ORIGINALLY, the McLaren MP4-12C was suppose to be pretty affordable super car from McLaren themselves, comparably. Was suppose to be sub $200k USD to make it very attractive not only in pricing, but with it's spec sheet (basically like the Nissan GT-R R35 was when it first came out).
But somewhere along those lines, McLaren decided to up their pricing and it became a $200k-$300k USD car when official pricing was finally released. Plus with it's only 100 cars per year quote, I guess McLaren decided to get a little greedy and upcharge their newest flagship.