McLaren Automotive has released a two-seat roadster fitted with a turbo V8, an interesting new Active Air Management System — and not a single window. The McLaren Elva gets its name from the bygone sports and racing car manufacturer of the same name from the U.K., which McLaren collaborated with in the 1960s to produce a customer version of the M1A. The new Elva builds on its vintage predecessor’s open-top configuration with an ultra-modern design fitting of McLaren’s current lineup. Most notable is the car’s lack of glass of any kind (save for on the control screens) or a roof. That, along with ample use of carbon fibre throughout the shell, monocoque, bodywork, interior and more. Power is generated by a twin-turbo V8 from the same family as that in the Senna and Senna GTR. In the Elva, it’s rated at 804 horsepower and 590 lb-ft. of torque, which will compel the roadster from zero to 100 km/h in under three seconds. Zero to 200 km/h comes in just 6.7 seconds, beating the Senna’s time by 0.1 of a second. Aesthetically, the Elva has Big McLaren Energy, with rolling, muscular lines and no windscreen, roof, or windows of any kind cluttering up the top end. In place of the windshield, McLaren’s new Active Air Management system deploys automatically at anything greater than “urban speeds” to move air “through the nose of the Elva to come out of the front clamshell at high velocity ahead of the occupants before being directed up over the cockpit to create a relative ‘bubble’ of calm.”An actual physical windscreen is available as an option. McLaren plans to make just 399 of the open-top roadsters, with pricing at US$1.69 million for the base
Origin: With 804 hp and no roof or windshield, the Elva has Big McLaren Energy