Although McLaren's next supercar is expected to be very different from the SLR, the company made in conjunction with Mercedes-Benz, one element will carry over: derivatives. It's one thing that the SLR cannot seem to let go of, breeding six different versions so far, and the upcoming P11 supercar is anticipated to breed at least a couple of versions of its own.

Predictably, the first will likely be a convertible. If Frank Stephenson designs the P11 with a drop-top variant in mind from the start, both models should benefit structurally. The second is anticipated to be a racing version, and although the original McLaren F1 begat a highly successful GTR version (and subsequently re-road-ized LM model), the SLR never went racing despite breeding a track-oriented 722 GT version. A racing-spec McLaren P11 (or whatever name it is eventually given) could prove highly successful in a sportscar racing series, however, it would likely be offered as a customer car instead of a factory works team so as not to distract McLaren from its never-ending pursuit of the Formula One championship, which it is leading now but incredibly it has not won since 1999.

The McLaren P11 will still be powered by a 6.2-liter Mercedes AMG unit, but nobody knows yet what the car that goes around the engine is going to look like. Frank Stephenson, recently of Fiat fame, has been given instructions to completely redesign the car when he starts at McLaren. However, he can't take up the position at McLaren until he finishes his "gardening leave," a mandatory vacation between sensitive jobs that aims to prevent employees from taking their inside knowledge with them.

McLaren says that the car won't look anything like the sketches that made the rounds last year. That's not such a bad thing -- while a good looking car, the sketches were uninspiring and a bit derivative. We expect that the man who has had a hand in everything from the BMW X5 and MINI to the Ferrari F430, Maserati Quattroporte and MC12 probably has a few good ideas left lying around. Unfortunately, the arrival of the P11 has been pushed back a year due to the redesign, to probably mid-to-late 2010.