What's all this about?

This is a little sculpture. It's called Speed Form. And it's very rare, priceless and indicative of something extremely exciting.

And what would that be?

The interior of the forthcoming McLaren 'Hyper-GT', codenamed the BP23. This is the one with a three-seat layout with a central driving position and a top speed 'in excess of 243mph', both figures which are inspired by the company's most legendary road car: the mighty F1 of the 1990s. Indeed, the fact there are only going to be 106 BP23s built - and all of them are already accounted for - is another nod to the F1, as that's how many examples McLaren sold of Gordon Murray's masterpiece.

OK, so can we get back to Speed Form itself?

Sure thing. It's a 400mm x 205mm x 80mm sculpture that weights 3.6kg. It won't be for sale at any price, unless one of the 106 BP23, er... pre-orderers decides to flog their example of Speed Form on eBay (highly unlikely). And although it's machined from thoroughly cutting-edge (quite literally) five-axis CNC technology, it's actually assembled and finished by hand in an example of 'extreme craftsmanship'. That means each Speed Form takes 100 hours to create, with 30 hours of expert hand-polishing alone. Each sculpture shows off the interior form of the car, obviously, but also hints at the BP23's aerodynamic exterior, which is what will allow it to do more than 243mph flat out. And each Speed Form is individually numbered, too.

Do we know anything more about the Hyper-GT car at this stage?

Nope. Still the same details as before: it was entirely sold out within weeks of being announced; and it'll have a name, like the McLaren Senna, rather than an alphanumeric badge, because it's an Ultimate Series car and not in either the Sports Series, like a 570S, or the Super Series, like the 720S.

Matt Robinson - 4 Apr 2018