One of these days we’ll try and rank which car maker is the ‘biggest tease’ – I suspect we’ll have a stand-off between McLaren (with the P1) and Jaguar (F-TYPE), although Lamborghini has always enjoyed stringing us along with its numerous concepts.
In Jaguar’s case, I’ve lost count of the number of times people have said “I thought it was already launched?”, but at least with McLaren’s P1 the spectacle ‘is’ the main event. Few of us will ever see one, while fewer still will get to buy one, so if McLaren choose to extend its foreplay, who are we to complain.


Their latest nugget is the promotional film, ‘Designed by Air’, which previews a new 3D interactive experience coming to a desktop or tablet near you in May 2013.
The experience takes participants on a journey as the car is born from raw metallic and carbon elements and then crafted by airflow. The story evolves to unveil the McLaren P1 within the wind tunnel, highlighting the aerodynamic performance of the car’s design and showing it adapt in simulated urban, alpine, highway and track environments.
The video (above) is the first of two short-films telling the story behind its design, reinforcing the claim already made that P1 is “the most aerodynamically advanced car in the world”.
SEE ALSO: Through the Lens: McLaren P1 at Bahrain International Circuit
It remains a bold statement, one which begs comparison (with Ferrari’s LaFerrari) once both cars are launched, but in the meantime we’ll just have to take McLaren’s word for it – and enjoy more of their promotional foreplay.
Written By

Steve Davies
Steve is an investor, private equity advisor and former Partner at KPMG, PwC and Bain. Most importantly he's a life-long car enthusiast, mountain biker and active sports enthusiast. He designs and builds technology platforms and is the architect behind Transmission.
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