Using all the technical expertise of a F1 Championship-winning company, McLaren are set to carve themselves a large chunk of the sports car market with the MP4-12C. The automotive branch of the same company that runs the McLaren F1 team has so far brought us the iconic McLaren F1 road car, and the McLaren Mercedes SLR.
Both of these awesome machines were record-breaking supercars. The McLaren F1 was the fastest production car in the world when it was released, and can still run with the best of them ten years later. The McLaren Mercedes SLR was produced in a joint partnership between the two companies, and at the time it was Mercedes’ fastest production car.
McLaren Automotive
This first car from the new company, the McLaren MP4-12C, is a high performance two-seat mid-engine sports car. However, McLaren have taken a very different tack with this new model. Rather than go for the all-out performance and power of the F1 and the SLR, the MP4 will be a more accessible, more economical, and yet still highly desirable offering to the sports car market.
It won’t boast the record breaking figures of its predecessors, but it will be offering performance to match direct rivals like the R8 V10 and the Porsche 911 Turbo.
McLaren feel that this is a more suitable platform from which to officially launch a fully-operational automotive division, as opposed to just a side project to the Formula 1 team. They say that the MP4 will be the first in a range of sports cars to be announced in the coming years.
MP4-12C
The MP4-12C features a revolutionary carbon fibre chassis structure, the’ Carbon Monocell’. This is the first time a car in this market segment has been based around such strong and lightweight racing car technology, and the first time any car has ever featured a one-piece carbon fibre structure. The Monocell is more rigid than a comparable alloy chassis, and yet weighs just under 80kg.
All the parts of the McLaren MP4-12C are bespoke and unique to this car. Everything from the engine right down to the tailor-made switches and buttons is pure McLaren. Unlike many other luxury sports cars (Lamborghini/Audi, Aston Martin/Ford, etc.), nothing has come from another manufacturer’s parts bin.
The 12C is powered by a bespoke 3.8 litre, V8 twin-turbo engine producing around 600bhp, driving through a McLaren seven speed Seamless Shift dual clutch gearbox (SSG), similar to the one which comes as optional on the Golf GTI. Dual-clutch gearboxes greatly reduce shift times, and are fast becoming the industry standard for high performance cars.
McLaren are also making a bold statement on greenhouse emissions, claiming the lowest power-to-CO2 emission ratio of any car in the industry, including hybrids. This, they say, is done through a combination of engine efficiency, low weight and active aerodynamics, which also combine to improve grip and handling. All this technology is where McLaren’s Formula One heritage comes in to play.
Official performance figures haven’t been released yet, as McLaren haven’t finished testing the car. However, given the power output and weight figures, media speculation so far has pegged a 0-60 time not much over three seconds, and a top speed around the 200mph mark.
McLaren themselves have specifically stated that they are targeting the car towards the $200,000 to $280,000 segment, so expect a price anywhere in between those figures, depending upon the options.
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