McLaren Elva is the latest surprise coming from the Woking automaker. The high-performance roadster comes from the marque’s Ultimate Series and pays homage to the 1960s McLaren-Elva sportscars that designed by Bruce McLaren himself.

Like the McLaren-Elva sportscars from the past, the Elva has a completely open cockpit with no roof, windscreen or windows. Instead, the engineers developed the innovative Active Air Management System (AAMS), which channels air to go from the nose of the Elva and come out of the front clamshell at high velocity ahead of the cabin, creating a ‘bubble’ of calm for its occupants. However, as homologated for many markets, a fixed windscreen derivative will also be available.

The silhouette of the Elva is completely new compared with other contemporary road cars. It is also the lightest road car coming from McLaren, built with bespoke carbon fibre chassis and body, unique carbon fibre seats and carbon-ceramic brakes. The 4.0-litre V8 onboard generates  815hp and allows the Elva to shoot from standstill to 100 km/h in less 3.0 seconds, while 0-200 km/h is achieved in 6.7 seconds (and beating the record of McLaren Senna). Limited to 399 examples, the Elva is priced from £1,425,000 including tax.