McLaren Group said its 200-mile- per-hour MP4 supercar will be pitched to owners of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other luxury marques seeking to add an even faster model to their fleet.

McLaren aims to capture about 4 percent of the premium two- seater car market, equal to about 4,000 sales a year, with the 600 horsepower MP4-12C that begins production next year.

“The typical customer will have a number of cars,”Antony Sheriff, managing director of the McLaren Automotive unit, said yesterday in an interview. “We expect they’ll have a Ferrari, a Bentley, a Porsche, an Aston Martin or a Lamborghini -- even a Rolls Royce -- and will say, ‘You know what, I’d really also like one of those in my garage.’”

McLaren, owner of the most successful Formula One team after Ferrari, is returning to the luxury road-car market even as sales struggle after the global slump. The MP4 will sell for 150,000 pounds ($227,000) to 175,000 pounds and be part of the same segment as the Lamborghini Gallardo, the Mercedes SLS and Ferrari’s F430 and F458, according to Woking, England-based McLaren.

“It’s a tough market that McLaren’s going into because it’s got to go up against Ferrari and Lamborghini,” Chas Hallett, an editor at U.K. automotive Web site Autocar, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Not Rushing It

McLaren’s F1 was the world’s costliest car in the 1990s and the fastest until the Bugatti Veyron debuted in 2005. Production halted in 1998 on the 240-mph (386-kilometer-per-hour) F1, which sold for 540,000 pounds.

“This is not a short-term venture where we decided a year ago ‘now is the right time, let’s rush it to market,’” Sheriff said at McLaren’s headquarters. “We fully expect to be selling this car over many peaks and through many recessions.”

Potential customers will have to wait about a year to get their hands on the MP4, with production capped at 1,000 in the first 12 months to establish the model’s exclusivity, Sheriff said at a briefing attended by reigning Formula One World Champion Jenson Button and his predecessor, Lewis Hamilton<.

McLaren plans to have 35 global retail outlets in 19 countries by spring next year. The company has received 1,600 expressions of interest to buy the model, it said. About 30 percent to 40 percent of the sales will be in North America.

The new model should be profitable within four or five years, according to Chairman Ron Dennis, who is seeking to boost commercial revenue in order to ensure the survival of the racing team.

McLaren also plans to sell a 48 percent stake in the automotive unit to raise funds and has hired Credit Suisse and HSBC Holdings in the Middle East to seek investors, Dennis said yesterday.

Daimler AG, whose Mercedes-Benz unit had 40 percent of McLaren Group, won’t be purchasing stock and McLaren is gradually buying back the existing holding, and Daimler AG stake stay now at ca "11 percent".