Is The Mercedes McLaren P8 Coming?

Posted by www.eMercedesBenz.com on February 1, 2006 at 9:40 AM CST

Over the past few weeks, rumors have been swirling that the McLaren  
camp may be reviving their road car projects, even going as far as  
producing a successor to the infamous McLaren F1.

To add a little fuel to the fire, Autoweek is reporting today that  
not only is McLaren kicking off their road car festivities, they've  
even brought back the once-scrapped Mercedes P8 project.

The story is based on a statement by McLaren director Martin  
Whitmarsh, in which he was quoted as saying: “The level of interest  
in McLaren from Mercedes-Benz is higher than it has ever been...   
There is a clear commitment to be in F1 in the long term and  
refreshed interest in road car activities. I think it is increasingly  
likely there will be a range of sports cars in Woking [McLaren’s  
manufacturing headquarters] in the future.”

Personally, I recommend taking Autoweek's story with a very, very  
small grain of salt.  Whitmarsh's statements are pretty vague, and  
implying the P8 is back in development based on those three sentences  
seems like a pretty big stretch to me.

Either way, we'll keep you posted if we hear anything new. To learn  
more, visit www.eMercedesBenz.com.