Ricardo has announced a long-term, multi-year partnership with British supercar company McLaren Automotive to manufacture its next-generation V8 power unit. Designed in-house by McLaren’s powertrain team, the new high-performance V8 engine will power the next generation of lightweight, high-performance hybrid supercars as part of the company’s Future of Performance strategy.

This is the third extension and fourth generation of the engine supply agreement between the two companies. Ricardo has built both the V6 and V8 engines that will power McLaren’s existing and future high-performance hybrid supercars.

Since the introduction of McLaren’s first series production supercar, the 12C in 2011, Ricardo has produced more than 34,000 McLaren powertrains at its purpose-built assembly facility at Shoreham-by-Sea in the UK, before delivering them to the McLaren Production Centre in Woking, in the UK, where McLaren designs and hand builds its supercars.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ricardo will supply both hybrid and non-hybrid variants. To support this, Ricardo and McLaren will make further investment in the high-performance engine production facility at Shoreham, with more than 100 expert manufacturing engineers and technicians committed to supplying McLaren’s high-performance powertrains.