The McLaren 720S has earned a reputation for being an outrageously powerful supercar that can comfortably outrun some of the world's fastest hypercars. It would make sense, then, to adapt it into a thoroughbred race car. That's exactly what McLaren is doing, as the automaker has just announced development of a 720S GT3 racer which will hit the track with customer teams in 2019. No technical details or a launch date have been revealed yet, but development of the 720S GT3 will begin next year.

Set to replace the current 650S GT3 racer, the 720S GT3 will be built at a new facility in McLaren's headquarters based in Woking, UK. We only have design sketches to go on for now. In its GT3 guise, the 720S racer features a new hood with several vents at the center, a front fascia with large intakes and dive planes at each corner, and more muscular fenders. At the rear, McLaren has added a huge wing and a massive diffuser to make the 720S more track-focused. According to Autosport, the GT3 is being overseen by a restructured motorsports group within McLaren after its contract with CRS GT Limited was allegedly terminated, which had been operating under the McLaren GT entity.

The 720S GT3 will be powered by a development of the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 used in the 650S GT3 and the previous MP4-12C GT3, and will be unveiled next summer. The road-going 720S packs a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with 710 horsepower on tap and 568 lb-ft of torque, but the GT3 variant may not match that output depending on regulations. No price has been announced for the 720S GT3, but it is predicted to cost around the same as the 650S GT3 at 330,000 GBP ($437,500) minus local taxes. "It was vital we remained in GT3 - motorsport is part and parcel of what McLaren is and what our customers see as the brand," McLaren boss Mike Flewitt told Autosport.

A few years ago we were only talking about Europe, but GT3 is growing around the world, and that suits us down to the ground because we are a global company selling cars in 30 different countries. We wanted more and more of the business under our control and we are now at a point where we can take development of the GT3 car under our management."