McLaren MP4/12-C

la diretta qui:

http://media.mclarenautomotive.com/modules/user/main.php

bellissimo il filmato che mosta lewis e jenson che testano la 12-C

Details of a new £40 million production facility and an "affordable" £150,000 supercar have been announced by McLaren Automotive.

A 32,000 square metre plant at Woking in Surrey will be completed in 12 months to produce the high-performance MP4-12C car as well as creating up to 300 new jobs.

Using a one-piece carbon-fibre chassis is enabling McLaren to offer the car for around half the £300,000 price tag that would normally be expected.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5ic9q7OV4bj6Yq8p6cRLJ2c1fSz8A

Lewis Hamilton: 'I'm excited to see the new car; Ron took me down and showed me an orange car. I'm a huge fan of it already... I drove it at Goodwood on 2 March. We had an amazing time. We weren't allowed on the track flat-out together, so we couldn't race properly!'

Jenson Button: 'We're some of the lucky few who've driven the car before launch. It's a good experience – it's tricky to drive a road car on a circuit, you normally don't get that feeling of good grip. It's so different to driving on the road. So I had to really remember I wasn't driving a racing car. In a straight line the 12C is very calm – you move into a corner and it has very good grip. It was a really good experience, nice to be involved in a project like this.'

LH: 'They took a part out of the video where I said, "Jenson's going to break it!" We weren't supposed to be driving flat-out straight away...'

JB: 'But she's strong!'

LH: 'It was great fun. I got on the phone to Ron afterwards and said, "When can I get delivery?" but he hasn't come back to me yet.'

JB: 'I normally love three things as a racing driver: power, grip and the look of the car. Those things are done very well on the 12C, but when you talk about a car, you talk about horsepower and torque. It has a lot of that, but it's a light car which is so important. It has a racing car pedigree – it's built under the same roof as our racing cars.'

LH: 'The engine has great power; you don't hear too much turbo – it's very smooth. The gearshift is a lot lighter than the F1 car's. But the click of the paddle and reaction time feels the same. The technology we use under this roof is the same to develop both cars. So many supercars are built around the world, but they're not set up like F1 teams set up their cars. This car handles like a real car should handle; you can take it to the track or drive it on the road in comfort.'

JB: 'We should be able to get used to any car we get into. When driving a car you want to feel a part of it, not just like you're sitting on top of a machine. Visibility is good in the 12C, not that I'm that bothered about this. What's important when you're racing wheel to wheel it's important to know where the edges of the car are.'

LH: 'The ride quality is very comfortable; in a straight line it's quite soft, but it stiffens up at high speed. I'm seriously impressed by how much grip there is through corners.'

JB: 'I'm impressed by how you can balance it on the throttle.'

Ron Dennis: 'These guys are going to have cars. The question is how much they pay for them – and that depends on how many races they win and how we do in the championship! When Lewis started talking about speccing his car, I was surprised it wasn't white with chrome wheels!'

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/News/Search-Results/First-Official-Pictures/McLaren-MP4-12C-2011-the-full-spec-announced/

Ron Dennis Q&A

As part of Auto Express's exclusive coverage of the launch of the new McLaren MP4-12C supercar, and the company that will build it, McLaren Automotive, we speak to CEO Ron Dennis about what will make his new project a success.

AE: What key characteristics define a McLaren road car?

RD: 
If you take the F1 as the start of the story of our road cars, and the 12C as the latest chapter, then there are common themes: engineering integrity, an obsession with reducing weight, Formula 1 integration in the development of the cars, and design driven by function, in particular aerodynamics. They are very different cars in concept, but are both steeped in McLaren DNA.



AE: Why should people buy a McLaren – what does your car have that Ferrari's 458 doesn't?


RD:The fundamental concept behind what we are doing at McLaren is that we are not just launching a new car to rival the world's best sports cars, but a whole new car company from a blank sheet of paper. You would expect McLaren to say that the 12C and future models will compete toe-to-toe with our competitors' products, but where we believe we will differ and present a further competitive advantage is in how we will treat our customers. Our aim is to launch cars that out-perform the competition in all aspects – speed, emissions, dynamics – but we also want to offer a new standard of customer relationships.



AE: We had heard that financing the build of your production facility had proved challenging. Is the funding in place for your new factory?


RD: It would be churlish to say that finding £40 million has been easy, but despite the economic conditions under which we have developed the project, the interest in supporting McLaren Automotive, whether from potential retailers or investors, has been very positive. The new McLaren Production Centre was always planned to begin construction as soon as planning permission was granted and that is exactly what has happened.
 


AE: What have been the key differences in designing and launching the McLaren road car, versus the McLaren Formula One car?


RD: It is more enlightening to talk about the similarities. Automotive and Racing are under one roof, so there is total integration between the teams. For example, Formula 1 aerodynamicists discuss problems and solutions with the 12C development team regularly. And the 12C has been developed on the same simulator used by the racing team. Despite the fact that a road car takes years to develop and a Formula 1 car, though based on evolution, just a few months, the fundamentals remain the same: rapid problem solving, absolute individual responsibility for every engineer and clear focus on the goals.
 


AE: What key skills do you posses that will make you a great car company boss?


RD: Within McLaren it is a matter of hiring excellent people and allowing them to take decisions. But not being afraid to also roll up your sleeves and understand the finer details of a possibility or a problem. Looking outside, it is no different to any business – understanding exactly what the market and customer desires and delivering that without compromise.


AE: Formula One, now road cars, what's next from the McLaren Group? Do you have aspirations outside of the automotive industry?


RD: Our aim has always been to make McLaren Group an innovative, profitable, and multi-faceted company with engineering and technology principles at heart. If we grow the Group it will retain that ethos.
 


AE: Finally, on the eve of the launch of the new MP4-12C, what do you think is a greater challenge, taking a Formula One team to World Championship glory, or launching a new car company?


RD: Neither one nor the other. The challenge has been building up a great company full of empowered, enthusiastic and dedicated people. Then keeping that company at the top for those people. That started with winning Formula 1 World Championships, and launching McLaren Automotive as a fully-fledged car company is part of that story and a major contribution to our success.

Read more: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/249658/ron_dennis_qa.html#ixzz0iX6BIl7h

Gordon Murray Q&A


He's the man who fathered the original McLaren F1 – a machine that's still considered the finest supercar of all time. But what does Gordon Murray think of the new MP4-12C? Auto Express grabbed some time with the legendary engineer to find out.

AE: You've been away from the McLaren set-up for six years, what were you working on before you left?

GM: Well, after the F1 and the SLR I was working with a team looking at other projects. In my last two years I headed up a group called Advanced Concepts. The main reason for this was to look at exotic materials such as carbonfibre, with the aim of producing these in higher volumes but at lower costs.

AE: Was that going to be applied to anything in particular?

GM: One of the last cars I worked on was codenamed Project Eight, which was to be the next McLaren-Mercedes model to succeed the SLR. It had a monocoque construction. We had some debate on whether Project Eight should be made from aluminium, but I was determined to pursue the carbonfibre route.

AE: And what do you think of the new MP4-12C?

GM: I'm very pleased to see that the MP4-12C has the same modular, monocoque construction. There are lots of supercars around now, but none of them can boast this advanced chassis. It's a very strong USP for the MP4-12C and gives it a clear link to the company's Formula One cars. Supercars are also getting heavier and heavier and what McLaren have done here is focus on lightweight, which is totally the right thing to do.

AE: How is the Gordon Murray Design city car project progressing? 

GM: Very well. We have finished the petrol car and are working on T26 – a customer car. This will be delivered very soon. Then we'll start work on T27. The main concern of the business is to license the technology, though, and we've got several contracts to fulfill, so things are going very well indeed. It's fantastic that Gordon Murray Design is a British company that's keeping the technology in the country too.

AE: Finally, have you driven an F1 lately?

GM: I drove one last week actually! It's still as good as when I first drove it. No question.

Read more: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/249682/gordon_murray_qa.html#ixzz0iX6POGXW

non ho capito bene quando cominceremo a vederla sulle strade

Quante se ne venderanno, e dove

I piani di vendita indicano che il 30-40% delle MP4 saranno vendute in Europa, un altro 40% in Usa, il 20% fra medio oriente e sud Africa, e un altro 10-20% in Asia-Pacifico e Oceania.

La rete di vendita, organizzata nelle quattro maxi regioni Europa, Usa, Canada, Medio Oriente, Sud Africa e Asia-Pacifico, prevede in un primo tempo 35 showroom.
Appuntamento nel 2011

Confermata la data del lancio commerciale, che avverrà nella prima metà del 2011. "Nel primo anno produrremo 1000 esemplari - sottolinea Andy Sheriff, Direttore esecutivo - Contiamo di arrivare, a lungo termine, a 4.000 McLaren stradali, per una quota di mercato fra il 3 e il 4%".
Il futuro: un modello all'anno

A partire dal lancio della MP4-12C, la gamma delle vetture stradali sviluppate e costruite a Woking si arricchirà di un modello all'anno: "Almeno fino al 2015", è stato detto alla conferenza stampa.

Di conseguenza, anche il numero dei dipendenti della "divisione vetture stradali" è destinato a crescere: i piani indicano che aumenteranno dagli attuali 450 a 800 collaboratori, per la maggior parte tecnici, ingegneri e designer.

http://www.motori.it/anteprime/4158/svelata-ufficialmente-la-mclaren-mp4-12c.html

apperò si fa proprio sul serio allora... un modello all'anno vuol dire 4 modelli entro il 2015!!

Quante se ne venderanno, e dove

I piani di vendita indicano che il 30-40% delle MP4 saranno vendute in Europa, un altro 40% in Usa, il 20% fra medio oriente e sud Africa, e un altro 10-20% in Asia-Pacifico e Oceania.

La rete di vendita, organizzata nelle quattro maxi regioni Europa, Usa, Canada, Medio Oriente, Sud Africa e Asia-Pacifico, prevede in un primo tempo 35 showroom.
Appuntamento nel 2011

Confermata la data del lancio commerciale, che avverrà nella prima metà del 2011. "Nel primo anno produrremo 1000 esemplari - sottolinea Andy Sheriff, Direttore esecutivo - Contiamo di arrivare, a lungo termine, a 4.000 McLaren stradali, per una quota di mercato fra il 3 e il 4%".
Il futuro: un modello all'anno

A partire dal lancio della MP4-12C, la gamma delle vetture stradali sviluppate e costruite a Woking si arricchirà di un modello all'anno: "Almeno fino al 2015", è stato detto alla conferenza stampa.

Di conseguenza, anche il numero dei dipendenti della "divisione vetture stradali" è destinato a crescere: i piani indicano che aumenteranno dagli attuali 450 a 800 collaboratori, per la maggior parte tecnici, ingegneri e designer.

http://www.motori.it/anteprime/4158/svelata-ufficialmente-la-mclaren-mp4-12c.html

Spero che i primi giri di rodaggio li faccia Button. IL rodaggio va' fatto mantenendo velocita' non troppo alte  per poetr assestare le parti meccaniche

Poi,Luigi la sgrezzera'.

 ...quando l'arte incontra lo stile, quando lo stile incontra l'eleganza, quando l'eleganza incontra la prestazione, quando la prestazione incontra l'emozione, quando emozione è sinonimo di una sola parola: McLaren. 

aaaaah che poeta B1