Good news for European McLaren customers! Today McLaren and CRS Racing announced a partnership to supply and support a limited number of GT3 racing cars based on the McLaren MP4-12C for the 2012 season. As part of the development programme, factory-owned cars will compete at a limited number of European GT races in 2011.

CRS Racing will build, sell and support the 12C GT3 cars in close collaboration with McLaren. The hope is for a limited number of cars to be made available for the 2012 European FIA GT3 Series, with expansion possible depending on demand.

Martin Whitmarsh, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team Principal said: “Racing is in our blood – it was natural to develop a GT3 car alongside the 12C road car. We have a legendary history in global motorsport, including GT racing, and we aim to maintain that reputation with this GT3 programme, and any future sports car projects that may evolve.

“The 12C’s architecture and design was always aimed at high-performance and ease of maintenance – two key criteria for potential customers. Combine that with the vast amount of racing experience in our automotive team, and CRS Racing’s specialist development experience, and the 12C GT3 should be an exciting proposition for the top teams planning to race in GT3 from 2012.”

via GTSpirit

True to its heritage, McLaren’s MP4-12C isn’t even out in production form yet, and already the company has a nearly complete GT3 racing prototype. Spied here for the first time, we see the major differences are aerodynamic, though we expect changes in the powertrain and transmission to meet class rules and racing requirements as well.

Doing away with the front air intakes and replacing them with a single large intake in the front bonnet, adding a large fixed spoiler, and sporting re-shaped front and rear fascia, the GT3 is geared more toward downforce and race-level cooling than the production vehicle. Power from the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 is over 440 kW in standard road-going specification, but racing rules may require lower output to ensure parity with the competition.

Huge canards off the front fenders in some of the images are an extreme addition, going beyond the pale of even the German DTM series with their width and aggression.

Adapted from MotorAuthority