SPY PICS: McLaren P14 back under cover

Following our story on the eagerly-anticipated replacement for the current McLaren 650S in which an undisguised car was snapped at work on a top secret proving ground somewhere in Europe spy shooters have now captured these images of a clumsily-disguised version of what appears to be the same car, undergoing testing on public roads in Spain.

Given that McLaren seems to be putting the cart before the horse by retrospectively disguising a car that has already been seen in what we assume is its full glory, speculation as to the 650S's true nature is thrown into confusion.

Further muddying the waters is a statement by McLaren to the British magazine Autocar claiming that the disguised car pictured here is nothing more than a test mule for testing and developing new technology – which seems to contradict the company's confirmation that the undisguised car photographed recently and featured in motoring.com.au is, yep, the real deal.

What we are to make of the Ned Kelly style disguise cladding covering the front and rear ends, the side panels and even the C-pillar area? A row of four portholes may or may not give some indication of where at least some of the engine cooling air comes from – but is currently open to speculation.

About the only thing suggesting the verity of the most recent photos is the instrument panel, which is shown in sparse, but convincingly production-ready detail.

The resulting confusion may well be exactly what McLaren wants. Maybe the smirks on the faces of the test drivers in the most recent round of photographs say something.

And could it be that the car we see here, and the car we saw a few weeks ago, are so close to final sign-off that the production P14 McLaren will appear sooner than the expected 2017 Geneva motor show launch in March 2017?

With McLaren design director Frank Stephenson's recent open admission that leaked spy photos are a part of company pre-release strategies it is pretty clear who's pulling the information strings here.

What is also clear is that the P14 is certain to become a reality as it moves in to replace the 650S. It is accepted it will be the fastest McLaren since the Woking-based company started road car production six years ago. Word is it will be powered by a developed 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 producing somewhere in the region of 500kW to 530kW (today's 650S makes 478kW) and working with a lighter overall weight to drop 0-100km/h acceleration times comfortably below the 3.0sec claimed for the current 650S.

At least that's what we are supposed to think.