Some questions are best left unanswered. However, the one revolving around what would've happened if McLaren had decided to build the GT as a front-engined model is definitely not one of them.
And you should know digital artist Esa Mustonen has decided to answer this question. The gear head came up with a rendering that portrays the kind of velocity tool described in the intro.
As expected, relocating the engine dramatically changes the proportions of the machine. So, while the hood grows in length (yaaay!), the rear deck is now shorter.
Looking past the obvious aspects of such a change, we notice that while this design retains traditional Woking elements, such as the nose of the vehicle, it also adds new pieces, with those LED daytime running lights sitting in the middle of the front side air intakes being an example as good as any.
With this being a design study, it features the kind of super-sized wheels you'll even find on sketches of production vehicles (here's the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ official sketches, for instance).
Mustonen is a young aficionado, albeit with his experience including a 2019 internship at Renault (in Paris), as well as one that was completed at the Genesis Global Advanced Design Center in Frankfurt a year before.
And justifying the development costs for such a structure doesn't seem likely, even without the carbon construction demanded by the British carmaker's tradition - sure, GTs are more usable than supercars, but their sales are still uber-limited. So this kind of McLaren model remains confined to our screens, at least for now.
As expected, relocating the engine dramatically changes the proportions of the machine. So, while the hood grows in length (yaaay!), the rear deck is now shorter.
Looking past the obvious aspects of such a change, we notice that while this design retains traditional Woking elements, such as the nose of the vehicle, it also adds new pieces, with those LED daytime running lights sitting in the middle of the front side air intakes being an example as good as any.
With this being a design study, it features the kind of super-sized wheels you'll even find on sketches of production vehicles (here's the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ official sketches, for instance).
Mustonen is a young aficionado, albeit with his experience including a 2019 internship at Renault (in Paris), as well as one that was completed at the Genesis Global Advanced Design Center in Frankfurt a year before.
What about the possibility of enjoying such a vehicle in the real world?
While McLaren has pushed the boundaries of the mid-engined concept with its Grand Tourer approach, the sort of ultimate GT we have here would require a totally different platform.And justifying the development costs for such a structure doesn't seem likely, even without the carbon construction demanded by the British carmaker's tradition - sure, GTs are more usable than supercars, but their sales are still uber-limited. So this kind of McLaren model remains confined to our screens, at least for now.