Ferrari's greatest rival just doubled its sales total

If you're at all familiar with the world of Formula One racing, then you know there's no greater rivalry than that between Ferrari and McLaren.

Over the past few decades, the two have gone head to head for countless race wins and world championships. These days, that rivalry has left the track and spilled over to world of supercars.

While Ferrari's road car business has been firing on all cylinders for decades, McLaren only started down this road in 2011. But, it's making up ground quickly. Very quickly.

On Thursday, McLaren Automotive announced that its global sales doubled in 2016 from 1,654 cars to 3,286. Much of the sales growth can be attributed to the newly released entry level Sports Series - the 540C, 570S, and 570GT. Of the 3,286 cars, 2,031 cars can be attributed to the Sports Series. The other 1,255 cars were from the pricier Super Series.

"2016 was a remarkable year for McLaren Automotive," McLaren Automotive CEO Mike Flewitt said in a statement. "We'd planned it to be a year of considerable growth, thanks to the first full year of Sports Series production, but it's surpassed even our own optimistic expectations."

In December, McLaren built the 10,000th car in company history - a ceramic gray 570S.

With that said, Ferrari's sales lead won't be in real jeopardy for at least a few more years. Ferrari hasn't yet released its full 2016 figures. However, the brand's global sales have held relatively steady between 7,000 and 8,000 cars over the past few years.

At the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, McLaren will launch its next salvo against the prancing horse with the introduction of a new second generation Super Series to rival the Ferrari 488 GTB.