The one-off model is a popular concept gaining more and more ground each year, especially in the British car industry. Luxury marques Rolls-Royce and Bentley are the kings of personalization and there are few wishes their respective bespoke coach building divisions cannot fulfill.
McLaren’s bespoke division MSO is planning on catching up, but in a more literal sense. Meaning, the one-off as we often see them from the brand’s competitors in the UK usually takes the shape of an already existing car with a few extra add-ons and custom styling. McLaren anticipates on creating an entirely custom one-off vehicle, much like the X-1 they produced back in 2012.
Until now, the X-1 is the only real ‘one-off’ vehicle the brand has built. McLaren recently announced plans that it wants to build approximately two to three of those custom builds each year, following a similar path to that of Ferrari. The customer will be closely involved with the entire development of the one-off car, which should take about 18 months to two years to complete. Finally the customer decides whether the creation is made public or not.
MSO chief Ansar Ali emphasized that it is his job to make sure the one-off creations don’t distract from McLaren’s core offering. He further added that the custom cars would present the company with a great R&D opportunity by letting them function as a test bed for new tech and materials.
If all 3 models are the same then they aren’t exactly one off models..