Ever wondered what would happen if McLaren made a car that could actually fit in your garage? UK designer Joshua Roberts did, and the result is this absurdly cool “McLaren Short Tail” concept that looks like it drove straight out of a sci-fi film. Roberts has captured McLaren’s thrill-seeking design language while shrinking it down to a package that wouldn’t require its own zip code. The glass bubble cockpit gives me serious jet fighter vibes, like McLaren raided Lockheed Martin’s parts bin when nobody was looking.
The first thing that hits you about this concept is that glass bubble cockpit. Roberts has basically created a street-legal spaceship where the driver sits dead center like the McLaren F1 of old, except now you’re essentially wearing the car rather than sitting in it. The visibility would be insane – like driving around in your own personal IMAX theater. I can already imagine the conversations: “Nice car, but does it come with sunscreen?” The whole single-seat approach is gloriously selfish too – this is a car that unapologetically says, “My commute is MY time,” and I’m here for that level of automotive introversion.
Designer: Joshua Roberts
Roberts’ wheel treatment is absolutely bonkers in the best possible way. Those pods floating over the body like they’re held up by automotive black magic? Pure genius. The covered front wheels with their papaya orange accents look like they belong on a Le Mans prototype that’s been shrink-wrapped and given a shot of espresso. The aerodynamics at play here make current supercars look like they’re stuck in the Stone Age. The whole car looks like it’s moving at 200mph while parked, which is exactly what a McLaren should do.
The “Short Tail” name is a clever little wink to McLaren’s racing heritage that actual McLaren fans will appreciate. Where the original F1 GTR Shorttail (and later Longtail variants) were all about racing optimization, Roberts has flipped the script and applied that thinking to creating the ultimate compact street machine. The proportions are cartoonishly perfect – like someone took a 720S, compressed it to two-thirds its size, and then injected it with design steroids. The truncated rear end gives the car this bulldog-like stance that’s both aggressive and adorably stubby at the same time.
The signature headlight “eye sockets” are there, but they’ve evolved into these massive air intakes that look ready to inhale small birds. The side profile has that McLaren swoosh we all recognize, but it’s been condensed and exaggerated to create something that feels fresh yet familiar. It’s like meeting your friend’s cooler, more adventurous younger sibling – you can see the family resemblance, but this one clearly parties harder. The silver and white color scheme with those orange accents is straight from the McLaren playbook, but applied to such a radical shape that it feels entirely new.
The interior is minimalism taken to its logical extreme – just you, a yoke-style wheel, and whatever digital interfaces Roberts has imagined hiding in that cockpit. There’s something refreshingly honest about this approach. No pretending you’ll ever take passengers, no compromises for cupholders or gloveboxes or any of that practical nonsense. This is a car built around the singular purpose of making the driver feel like they’re piloting something special. In an age where cars keep getting bigger, heavier, and stuffed with more screens than a Best Buy showroom, there’s something rebellious about a concept that goes all-in on being small, driver-focused, and uncompromising.
Will McLaren ever build anything remotely like this? Probably not. The glass canopy alone would give safety engineers nightmares, and the marketing department would have a meltdown trying to sell a single-seater to wealthy customers who occasionally need to transport a trophy spouse. But that’s exactly why independent concepts like this matter. Roberts isn’t constrained by focus groups or crash regulations or manufacturing realities. He’s showing us what McLaren could be in a parallel universe where fun and fantasy trump practicality. And while we may never get to drive the Short Tail in reality, it’s designs like this that push established manufacturers to be braver with their own concepts. So here’s to Joshua Roberts and his pocket-sized McLaren fantasy – the car we didn’t know we wanted until now, and can’t stop thinking about after seeing it.
The post Meet the McLaren Short Tail: A race car small enough to parallel park first appeared on Yanko Design.