When the wraps came off the McLaren P1™ in September 2012 the world was stunned. Five years after its debut and it’s still provoking the same reactions wherever it goes

It’s 2012. The Olympic Games has come to London and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is playing in cinemas. Seems like a long time ago, so it’s amazing to think that this was the year that the covers were pulled off the McLaren P1™ at the Paris Motor Show.

To be precise, the car on display was a concept, the orange car featured in our pictures here, but so faithful to the design was the production car when it was released the following year, many would fail to spot the difference. It’s a testament to our ability to get it right first time, and to a design that remains just as advanced as the car’s hybrid powertrain.

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Its flowing lines and sumptuous aerodynamic details combined with an incredibly focused race car stance still evoke the same awestruck reactions that it did those five years ago.

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But before the P1™ was shown in 2012, it had been keeping a team of more than a hundred McLaren employees awake at night for a further five years still. It’s not every day you resolve to succeed a car as iconic as the McLaren F1, creating the first McLaren hypercar.

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The powertrain, comprising a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 with a lightweight, powerful electric motor, produced 916PS (903bhp) and 900Nm (664lb ft) of torque, making possible some formidable performance numbers: 0-100kph (62mph) in 2.8 seconds, 0-200kph (124mph) in 6.8, and 0-300kph (186mph) in 16.5 – a full five seconds quicker than the legendary McLaren F1. Top speed? That was limited to 350kph (217mph).

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The P1™ was always intended to be a very rare car, both in terms of its capabilities and in terms of the numbers built. Just 375 were made, each one of them custom-built to the exact specification of its owner in consultation with the team at McLaren Special Operations (MSO). As a result, no two P1s™ are exactly alike.

The P1™ spawned an even more limited edition track-only version, the 1000PS (986bhp) P1™ GTR, resurrecting the model name that adorned the Le Mans-winning F1 GTR in 1995.