Half-owned by Bahrain, the supercar offshoot of Formula One giant McLaren is gearing up for the launch of a spectacular new model

IN MARCH, when Formula One world champions Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button unveiled the supercar (picture above) which the McLaren Group hopes will see them take their motoring success off of the circuit and on to the road it was hailed as a display of the best of British.

But the McLaren MP4-12C, the high-performance road car that the new McLaren Automotive marque will begin to produce in 2011, has been put together with strong support from within the Gulf.