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Pity the humble hypercar. For a brief moment in time you're the hottest thing on four wheels, splashed across thousands of desktop wallpapers (and bedroom walls, if car posters are still a thing). But these days that kind of star power doesn't last long. Blame the companies that build them. You'd think it would be hard to top something like a McLaren P1, a hybrid with 903hp (673kW) and a $1.6 million price tag, but that's just what McLaren intends to do with the next car in its "Ultimate" series, the BP23.

The BP23 is still two years off, and details are scarce on the ground. It will be a hybrid and have even more power than the P1, and more advanced aerodynamics.

We know it will have a three-seat layout in homage to the F1, the greatest McLaren road car of all time. Similarly, only 106 will be built—the same number as the eventual production run of the F1 between 1993 and 1998. They will cost $2.5 million, and they've all been sold. The car is also going to be more grand tourer than track weapon, just like the F1, which should spare McLaren another Nürburgring attempt.

Autocar has a few more tidbits. The BP23 will have a new carbon-fiber architecture, replacing the current MonoCell (and now MonoCage) platform. And it should be easier to get into the driving seat versus an F1, but possibly with more vestigial passenger seats as a consequence.

It will have to face off against Mercedes-AMG and Aston Martin

In the same way that the P1 had to share magazine covers and TV shows with Ferrari's LaFerrari and Porsche's 918 Hybrid, expect the BP23 to have to share headlines with some other hybrid hypercars currently in the works. In Detroit in January, Mercedes-Benz announced "Project One." Capitalizing on its dominant Formula 1 effort, it will be powered by a 1,000hp (745kW) hybrid system complete with a road-sanitized derivative of the F1 team's 1.6L turbo V6.

The last time anyone attempted such a thing was with the Ferrari F50. That car used a 4.7 V12 engine developed from the 3.5L V12 used by Ferrari during the 1990 F1 season. But it was by all accounts an expensive undertaking to imbue road car longevity into what was a highly strung and fragile racing engine. Then again, 1990 was a long time ago, back in the days when F1 cars were stripped to pieces and rebuilt each night. These days each driver is only allowed a total of four engines during the entire season, so there have been great strides in reliability.

Then there's the Aston Martin Valkyrie. This too has an F1 link, even though Aston Martin spends its racing budget in the GT ranks. Adrian Newey—an aerodynamic genius whose designs have won multiple F1 world championships for Williams, McLaren, and Red Bull—is heavily involved in the car's design. It too will be a hybrid, also with at least 1,000hp, but the engine is believed to be a 6.5L V12. Like the Mercedes Project One and the BP23, expect extremely clever aerodynamics.

Listing image by McLaren