McLaren P11 spied running laps around the Nurburgring

The car is being billed as the next generation McLaren supercar, following in the exhaust trails of the SLR and is also being looked at as the new rival of Ferrari’s latest creation, the 458 Italia.

If it hopes to go toe-to-toe with the 458, the P11 needs every ounce of power and speed it can muster. Judging by the rumoured specs in the car – including the rumoured Mercedes V8 engine – as well as the F1-inspired technologies like the sequential gearbox and the new Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), it looks like the P11 is ready to hold its own, not just against the 458 Italia, but against any other supercar brave enough to go nose-to-nose with it.

There’s still no timetable as to when the P11 is going to be unveiled, let alone released. It has been rumoured though, that McLaren is planning on rolling out 1,000 of these bad boys by 2011.