After speculation last week, we can confirm that the next chapter in the What Car Will McLaren Make Next? saga is one hundred percent the McLaren MP4-12C Spider. And look at it, it's stunning.
Hasn't Ron Dennis been a busy boy? Just one month after he offered the MP4-12C with an engine upgrade, and a year after selling over 1000 coupes, he's chopped the bloody roof off.
And to answer your question - yes. It's got the more powerful 616bhp, 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8. And yes, it'll do over 200mph - but only 204mph, 3mph slower than it's closed-roof sibling. Even so, hairpiece owner will need some stickier glue as the Spider does 0-60mph in 3.1 seconds - the same time as the coupe.
Like we told you last week, the Spider uses a variation of the coupe's carbon-fibre MonoCell chassis. This 75kg tub requires no additional strengthening for it to feature in the 12C Spider and because of its F1 techyness, it means that the car is almost identical to its fixed roof counterpart in the performance department.
That hasn't stopped some weight being added, though. Standing on the scales the Spider weighs 40kg more than the coupe due to the retractable hard top - that's RHT for acronym addicts - operating system. The RHT takes less than 17 seconds to raise or lower and can be operated on the move if you're doing less than 20mph.
"Removing the roof will dial up the sensations, the emotions and the noise heard - especially at the speeds the 12C Spider will be capable of," says McLaren.
One man who agrees is Jenson Button, "You definitely feel more at one when there is no roof. It just feels a lot more natural: you smell the tyres, you smell the brakes, you smell the car and it really make you fell like part of the car."
The new 12C Spider will be priced from £195,500 in the UK and is available to order now.
So dot commers what would you go for? Hay fever-sufferer hard top? Or summer sunshine soft top? Can't decide? Well configure your own one here.
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