McLaren P1 dashboard revealed!

Get a big red pen out, and mark your computer screen: at 10.15am GMT on Tuesday 5 March, McLaren will finally, finally unveil its P1 hypercar to the world at the Geneva Motor Show.

This is exciting. Because it's the first McLaren hypercar since the F1. It's doubly exciting because McLaren promises lots of horsepower and lots of technology, and we are anticipating this by making lots of ‘vroom vroom' noises in the office, complemented by wild oversteer gestures.

Until then, we'll be drip-fed information, and today's instalment is... the dash. Well, a readout of the dash, specifically a readout of the dash in ‘Race' mode. See, the P1 will take inspiration from the company's Formula One endeavours (and not, as you would have immediately concluded, an MkII Vauxhall Astra GTE) by housing a digital dash.

As you can see in pictures 1-3 above (the new pics), the ‘Race' mode includes a bank of lights across the top which illuminate first green, then red, and finally blue, acting as shift indicators.

And when ‘Race' mode is selected, that rather lovely rear wing extends out and pitches into "an optimal aerodynamic position" which, thankfully, makes it look nice. Earlier updates from McLaren on the P1 have confirmed that yes, it looks great in that race-circuit-camouflage body colour (as driven by Jenson Button to last week's F1 car reveal), Akebono are working on a "highly efficient" braking system, Mobil 1 is sorting out the fluids (oil and cooling and hydraulics and so forth), while Pirelli will handle the tyres. We're not expecting a call from them for any help, mind...

Other titbits? We know the McLaren P1 will feature a power-to-weight ratio of 600bhp per tonne, it will sit on the same carbon tub as the MP4-12C, and will feature KERS too. Oh, and it will generate over 600kg of downforce.

There's a new vid over on McLaren's YouTube page too, which you can watch here. Otherwise, stay tuned.

Vijay Pattni