 in 1998. The 12C gets its power from a 3.8-litre twin-turbo engine that makes 592bhp and 601Nm of torque.

The 650S was revealed in two versions - Coupe and Spider - at the recently concluded Geneva Motor Show. Both the variants are expected to hit the global market by mid-2014 with the starting price expected to range between 200,000-220,000 pounds.