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Manual transmissions in cars normal people can afford may be an ever-dwindling species, but shifting your own gears is having a bit of a moment at the very top end of the market, and one report says McLaren is planning to get in on the action. According to The Supercar Blog, the British supercar maker is preparing a manual hypercar with the codename P50. It'll apparently be even more expensive and exclusive than the new W1, which costs $2.1 million and will be capped at 399 units. The publication says fewer than 100 P50s will be built, and it'll debut at The Quail next month during Monterey Car Week.
On the surface, a report like this that doesn't really attribute its allegations to much other than "trust me, bro" wouldn't deserve much attention. However, The Supercar Blog has been right about this sort of thing before, publishing a report back in May that said Ferrari might come out with a limited-run, manual version of the 12Cilindri in July, merely citing unnamed "sources." Well, Ferrari came out with a limited-run, "manual" version of the 12Cilindri in July.
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All the cool kids are doing it, mom
The other reason I'm inclined to believe that a manual McLaren P50 is indeed coming is simply because it definitely sounds like something McLaren would do. Ultra-exclusive manual supercars have been a trend recently, with the aforementioned 12Cilindri Manuale, Koenigsegg CC850, Pagani Utopia, and the gorgeous De Tomaso P72 all coming with manuals that serve not just as transmissions but as nostalgic, headline selling points. There's also the existence of Gordon Murray's six-speed GMA T.50 that's very much a spiritual continuation of the McLaren F1, the brand's last manual car and its most iconic road product.
You have to imagine that McLaren, a supercar company that arguably prizes analog driver involvement more than most, isn't one to watch its peers do all that without cashing in itself. Let's just hope, for Car Internet's sake, the manual McLaren is allegedly working on is "real" and not a 12Cilindri Manuale-style simulation. At any rate, if the rumor turns out to be correct, "T.50 vs P50" should be a comparison test for the ages.
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