Every supercar has a signature style, a look so distinctive that anyone with even a passing interest in cars immediately knows what they're looking at. Ferraris tend to be sensual. Lamborghinis look like origami. And the Bugatti Veyron just looks mean. Designing a car that can stand out in that crowd is a tall order that fell to Frank Stephenson when he was named design director of McLaren Automotive. Stephenson is no neophyte. Before joining McLaren two years ago, he led the vehicle design center for Fiat. And he landed that gig after a stint as design director at Ferrari and Maserati. He was responsible for the Maserati GranSport and MC12. He also penned the Ferrari FXX. And the F430. The new Fiat 500? That's his. So was the 2001 Mini, which Stephenson designed while he was at BMW in the 1990s. Clearly the man knows how to design hot cars. You can see why McLaren boss Ron Dennis tapped him to design the MP4-12C, McLaren's latest lustworthy ride. McLaren is synonymous with Formula 1, and its only road car so far -- the venerable F1 -- remained the fastest production car in the world for seven years after the last one rolled out of the factory in Woking, Surrey, England. That's a lot to live up to. Stephenson knew he'd have to come up with something special.

But that's tougher than it sounds in the supercar arena. "We're all working with the same proportions because we're all building mid-engined cars," Stephenson said during a recent visit to Wired.com. "The challenge is to make it distinctive and unique." Stephenson started as he always did: with a clean sheet of paper and a three-quarter perspective in his mind's eye. "When I start with a sketch, I always start with a front three-quarter view," he said. "It gives you more of a 3D look and a clear look at the 'face' of the car." What you see here "is very close" to what Stephenson first drew.

Stephenson opted for a fluid, organic design. Maximizing the aerodynamics and "minimizing the packaging" were his top priorities, he said. The 12C was designed first and foremost for high-performance driving and optimal handling, so -- like all supercars -- the mass is centralized and kept as low as possible. The car is built around a carbon fiber safety cell with front and rear aluminum subframes. Once the chassis was developed, it was a matter of wrapping it in bodywork that helped meet McLaren's goals of optimal fuel efficiency and aerodynamic downforce. "It's not a matter of form over function," he said. "Form is function. The great secret of this car is there's less design than usual. We developed all of the hard points for the chassis and then just covered them up. It's a lean design." The car has an aluminum roof, bonnet and fenders; most of the rest is sheet molding composite. Some of the MP4-12C's features remind us cars we've seen roll out of Maranello, but that's to be expected given that Stephenson spent three years there. And, as he noted, mid-engine supercars share similar proportions and so have similar silhouettes.

That said, the MP4-12C is full of beautiful styling cues. The graceful wing supporting the mirrors. The curve of the beltline. The LED taillights, which are integrated into the slats of the rear fascia. You can't see it, but the headlights have three "shark gills" that resemble the McLaren logo. The rear wing isn't there to increase downforce. It's a hydraulic airbrake that helps slow the car from triple-digit speeds (the Veyron uses a similar setup). The exhaust outlets are centralized up high to provide the most direct route from the engine and to keep the underside of the car tidy. That allowed the engineers to install a carbon fiber diffuser that helps increase downforce and improve handling. One of Stephenson's favorite details are the blades within the huge vents behind each door. The McLaren's radiators are mounted parallel to the engine to minimize the width of the car. The blades were designed using computational fluid dynamics to direct air into the radiators without creating turbulence. They also look really cool, but that's not the point. It really wasn't designed to look cool," Stephenson said of the 12C. "It was designed to optimize packaging. We wanted it to be different and distinctive, but not flamboyant."

The same engineers who develop McLaren's Formula 1 cars worked on the MP4-12C, a car intended to do everything from cruise boulevards to tear up tracks. Push-button ignitions are de rigueur these days. The other two adjust the suspension and engine mapping from Sunday drive to full race. You've got the option of outfitting the interior with about two acres of carbon fiber. Despite the "holy shit" levels of performance the car promises, McLaren says it will have CO2 emissions of less than 300 grams per kilometer and exceptional (for a supercar) fuel economy.

The 12C is just the first of what Dennis has said will be a range of high-performance cars. The 12C will be the flagship, with a 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 producing 592 horsepower and 443 pound feet of torque. McLaren wouldn't pop the hood for us, but the 3.8-liter engine -- designed with help from engine specialists Ricardo -- features an alloy block and heads with composite intake manifold. It's got a flat-plane crankshaft and dry sump to keep the profile low. The engine is bolted to a seven-speed paddle-shifted gearbox that uses the same technology as McLaren's F1 cars. The 12C is aimed squarely at the Ferrari 458 Italia, which means the two companies soon will be rivals on the street as well as on the track.