McLaren News

F1 and supercar group McLaren has launched a new company, McLaren Animation, with 'Tooned' -- the first of a series of episodes showing a lighthearted look at their F1 team.The show features  McLaren’s two F1 World Champions, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, voicing their own characters, and British actor Alexander Armstrong as skunkworks head, Professor M.McLaren boss Ron Dennis says research showed the brand lacked warmth, and the animated series was developed to increase engagement. "It’s an exciting and creative concept that addresses the insights gleaned from our research in a very innovative way," he says.“I’m confident that the opportunities it presents will be extensive. Creating a more demographically accessible ‘face’ for McLaren will help our brand appeal to a wider audience whilst also fostering increased brand loyalty." The first episode plays on a friendly rivalry between the two drivers, with Professor M playing foil and gatekeeper to the secret lab's weird technology. The series was created in conjunction with the Oscar-winning visual effects and animation studio Framestore, who won their first Oscar in 2008 for Best Visual Effects plus a BAFTA for The Golden Compass, and have also had Oscar nominations for Superman Returns, The Dark Night and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.Framestore worked on the McLaren series with input from Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley ('Ten O’Clock Live’, ‘That Mitchell and Webb Look’ and ‘The Armstrong and Miller Show’). The characters were first mapped out and then voiced -- with Hamilton, Button and Armstrong encouraged to ad-lib and play off against each other.So is there a Professor M lurking in a secret underground skunkworks at McLaren? No, although the actor behind the voice, Alexander Armstrong, says the character could be drawn from real people. “Professor M isn’t based on anyone specific, but I guess you could say that he’s a blend of Steve Jobs from Apple, ‘Q’ from the James Bond movies, and, yes, maybe even one or two people from behind the scenes at the McLaren Technology Centre," he says.‘Tooned’ will be broadcast as a series of three-minute episodes coinciding with each Formula 1 Grand Prix, and will air in the UK on the SKY Sports F1 channel before each race. 

And it sounds every bit as good as it looks. Footage of the convertible supercar pouring it on for the camera is backed by a howling soundtrack.The lightweight carbon-fibre roof is shown being retracted on able move -- which it's able to do in just 40 seconds at speeds up to 30km/h, folding into a 52-litre storage area under a tonneau cover. McLaren has designed a set of luggage to fit into the space when it’s not taken up by the roof.Unlike Ferrari’s 458 Spider, the McLaren convertible roof still allows the engine to be seen through the  glass cover behind the tonneau. A powered rear windscreen acts as a buffeting deflector, but can be lowered to allow full engine roar into the cabin.The open sibling to its MP4-12C is based on the same ultralight, rigid chassis, but will get a higher-powered version of the mid-mounted McLaren-designed M838T 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8.The MP4-12CSpider's engine develops 470kW of power -- 18kW more than the original MP4-12C's 441kW, and in line with the recent power upgrade for the coupe – and maintains the 601Nm of torque. It matches the coupe’s 100km/h time of 3.1 seconds, but is about 5km down on top speed at 315km/h.We will get the first Australian look at the MP4-12C Spider 'in the metal' later this year, with the first customer cars arriving in January 2013. 

It will land in Australia next year with the promise of a 329km/h top speed, a 3.1-second sprint to 100km/h, and a folding carbon fibre roof panel with a retractable rear window. But, and it's a big but, the bottom line is at least $543,900 and there is already a queue. "For some time now we've had considerable customer interest in the spider and have a considerable list of those who want to talk to us. We already have expressions of interest with deposit ," says Greg Duncan, of McLaren in Australia. Earlier pictures of the 12C Spider showed a classy conversion of the road-rocket coupe and that's confirmed with details of a roof that can be raised or lowered in 17 seconds, at speeds up to 30km/h, as well as the rear window. The retractable rear glass works as a wind blocker when the top is down but can also be retracted with the roof in place to allow engine and exhaust noise from the twin-turbo V8 into the cabin. McLaren has just previewed the car in pictures and says the first Spiders will be ready to drive in England in October. The plan for Australia is still being finalised, but Duncan optimistic. "We will know more soon, however I expect we will see them on the road in Australia in the first half of next year," he says. He is enthusiastic about the car, and it's potential to draw buyers who might be looking at anything from a Ferrari 458 or Lamborghini Gallardo spider to the new Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG. "I have seen it in the flesh and it is gorgeous, when one understands the technology in the 12C you can immediately see how competitive this car will be in every respect.  The second model in the 21st century McLaren lineup shares almost everything with the 12C coupe, from its carbon fibre MonoCell chassis to its 455-kiloWatt V8 engine. The retractable hardtop is opened using a single switch in the centre console and McLaren says the roof conversion also 52 litres of luggage space under the tonneau area when the roof is up. Not surprisingly, McLaren has designed special luggage for the space and it is part of the Spider package. In case of a rollover, there is a special steel structure in the roof supports to provide passive protection.  

In addition to dropping its top, the newcomer has officially dropped the MP4 part of the name, appearing as just the McLaren 12C Spider. As suggested on Carsguide previously, the roof is a lightweight carbon-fibre construction, weighing 40kg and able to be retracted in just 40 seconds at speeds up to 30km/h, folding into a 52-litre storage area under a tonneau cover. McLaren has designed a set of luggage to fit into the space when it’s not taken up by the roof. Unlike Ferrari’s 458 Spider, the McLaren convertible roof still allows the engine to be seen through the  glass cover behind the tonneau. A powered rear windscreen acts as a buffeting deflector, but can be lowered to allow full engine roar into the cabin. The open sibling to its MP4-12C is based on the same ultralight, rigid chassis, but will get a higher-powered version of the mid-mounted McLaren-designed M838T 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8. The MP4-12CSpider's engine will develop 470kW of power -- 18kW more than the original MP4-12C's 441kW, and in line with the recent power upgrade for the coupe – and maintains the 601Nm of torque. It matches the coupe’s 100km/h time of 3.1 seconds, but is about 5km down on top speed at 315km/h. McLaren's official statement says the MP4-12C coupe’s dynamics are retained, and that the MP4-12C Spider "will be just as dynamic to drive.  But removing the roof will dial up the sensations experienced, the emotions felt and the noise heard.  Especially at the speeds the 12C Spider will be capable of.   And true to McLaren’s ethos of offering high performance without compromise, the 12C Spider will be more usable than any car this exciting has a right to be." Australian HQ for McLaren, Trivett, has already sold out their quota of the MP4-12C coupe -- and has a waiting list. There's little doubt there'll be the same response to the MP4-12C Spider when it arrives in around six months. McLaren Sydney general manager Matt Tunstall says Trivett is expecting a strong order book for the convertible. "There will be a big take-up of the MP4-12C Spider here - We think we'll sell upwards of 75 per cent of the Spider over the coupe," he says. "From what I've seen, the design is outstanding, the performance isn't affected -- it's still to the same high level of the coupe, and maintains the acceleration and top speed. Purely on looks and design and specification, we think there will be an exceptional take-up for Spider." Tunstall says we will get the first Australian look at the MP4-12C Spider 'in the metal' later this here. "We're hopeful to have first demonstration car arrive by the end of 2012 -- sometime in Novemer or December -- with the first customer cars arriving in January 2013 at this stage." And the head of McLaren in Australia, Greg Duncan, agrees after having seen the car before its official reveal. "I have seen the new McLaren Spider in the flesh and it is gorgeous," Duncan says.  "When one understands the technology in the 12C you can immediately see how competitive this car will be in every respect." Configure your own MP4-12C at the McLaren website.  

That's the day the top comes off the MP4-12C coupe and McLaren unleashes its first convertible.

Named after the Circuit de la Sarthe where the famed 24 hours race is held, the brand says the supercar is inspired by Le Mans prototypes from the 1980s. But there’s a definite resemblance to the McLaren MP4-12C, especially around the gills.The Sarther’s 45 per cent front/55 per cent rear weight distribution is centred on mid-mounting the 380kW/650Nm GM-sourced V8.The engine is mated to a six-speed transaxle – combining transmission and differential into the rear axle – rather than the high-tech computerised transmission you might expect in today’s supercar.It’s a bit spare on electronic technology everywhere under the skin, with ABS brakes really the only departure from a thoroughly old-school approach that might appeal to purists.And with a light tubular steel frame, carbon fibre body and honeycomb aluminium floor keeping the weight down to an anorexic 1387kg, you can have some faith in Vencer’s claims of a 0-100km/h time of 3.8 seconds and a top speed of 328km/h.However it will still trail behind the Ferrari 458 Italia and McLaren MP4-12C who can do the distance in as little as 3.2.Vencer hasn’t released any details of when – or if – it will go into production, and at what price point they will pitch it.

There is a more affordable McLaren on the way. Equally, those for whom a 330km/h top speed is insufficient, there’s a Mega-Mac coming, too. It’s all part of British supercar maker McLaren’s plan to go to war with Ferrari as a “full range supercar company”. “We’re not about making one-offs and then disappearing,” spokesman Mark Harrison told CarsGuide during a tour of McLaren’s L18 million new manufacturing facility in Woking near London. “We are committed to offering customers a full range of performance cars by mid-decade.” McLaren is best known as the successful Formula One team behind world champions Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button. McLaren’s first road car was the F1 released in 1992.  This high-performance supercar used innovative design and engineering and a 461kW BMW V12 to smash all existing supercar records. To this day, the F1 is still among the fastest sports cars. McLaren also partnered with Mercedes-Benz to produce the SLR, a gullwing supercar that Harrison says “taught us a lot about achieving high levels of quality”. Last year McLaren began producing the MP4-12C performance coupe in its new facility. With annual demand for the 12C expected to peak around 1,000 units, there’s plenty of room for more models in the factory’s 4,000 annual capacity. Derivatives of the 12C, such as a convertible with a folding hard-top and a track-focused GT3, are planned. McLaren will also revive the F1 icon with a hypercar, due in 2014, but just handfuls of this $1million-plus machine will be built each year. That still leaves close to 3,000 capacity, but don’t expect sedans or SUVs. Harrison says McLaren will stick to what it knows best — performance coupes at the higher end of the performance and price envelope. “Something to compete with the Porsche 911 Turbo, for example.” There’s no doubt the Ferrari California will also be in this model’s sights. So, three completely new cars in five years sounds like a lot of work for Britain’s only mainstream supercar maker. But with McLaren’s pedigree in motor sport and experience building world-class supercars, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and Europe’s other fast car makers have a reason to fear the British again.  

Ferrari, McLaren and Porsche all have headline performance cars with more than 525 kiloWatts and 330m/h top speeds almost ready for the road.  McLaren will set the target in late May with the unveiling of the 21st century successor to its F1, the radical three-seat, V12 powered road rocket that set the world speed record for production cars at 391km/h back in 1998. Only 106 cars were built and that ensures prices for secondhand cars now regularly top $3 million. The new mighty Mac shares its heart with the latest MP4-12C, the first in a series of McLaren sports cars intended to take the brand into a head-to-head battle with Ferrari.  But the supercar will be vastly more powerful and quicker than the 12C, which has created an 18-month waiting list in Australia following the opening of a dedicated McLaren showroom in Sydney by the Trivett Group.  "The car will be unveiled in the week before the Monaco grand prix," a McLaren insider reveals to Carsguide. "We also have the MP4-12C convertible, which should be ready for sale from June."  Ferrari will follow McLaren with the successor to its Enzo supercar, building on the work for the latest V12-powered F12.  The new Enzo - its name is still secret - is expected to have a hybrid power pack capable of generating close to 600 kiloWatts to propel a radical road-racer body to 100km/h in as little a 2.1 seconds and on to a top speed close to the 400km/h of the Bugatti Veyron. Meanwhile, Porsche is deep into testing the 918 Spyder hybrid supercar that will top its range from 2013. Its performance claims run from a 2.8 second sprint to 100km/h to a 325km/h top speed with incredible fuel economy of 3.0-litres/100km thanks to an electric drive system for low-speed city running.

And the new warrior will have just one job to do: steal back the performance crown from the 430km/h Bugatti Veyron. And to do that it will be the most powerful, most innovative, and fastest McLaren road car ever.  "The job is to set the performance bar to new levels and stay there for as long as it takes for us to come up with the next one," McLaren design chief Frank Stephenson told CarsGuide.  But don't expect the Mega-Mac to have a bigger or more powerful engine than the quad-turbocharged V16 Veyron; Stephenson says the 21st century F1 will be an innovative and intelligent hypercar. "This car is not about more power or more performance," he says. "It's actually about how it achieves that power and performance by using an intelligent drivetrain that pushes boundaries." Stephenson describes the cars styling as looking like a concept of a concept car. "It's that different. It will shock people because its stuff that has never been seen before. I designed it and I still get goosebumps when I see it. "But none of it is there for show; it all has a functional purpose. The cars aerodynamics will achieve incredibly high levels of downforce through unusual solutions." Stephenson is no stranger to headline-making designs. His previous work includes the New Mini and the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. The world will get its first Mc attack at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June or the Monaco Grand Prix in May the latter seems more likely given many of the tax haven's mega-rich residents would be McLaren's target customers for the million-dollar hypercar. The mid-engine coupe's mechanicals are still being developed and tested ahead of its 2014 production start. McLaren is said to have tweaked the 12C's twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8 engine for 600kW and added regenerative electric motors similar to the KERS system employed by McLaren in Formula One. This certainly fit with Stephensons claims of intelligent performance. Rear-wheel drive may struggle to convert that kind of power into a 0-100km/h time to match the Veyrons 2.5sec, so McLaren may employ an all-wheel drive system. Either way, the McLaren will use a lightweight but expensive carbon fibre frame, like the F1, and like the MP4-12C performance coupe which arrives in Australia next month.

None will ever challenge Jenson Button or Lewis Hamilton for a grand prix race place, but they will be wheeling one of the world's great supercars later this year. And they will have paid at least  $526,800 - drive away, no more to pay - for the privilege. They are the members of the waiting list for the McLaren MP4-12C, the grand prix company's first road car since the benchmark F1 of the 1990s, and they won't have too much longer to wait. "There are 14 cars on the way to us. Ten for customers, two for demonstrator work and two for showroom purposes," says Greg Duncan, executive chairman of McLaren Sydney. "We've got 10 customer cars in production. On top of that, we've got about 20 deposits from people who want to drive the car." That means more than $15 million in orders for a car that has not even reached the road in Australia, but has been very favourably compared with the Ferrari 458 Italia. Duncan admits the McLaren program is running a little late but says the Trivett group has just spent more than $5 million on the fit-out, alone, for the prestige dealership that will house the brand. It's on O'Riordan Street in Alexandria, close to Sydney airport, and will also house Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin and Bentley. "They are running late and for two reasons. They had some early problems that they decided to fix, and now the car is right they set up a new regional office in Singapore which has complicated things a little," says Duncan. "But now it is humming along. They are producing cars probably a bit quicker than they thought they would." The first two 12Cs are painted in McLaren's historic racing orange and plain white, although Duncan says customers are going first for black and the global preference is for a deep red. "They are flying two cars out for us. We wanted to make a bit of a statement. We've optioned them a little differently so people can see what's available. The orange car is a bit sporty and the white car is a bit GT or luxurious." The dealership is set to open on March 15, when McLaren chairman Ron Dennis will attend a function in Sydney just ahead of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.