Former Aston and Jaguar designer Ian Callum has been quietly revisiting his old sketchbooks lately, adding a touch of "what if" to his back catalogue. Now Frank Stephenson, the man behind some of the most memorable cars from BMW, Ferrari, Fiat and Ford, has joined the nostalgia-fuelled fun. Only he's gone a bit louder.
This is the McLaren P1 EVO. It is neither a factory project nor a casual restomod. It is, in fact, the first official redesign of the original P1 by the man who actually designed the original P1 — Stephenson himself. And this time, he's teamed up with YouTuber Freddy "Tavarish" Hernandez to build it.
You may remember the McLaren P1 as the hybrid hypercar from Woking that debuted in 2013 with a 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 and electric assistance. Combined output? A very serious 903 bhp and 900 Nm. Top speed? 350 kmph. Price when new? Around Rs 8 crore before taxes. It was built to take on the Porsche 918 and LaFerrari, and it did so with characteristic British precision and a fair bit of theatre.
The EVO, however, is all theatre.
From a distance, it looks like the original P1 got lost in a wind tunnel for six months and emerged slightly furious. There's a towering shark fin, a Le Mans-style roof scoop, and a redesigned front fascia with a sharp carbon-fibre spine running up the bonnet. The doors are new too, as are the headlights, which now sit like slits in the bodywork rather than eyes.
The body itself is bathed in tinted burgundy carbon-fibre, and the wheels wear what appear to be aero disc covers, presumably to reduce drag or just to look interesting on the internet. We're told it's all functional, though we suspect some of it is also just fun.
This is more than a design exercise. Tavarish, who bought a heavily worn P1 and began documenting its restoration on YouTube, brought Stephenson on board to reimagine it completely. What began as a salvage job has now become something of a revival.
No significant updates to the hybrid powertrain have been confirmed yet. That means the 0 to 100 kmph time should remain in the 2.8-second range, and it will still be able to run in full-electric mode for short city hops — if you're the kind of person who takes a McLaren P1 to the bakery.
The interior remains under wraps for now, but expect custom trim, updated tech, and possibly fewer squeaks than your average ten-year-old hypercar. Whether or not it gets modern infotainment or keeps the analogue minimalism of the original remains to be seen.
The P1 EVO exists not just as a one-off showpiece, but as a rolling, working example of what happens when a designer gets to revisit their most significant hit without a boardroom in the way. It may also open the door to other bespoke commissions, P1 GTRs, perhaps, or even road-legal reworks of McLaren's other Ultimate Series cars.
For now, it's just good to know that if you squint hard enough at YouTube restoration videos, sometimes they squint back — and then Frank Stephenson shows up and gives your hypercar a carbon-fibre fin.
We'll be watching.
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