McLaren marks a production milestone

McLaren celebrates their 10,000th production vehicle. (McLaren Automotive)

On Thursday, the 10,000th hand-finished McLaren sportscar rolled off the company's high-tech production line.

The car in question, a 570S, will be heading straight to the company's heritage section, where it will be displayed alongside other historic road and track McLarens.

Building 10,000 cars may not seem like a reason to celebrate in and of itself, but it is an incredible achievement for a boutique supercar company.

McLaren Automotive has been in business for five years and every exclusive car it makes costs between $200,000 to $1.6 million.

Yet in that short time, McLaren Automotive has been setting records. It is the first car company in modern times to turn a profit within two years of business and has seen sales almost double every year since 2011.

"[This] is a significant milestone in the short history of the company. The fact that it took us 42 months to build our 5,000th car and just 22 months to build the next 5,000 speaks volumes about the pace of development of the company," said CEO, Mike Flewitt.

Since launching, the company has built supercars, hybrid hypercars and is now moving into the more affordable super sportscar market -- where the Porsche 911 is king -- with the 570S and 570GT.

These models have helped McLaren go from an annual production of 1654 cars in 2015 to a projected 3000+ in 2016. But that doesn't mean the company is moving away from exclusive dream car production.

In November, it confirmed that it is to build a totally new type of car -- a hyper GT. It will have a three-seat layout, a hybrid powertrain and promises to be the company's fastest and most refined vehicle to date. "It's a car designed for longer journeys, but with the high levels of performance and driver engagement expected of any McLaren," explained Flewitt of the decision to call the car a Hyper-GT. "[It] will also deliver the highest levels of refinement, enabling significant journeys to be undertaken with up to three people aboard."

The first customer deliveries for this car, codenamed BP23, will start in 2019 but there's a very good chance that a conceptual take on the project could make its debut at the 2017 Geneva motor show in March.