For those of us of a certain age, classes in elementary school were often passed by drawing cars — on notebooks, on desks, on books and sometimes even on sheets of paper.
Sketching traditional hot rods, racecars with elaborate M.C. Escher-like exhaust systems and cars of the future were the passion of prepubescent boys. (Girls were not yet on our radar.) The futuristic cars featured the super-sleek look of fighter jets, but with wheels, often oversize ones in the back and smaller ones up front to make them aerodynamic. Our paper dreams needed to compete on the Bonneville Salt Flats where Donald Campbell pushed his Bluebird past 300 mph along with John Cobb in his Railton Mobil Special and George Eyston in his Thunderbolt.
The one thing our drawings and the real speed cars all had in common was that the steering wheel was in the center and it was a one-man ride.
Well, if you want to take a ride in one of your drawings come to life and have 1.75 million pounds (2.1 million U.S. dollars as of this writing) to pony up, then put your dibs in for a McLaren Speedtail. And you better hurry. Only 106 will be made.
But you might want to live near the salt flats to enjoy your Speedtail. It goes from zero to 186 mph in 12.8 seconds and is capable of hitting 250 mph. And how does that get to go that fast? An all carbon-fiber body, carbon fiber front-wheel static aero covers that reduce air turbulence around the wheel wells, no exterior mirrors and — get ready for this: “the Velocity Active chassis Control can lower the Speedtail by 1.4 inches, leaving the highest point of the vehicle just 3.7 feet from the road surface.”
Enough with the words. Feast your eyes on this photo of a dream.
