New trademark filings by McLaren point to the marque adopting a new way of naming its supercars, hypercars – and possibly its upcoming debut SUV – after years of giving them monikers consisting of one, two or three letters and a number.

Documents registered with the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office and revealed by CarBuzz show that McLaren has opted for words instead of the previous formula, with trademarks for the names Remuera and Muriwai. That appears to be a major break with handles like P1, W1, 650S and MP412C.

Top-down view of an orange sports car parked on asphalt with white and red track markings nearby.
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The two new titles are far from randomly selected. Both hark back to Kiwi company founder Bruce McLaren, who hailed from Remuera, in Auckland’s south-eastern suburbs, where his family had its famous garage (pictured below). 

Muriwai is a  town on the west coast of the country’s North Island, close to Auckland. It’s where Bruce made his competitive racing debut aged just 15, entering his homemade Austin Ulster in a beach hillclimb event. It meant so much to him that he named the mansion he built in England after it.

The historic Kiwi influence behind the two names dovetails with the new McLaren logo, which was unveiled recently as part of a huge and wide-ranging shake-up for the supercar maker. Gone is the familiar “Speedmark” brand symbol, replaced with a far more clean and subtle treatment with the typeface taken straight from the lettering that was printed on the awning of the McLaren family garage in Remuera.

Black-and-white photo of a retro gas station facade with a prominent McLaren's sign and multiple fuel pumps in front.
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That change came hot on the heels of McLaren announcing that it will produce its first SUV as part of an immense expansion in its operations. The $943 million program will include new supercars, in-house engine production, expanded carbon-fibre manufacturing and the creation of a second assembly plant in the UK.

While it’s far too early to expect any concrete details on the SUV, which was first rumoured more than four years ago, the marque has promised that it will adhere to its philosophy of creating razor-sharp, lightweight vehicles. 

The new model will reportedly feature two conventional rows of seats and four doors in a first for McLaren, and will target rivals like the Lamborghini Urus and Aston Martin’s DBX. The brand has ruled out sharing an architecture with another manufacturer and it will instead sit on a bespoke McLaren platform.