McLaren Senna "Ride-On": McLaren designs a scaled-down toy car for children

The Senna is McLaren’s most extreme car, named in honour of three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna. Now youngsters can experience it too — at least in a scaled-down format — in the form of the McLaren Senna "Ride-On" toy car.

The electric car, designed for children aged between three and six, will ensure junior performance enthusiasts will be the talk of the sand pit even if none of their friends has ever heard of Ayrton.

The McLaren Senna Ride-On is available in five authentic McLaren paint colours: black, white, Mira orange, Vega blue and Memphis red. A sixth, special edition colour of yellow with green accents echoes the colours of Ayrton’s race helmet for the most serious of budding racing drivers.

It features a working brake with brake light function, and dihedral doors to allow easy access. Though the 'lil car (thankfully) won’t match the real car’s ability to zoom from 0-100km/h in just 2.8 seconds, it does at least sound like the real thing. When youngsters press a button on the mini dash it activates McLaren Senna sounds. And if that’s not their vibe, they can listen to music played via an infotainment system that can access files from a USB device or SD card.

This isn’t the British sports car firm’s first foray into toy cars, and it has previously made junior versions of the McLaren P1 and 720S.

The McLaren Senna Ride-On can be ordered through McLaren Johannesburg and McLaren Cape Town. It is priced at £375 (R8,500) in the UK, which excludes VAT and shipping cost to SA.

• This article was originally published by the Business Day. Read more content like this at the Business Day website.