McLaren Straightline Archives

Hennessey Performance Engineering has just sent out a release stating that they have a concept for an 800 horsepower McLaren MP4-12C. The concept kit will "include upgrades to the powertrain designed to reliably increase power," and "add a more aggressive aero package to the vehicle in order to increase downforce."

Because if there are any areas where McLaren needs help, it's aero and power. Hennessey does admit that they won't be able to help with suspension or brakes as the factory setup will be "hard to beat."

In a statement John Hennessey said "I spent a lot of time around the new 12C at the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed and was very impressed. We're excited to have the opportunity to take a great car and give it our own special performance touch while giving 12C owners a uniquely aggressive appearance."

Right, now all Hennessey havs to do is find someone willing to hand over their 12C and hope the upgraded intercoolers, turbos, titanium exhaust, wastegates, engine management and transmission clutch system work as advertised.

Categories: McLaren,Tuners and Modifications

Britain's CAR magazine has just acquired spy photos of the upcoming McLaren MP4-12C Spyder styling prototype and managed to catch it topless and with the aluminum top up.

The photos show shockingly good access to the car and the fact that they get images of the top up and down indicate that they're supposed to be around. We would think McLaren employee, but we have to assume anyone working at McLaren makes enough money for a cellphone with a camera that doesn't suck this hard.

CAR also reports that the top is a three-piece aluminum and plastic unit developed in part by Lotus and that McLaren has made it so that even in the convertible the engine is visible (are you listening Ferrari?). The top is said to take only 17 seconds to deploy. No changes to the 3.8-liter 592-horsepower twin-turbo V8 are expected.

View more photos at CAR's website.

Categories: Convertibles,Future Vehicles,McLaren,Sports Cars

Last night the doors to McLaren's Beverly Hills dealership opened to a gala event. While we're pretty sure that most of the 750 American-bound examples of the MP4-12C are spoken for (there are 2,000 slated for worldwide production), the night provided a good opportunity for McLaren to firmly establish itself in what will likely be one of its most lucrative markets.

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Categories: McLaren

 Although they've yet to even announce the second vehicle in their new vehicle lineup, McLaren is already talking about branching out beyond the automotive sector.

"We are a car company, but we're first and foremost a technology company," McLaren founder and CEO Ron Dennis told The Wall Street Journal.

McLaren is looking to expand into a $1.5 billion company (they did $548 million in 2011) in the next five years by "applying the technological savvy evident in decades of Formula One podium finishes to fields like pharmaceuticals and transport management."

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Categories: Auto Industry,McLaren

For whatever reason, be it internet pressure or simply realizing it was a lot of work for nothing, GM quit it with the pointless voiceover when they posted video the Chevy Camaro ZL1 lapping the Nurburgring in 7:41.27. But even when they had VO disrupting everything, they still did the right thing and gave us footage of a full lap of the 'ring.

We only wish McLaren would be so generous now that they've lapped the Nurburgring with the new McLaren MP4-12C. It's not like it would be long, with a lap time of 7:28, the video would only be about twice as long as the one they've provided here, but it would require half the editing.

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Categories: McLaren,Motorsports,Sports Cars,Videos

We haven't heard a lot from McLaren about the new Mega-Mac the company has been working on to properly follow the first real hypercar, the McLaren F1. They've been too busy with trying to sell MP4-12Cs and keeping the ones they have sold out of the repair shop.

But now Autocar is reporting that McLaren is well into the development of the Big Mac (alphanumeric name unassigned) that will dethrone the Bugatti Veyron as the top hypercar. Top speed isn't the only goal of the new McLaren F1, though, McLaren is looking forward and hoping to beat the Porsche 918 Spyder and whatever Ferrari comes out with to replace the Enzo. With a planned production run of 500 (the original McLaren F1 sold 65 units + 5 LMs) and a cost of $1.5 million, it will at least be competitive in cost.

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Categories: Future Vehicles,McLaren,Sports Cars

We've been a little hooked on the Bathurst circuit lately. First we had V8 Supercars at the Bathurst 1000 which gave us the video of  Darrell Waltrip going full Ricky Bobby. A reader saw that, did some YouTubing and sent these videos over with the text, "Jenson Button in a McLaren F1 car around Bathurst."

That's all I needed. Upon watching, the only thing I can really add is a quote by Takahashi, "Terrifying."

 The first video is off the front of the car and really shows what type of geological oddity this place is. The second video is from a helicopter which, from the video description, had a hard time keeping pace.

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Categories: McLaren,Motorsports

 
The steering wheel is one of the first things you see when you enter a car's cabin, and it's a part of the car that you constantly interface with during the driving experience. The best ones look great and feel even better, working in synergy with the car's themes and motifs to present a consistent message.

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Categories: Audi,BMW,Honda,Lamborghini,MINI,Mazda,McLaren,Mercedes-Benz,Volkswagen,Volvo

The initial and appropriate reaction to a chromed car is a quick shudder, complain that it's too shiny to be on the road and then to walk away clicking one's tongue in disapproval. But when that car is a McLaren MP4-12C painted in the McLaren F1 team's chromed livery, well, that's different.

McLaren Special Operations is an expansion of McLaren customer care which started on the F1 road car. F1 customers wanted "something special, something bespoke something personal," and McLaren assumed MP4-12C customers would feel the same. 

To show off their skills, McLaren brought a SO car to Pebble painted in a satin semi-matte Volcano Orange with custom carbon-fiber bits made by the Special Operations department, a new hood with vents and unique wheels.  

Whether or not McLaren will follow Bentley and only tailoring cars that are reasonable, or go the way of Rolls Royce and follow the money, the end of the video answers the question decisively, "We never say 'no' we just say how much and let the customers decide."

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Categories: McLaren,Sports Cars

(sorry, we tried, but couldn't find a lower quality image than what  the Telegraph had.)

Rowan Atkinson -- Mr. Bean -- lost control of his McLaren F1 on the A605 in Haddon, Cambridgeshire spinning it off the road and hitting a tree causing the hyper-rare hyper-car to....::gulp:: catch fire... Fire crews had no problem extinguishing the fire, but it appears they were too late and the car was totaled. Atkinson, though, is worth a small fortune and McLaren is good at fixing things...if it's possible to get this back on the road, it will be.

The 56 year old Atkinson suffered minor injuries and required surgery on his shoulder, but has since been released from the hospital.

Those of you paying close attention to the celebrity / supercar scene will know that this is not the first time that Rowan has crashed this McLaren, the first time was an accident involving an Austin Metro.

(Telegraph)

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Categories: Celebrities,McLaren

"(Mclaren) MP4-12C may sound like a fax machine, but this car is fast." - Clarkson

Those of you out there downloading and watching the current season of Top Gear are already all over this, but those like me who don't have the energy to search out television (Takahashi delivers it on a bi-weekly basis) the YouTubes have you covered -- at least until the Beeb pulls it down.

On this week's episode of Top Gear, the guys got their hands on the newest British supercar, put it up against a Ferrari 458 Italia and then, of course, crammed The Stig behind the wheel and set it 'round the Top Gear Test Track.

To see how it did, click through the jump to see the video, but here's a teaser: Well. Extremely well.

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Categories: Celebrities,McLaren,Sports Cars

Earlier in the week we had unofficial video from the grandstands at Watkins Glen International raceway where Tony Stewart and Lewis Hamilton were participating in the Mobil-1 Car Swap. It wasn't very good. This rip from Speed, however, is good and shows the two pros pushing the wildly different cars around the track. Hamilton looks fairly comfortable in the Chevy Impala and has really quick hands -- shocking, right, from someone with a karting background.  The good news in these is that Stewart, unlike in the first video, is hauling ass.

Next time, head to head. Or at least Video Vbox with lap times.

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Categories: Celebrities,Chevrolet,McLaren,Motorsports

The alternate title here was, "Today in Autocar rumors" at least then you'd know what you were wading into....

For an entire generation, the McLaren F1 was the pinnacle of what a supercar could be. It had a 600+ horsepower NA V12, a manual trans, did 243 mph and had a center seat! It remains to this day the only tasteful use of gold in an automobile.

But then along came a new generation and flaunted the quad-turbo super-computer-with-wheels Veyron and its 267 MPH --in Super Sport trim -- top speed.

The title of Fastest Car in the World, however, isn't something one gives up lightly. Especially not when you're best known as a company of capable, creative racecar engineers. So it should come as no surprise that McLaren is working on a world-beating successor to the F1 that will "eclipse every supercar to date." Or so says Autocar.

Autocar is reporting that the new Mega Mac (which could have 799 somewhere in the name) will get advanced, active aerodynamics, a 799 horsepower V8, Graziano seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox (booo). Autocar is also saying that ABS will be disabeable on racetracks and the Mega Mac will know via GPS when its safe to do so.

Top Gear Veyron v. McLaren F1 clip after the jump.

(Autocar)

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Categories: Bugatti,McLaren,Sports Cars

Do you think the Shelby / Felt bike spent any time in a wind tunnel? Because this Specialized S-Works + McLaren Venge did. What about a cycling-specific aerodynamicist?

Specialized's S-Works was designed to be the fastest International Cycling Union (UCI) legal road bike. To do this, Specialized enlisted the help of McLaren for their expertise in materials technology and manufacturing that's given them such success in road racing.

"It certainly wasn't a project where we were looking to take an existing frame and just apply our name to it, that's just not what McLaren is about." Said Duncan Brandley, Design Director, McLaren Applied Technologies in one of the many YouTube videos detailing the build of this very expensive bicycle-- after the jump. Even if you're not into bikes, seeing the work that went into this -- translated directly from F1 -- is kind of awesome.

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Categories: McLaren,Miscellaneous

The McLaren MP4-12C GT3 is one of the most hotly anticipated racecars in recent memory. Part of this is due to the wild popularity and fanatic devotion to McLaren's last road car / racecar, the McLaren F1.

McLaren is keeping the anticipation going with a slow drip of media releases which continue today with a fresh dose of info on the MP4-12C GT3. 

First, McLaren gave us price and quantity: $512,000 (including organized backup and spare parts) and 20 racecars. 

Next, specs: 493 horsepower from a de-tuned version of the aluminum block 3.8-liter, twin-turbo M838T V8; Ricardo six-speed sequential shift transmission -- chosen because the additional grip of race tires required a shift in center of gravity -- that is 176 pounds lighter than the seven-speed stock box;  Akebono brakes with bespoke pads; Custom Michelin tires; new front splitter, door blade, rear wing, diffuser and front fender louvers-- all of carbon-fiber.

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Categories: McLaren,Motorsports

http://www.insideline.com/porsche/911/1985-porsche-911-long-term-test.html

Kurt Niebuhr for Edmunds

Inside Line (and the internet come to think of it) runs thousands of photos a week of cool cars. These are our favorites.

If we missed any, let us know...

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Categories: Dodge,Jeep,McLaren,Motorcycles,Motorsports,Porsche

 It was bound to happen sooner or later. When you build something as iconic as the McLaren F1, something that defines what your company is and what it's capable of, it's only a matter of time before someone compares any new offering to that seminal work.

And it was Autocar who found both sets of keys first and provided the interwebs with this video. It's not a conclusive, exhaustive test by any means, but there is a McLaren F1 GTR -- which the host needs headphones in.

So, budget's no issue: race-ready F1 GTR or road-ready MP4-12C?

( Autocar via Autoblog )

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Categories: Coupes,McLaren,Sports Cars

Red Bull Racing / Getty Images

Inside Line (and the internet come to think of it) runs thousands of photos a week of cool cars. These are our favorites.

If we missed any, let us know...

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Categories: Chevrolet,Chrysler,Dodge,Infiniti,Kia,McLaren,SMART

A McLaren MP4-12C and a bare chassis of the car showed up at Cars and Coffee in Irvine, California, on Saturday, part of McLaren’s roll out of information about the new supercar following recent drives of prototypes on a race track in Portugal.

It’s more evidence that you just never know what will show up at Cars and Coffee, the early morning car show that takes place every week in Orange County, where there are more exotic cars than anywhere else on the planet.

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Categories: McLaren

http://www.insideline.com/ford/focus/2012/comparison-test-2011-chevrolet-cruze-ltz-vs-2012-ford-focus-titanium.html

Kurt Niebuhr for Edmunds

Inside Line (and the internet come to think of it) runs thousands of photos a week of cool cars. These are our favorites.

If we missed any, let us know...

Continue reading...

Categories: Acura,Audi,Chevrolet,Ferrari,Ford,McLaren,Mercedes-Benz,Nissan,Porsche