I’m very proud of the fact my mother was a British subject and so it’s no surprise I have an interest in cars from Britain. For all the talk of Italian cars and their passion and German cars and their engineering the general consensus is that the greatest car of the 20th century was the McLaren F1. It is an all-English car, built by Englishmen in England.

I have just been reading through a car magazine that has a story and pictures of what they believe is the next McLaren road car, what they are calling the P11.

If it is true that is very exciting. But sequels can always be a bit dodgy. The Godfather Part II was terrific, George Bush the Second not so much.

But my fear is, in an attempt to cater to a market like America, where people like to drive and to eat – “Excuse me, is there a cupholder in it?” – that replicating the F1 will be hard.

My biggest complaint about the Mercedes-McLaren SLR, which like the F1 I also have, is that it is a little heavy. My rear end is not so big that it needs an electric motor in the seat to move it 2½ inches forwards and backwards. But being a Mercedes it had to have it. It had to have Bluetooth and all this other stuff too. One of the big mistakes of the Bugatti Veyron was it was automatic so you could drive it to the shops. I mean, why would I want to drive it to the market?

The thing that made the McLaren F1 great was the fact that it was built with no adherence to cost. To me the greatest vehicles have been one-person visions. Be they Ferrari or Bugatti or Bentley. Gordon Murray, the designer of the F1, is the last person to be able to have a car be his personal vision. It was built with no compromise.

The great thing about the F1 is the sense of theatre. You press the button and the door rises. You flip up the fighter-plane-type switch to start it. Also, the F1 is considered the ultimate more for what it doesn’t have than what it does have. It doesn’t have power steering, power brakes, paddle shifters. It doesn’t even have a radio.

I would hate to see the new McLaren lose that theatre and the mechanicalness of the F1. I hope it has a proper gearshift. I hope they do not assume people do not know how to drive any more.

I would like to see it totally carbon fibre. One thing they could not do with the F1 was have carbon brakes. They were not perfected then. But the F1 has all the finest bits learnt from making racing cars in the 20th century, including the best possible engine.

Normally aspirated. No turbo. V12. Perfectly balanced.

For too long the Italians and the Germans have sat at the top of the supercar heap. This is the chance for the English to put everything they know into a proper supercar. It would be wonderful to see the supercar crown go back to where it belongs.

With McLaren’s attention to detail the P11 will be terrific but I imagine this one will be geared more towards F430s and high-end Porsche 911s. I doubt this will be a million-dollar car like the F1.

I would love to get one, just because of the heritage of it. But I’d hate to see this thing have four booming speakers and a sat nav and a DVD player because they feel the audience expects it. It’s tricky though. How many people want the ultimate driving car? McLaren has proved once it can build that car. I hope it can make lightning strike twice.

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