McLaren 12C Can-Am Edition Concept at Pebble

This weekend at the Pebble Beach Concours, McLaren GT, a part of McLaren Automotive that’s charged with developing and producing race cars, is showing a variant of the MP4-12C that we had the opportunity to learn about on the Top Gear course in England, albeit at speeds not seen by McLaren F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button unless they’re shifting out of Park.

This concept car, the 12C Can-Am edition, is, like its daily-driver (!) brethren, features a carbon-fiber composite-intensive structure (it uses the same MonoCell chassis as the road car), which helps explain why it weighs a mere 2,645 lb.

There is, of course, an aero package to increase downforce. Among the elements of that package are a carbon fiber front splitter, carbon fiber down planes, carbon fiber diffuser, and a carbon fiber rear wing—held by polished aluminum mounts.

The company’s 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 has been calibrated so that it produces 630 hp. A braking system has been developed by Akebono to handle the slowing down portions of the drive.

Inside, there are race seats with six-point harnesses and a roll cage.

And while one is unlikely to drive like Lewis Hamilton, the steering wheel in the 12C Can-Am edition is the same one as used in the 12C GT3, which features the shape and grip of the steering wheel found in Hamilton’s MP4-24 Formula 1 car.

Given that this is a concept car, which is not for sale, the likelihood of your gripping that steering wheel is approximately the same as winning an F1 (or even Can-Am) race.