McLaren Speedtail Smokes at Gas Station, Fire Extinguishers Save The Day

Thanks to the piece of footage at the bottom of the page, we can see the Speedtail test car smoking - fortunately, no flames appear in the clip, with the smoke coming from the rear of the vehicle.

The car can be seen at a distance from the fuel pumps, while one of the engineers can be seen using a fire extinguisher to keep the situation under control.

According to Roger Ormisher, Head of McLaren Global and North American Communications, who issued this statement for Motor1, the incident is believed to be linked to an electrical issue.

"A prototype version of the McLaren Speedtail experienced what we believe at this stage to be an electrical fault, whilst stationary at a fuel station near Guildford in Surrey, UK," we are being told.

Ormisher also confirmed that, upon noticing the smoke, the employees took the vehicle away from the pump and eventually used powder extinguishers on the car.


However, we have to keep in mind that the Speedtail packs more than your average automotive electric system. That's because we're talking about a gas-electric monster with 1,035 horsepower (772 kW) on tap.

A spiritual successor to the F1, the Speedtail packs a three-seat layout. And with customer deliveries set to kick off next year, Woking seems to have plenty of time to address the matter described above.

Keep in mind that all 106 examples of the British missile have been spoken for, with the price of the Hyper-GT sitting at £1.75 ($2.2 / €1.9) million.