The final stage of fine-tuning the fastest car from Woking was a series of acceleration runs to a maximum of 403 kilometers per hour on the runway of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. The car reached this speed 30 times.
The comprehensive dynamic testing program for the 1070-horsepower McLaren Speedtail included visits to the Applus Idiada track in Spain and the Papenburg Test Ground braking evaluation facility in Papenburg, Germany. The final runs took place at the Johnny Bohmer facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA — where the shuttles land. On the runway, test driver Kenny Brack behind the wheel of the XP2 prototype managed to accelerate to a maximum of 403 kilometers per hour more than 30 times — a record speed for road-going McLarens.
The completion of testing means that soon, manual assembly of the first batch of production hybrids will begin at the McLaren Production Centre in Woking, UK. They will reach customers no earlier than February next year. The total production run will be 106 units.
The McLaren Speedtail is a carbon-fiber teardrop 5.2 meters long. The hybrid is equipped with a powertrain producing 1070 horsepower (1150 Nm) and accelerates from zero to 300 kilometers per hour in less than 13 seconds. A special feature of the Speedtail is the traction battery with an energy storage density of 5.2 kilowatts per kilogram, cameras instead of side mirrors, and movable ailerons made of flexible carbon fiber that act as a spoiler.
