A kiwi statue in London's Covent Garden carried the badge before any press release did.
McLaren confirmed it. The name is McL 820. A giant kiwi sculpture, placed in London's Covent Garden with the designation painted on its flank in black and orange, did the announcing before any official statement reached journalists. The 750S successor arrives in 2027.
The designation matters because McLaren's numeric system has never been decorative — each figure has historically tracked metric horsepower output directly. According to Autocar's model analysis, published October 2024, 820 metric horsepower converts to approximately 809 bhp, which would clear the outgoing 750S's rated 740 hp by a meaningful margin. That gap is wider than the step from the 650S to the 720S, itself the brand's biggest series-production power jump of the 2010s.
How a Kiwi Statue in Covent Garden Beat the Press Office
McLaren's communications team did not schedule a product reveal. The brand placed an oversized fibreglass sculpture of its "Speedy Kiwi" mascot in London's Covent Garden — a nod to founder Bruce McLaren's New Zealand origins — and painted "McL 820" along its side in the brand's signature black and orange livery. Photographs circulated within hours. The "McL" prefix had appeared once before, on the McL 6GT hypercar unveiled at Monterey Car Week in summer 2024 — a retro-styled, manual-gearbox machine that sat outside the numbered supercar line. At the time, it read as a one-off branding choice. The Covent Garden installation changed that reading. Applying the same prefix to an 820-designated car — squarely in the mainstream supercar sequence — indicates the "McL" tag is now the house standard, not an outlier. McLaren has not issued a formal product statement tying the sculpture directly to a production model specification sheet. The statue did the work anyway. Tracked across the OEM model launches archive, this is among the more unconventional confirmation methods recorded for a volume supercar nameplate.
The Arithmetic Behind the Badge: 820 PS, 809 bhp, 70 hp Gained
McLaren's naming convention converts directly: the number in the badge equals metric horsepower (PS), not brake horsepower. The conversion factor is 1 PS = 0.9863 bhp. Running that: 820 × 0.9863 = 808.77 bhp, rounded by Autocar's technical desk to approximately 809 bhp. The outgoing 750S is rated at 740 hp (bhp) at the crankshaft. The gap between 740 and 809 is 69 bhp — call it 70 in round terms. Expressed as a percentage: 70 ÷ 740 = 9.5 percent more power over the direct predecessor. For context, the 720S arrived 10.8 percent more powerful than the 650S it replaced (720 versus 650 bhp), so the McL 820's projected step is comparable but slightly smaller. Kerb weight figures have not been disclosed. If McLaren holds the 750S's 1,277 kg dry weight, a 809 bhp output produces a theoretical power-to-weight ratio of approximately 633 bhp per tonne — up from the 750S's 579 bhp per tonne. That calculation assumes no hybrid system mass penalty, which is unlikely given the powertrain direction confirmed by McLaren's own engineering leadership.
Straughan on Engines: "Obviously Going to Start with the Current V8"
McLaren Chief Operating Officer Michael Straughan addressed the powertrain direction in remarks reported by Motor1 in October 2024. On the question of what architecture underpins the next generation, Straughan stated the new engines are "obviously going to start with the current V8 products or the future generation of that." The phrasing is deliberately open. It neither confirms a naturally aspirated unit nor rules out forced induction or hybrid augmentation. What it does confirm is that McLaren is developing powertrains in-house rather than continuing the arrangement with external engine suppliers that has defined much of its post-2011 road car output. The in-house move is supported by infrastructure: McLaren is constructing a second UK manufacturing facility where engine assembly will take place on-site for the first time in the brand's road car history. Straughan's comment, taken alongside the planned factory, gives the McL 820 project a structural weight that a statue in Covent Garden alone could not carry. The supply-chain shift also changes McLaren's cost exposure and intellectual property position on drivetrain development going forward.
No Press Release, No Spec Sheet — and That's the Odd Part
McLaren confirmed the McL 820 name. What it has not confirmed is almost everything else. No official document sets a precise output figure — the 809 bhp number derives from a naming convention, not from a published specification. No kerb weight has been stated. No battery capacity for the hybrid system has been disclosed, and McLaren has not confirmed whether the car will be a plug-in hybrid or a mild hybrid. The 750S end-of-production date of 2027 is established, per McLaren's own scheduling, but whether the McL 820 launches the same year it ends or whether a gap exists has not been addressed. Michael Straughan mentioned two hybrid powertrain variants under development; which of those powers the McL 820 specifically remains unresolved. There is also no word on whether the "McL" prefix extends to the brand's other planned products — including the SUV McLaren has confirmed is in development. The Covent Garden statue was removed after its London appearance. McLaren has not indicated when or where the next official communication on the McL 820 will be issued.
What the McL 820 Project Means for McLaren's Woking Operations
The second UK factory is the concrete consequence that separates the McL 820 from a simple model refresh. McLaren Automotive, headquartered in Woking, Surrey, has assembled every road car at its McLaren Production Centre since the MP4-12C entered production in 2011. Engine supply came externally — primarily from Ricardo under a long-term contract arrangement. Building a parallel facility to produce powertrains in-house restructures McLaren's fixed-cost base and its dependency on third-party manufacturing schedules. For a company that filed for a £150 million emergency loan guarantee in 2020 during a severe liquidity crisis, the capital commitment required for a second factory is not a minor operational decision. McLaren Automotive's parent, the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, holds the financial position that makes the investment possible. The McL 820 becomes, in this reading, the first product that justifies the infrastructure spend — it has to sell in sufficient volume at sufficient margin to service what is, by McLaren's historical standards, an unusually large capital outlay. Production volume targets have not been published.
Bruce McLaren drove his first single-seater race in New Zealand in 1957, seventy years before the McL 820 is scheduled to reach customers. McLaren Automotive has produced fewer than 25,000 road cars in total since the MP4-12C launched in 2011 — the McL 820's annual volume allocation has not been stated. The complete McLaren model history and specifications are catalogued in the Global Auto Index manufacturer database.
