Ahh the UAE, I remember seeing my First (and only) CLK-GTR and McLaren F1 in Dubai

Such a great place to see nice cars... though that's about all the place is great for

Never seen a CLK GTR, not likely to either. But saw and photographed a McLaren Merc 722.

Anyone seen a McMerc Stirling Moss?
I'm sure they're all under bubble wrap in some collectors garage in Geneva.

Ooof, seeing one of those, and my life would be complete.

Seeing that I haven't been out of Canada in a few years, I'm unlikely to be anywhere near one anytime soon

Current McLaren employee killed?

http://www.northantset.co.uk/news/Family39...h-of.6049412.jp

Oh - Jeez - Yup, that's me done - wet wipe anyone?

seems likely poor chap

Ron Dennis honoured at UK's first Motorsport Hall Of Fame 11th February 2010


http://www.mclaren.com/latestnews/mclaren-...php?article=409

Dennis also states here that he'll be at quite a few races this year.

Yes that is good news, all the classic faces back on the grid this year. Interesting that he said he now feels he has gotten over and through the initial period of having set-up the MP4-12C project. Just the racing variation programme of the car to establish now (I hope).

A bit more on the 12C

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/02/23/video-m...pain/#continued

It sounds amazing in the scene with the banked turn!

LH makes management change:

No longer Dad

The Race car mign be slower than the Ferrari but some good news for McLaren:

Until last week I hadn’t seen the new McLaren in the flesh. All I’d seen were pictures of various prototypes testing, and that video of it being driven in Spain by McLaren’s chief test driver and all round nice bloke, Chris Goodwin. And until last week I hadn’t been overly enamoured by what I’d seen.

In the raw, though, the MP4-12C has miles more presence than it does in photographs. It’s not a big car but it has bags of attitude, even if it isn’t drop dead gorgeous in the traditional sense.

Sounds good, too. The noise it makes doesn’t make the earth shudder beneath your feet. Instead it sounds technically complex, like a flat plane-crank V8 with a whole load of extra stuff on top; turbo whooshes, wastegate fizzes, exhaust blips during downshifts as the fuel supply is cut momentarily, even the odd bit of chatter from the diff at idle if I’m not mistaken.

What I also hadn’t grasped until last week is how insanely rapid the new McLaren is going to be. For some reason I hadn’t quite registered that it is going to comprehensively destroy everything else in its class in a straight line – including the new Ferrari 458.

Officially it will have 600bhp and weigh less than 1400kg. Unofficially, the ones I saw testing had over 620bhp and weighed less than 1380kg. With a DSG transmission and gearing that will be far closer and shorter than that of the F1, plus a fair bit more torque from its twin turbo V8, this is going to make the MP4-12C significantly more accelerative than its famous ancestor.

According to off-the-record McLaren test driver parlance it “absolutely mullers” all the other cars they’ve benchmarked it against dynamically – including the you-know-what – and yet it’s also entirely comfortable to drive on the road.

Will that be enough to lure people away from their Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis? I think so!

Is this a quote from somewhere 'Duck of Death' or have you seen the car in the flesh? If so, where? You know McLaren are going to have to get their act together on track, the launch of the new road car will not have the same ooomff! If they are not doing the business where it matters. My next question, if you did manage to see the car is, get them pictures up! I am confident I will get to see it in the flesh in the summer though.

It was clear from day 1, that's the main goal.

Seems to be a quote from AutoCar, Steve Sutcliffe's blog.

QUOTE Owen


So, hopefully announcing the production funding, building and schedule

Cant wait to see some full on reviews and side by side tests with the 458.

(proper ones not top gear)

Really hoping for a racing variation of the car to emerge soon.

More on 12C / Ron Dennis:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8572513.stm

This is the stand-out phrase for me;

The 12-C corporate launch is a PR lick@rse event. Like if Jenson or Lewis would say anything but "The car is great/fantastic/ the best thing ever"

Isnt PR always @rselicking? JB and LH arent objective, but those smiles and passion they bring into their talks says more then enough, its a killercar.

btw with regards to your signature, is treason not a fool's offense?

Really glad to see Lewis and Jense involved in the 12C promotion.

1600 strong intentions to buy already - sold out for the first year in effect

It's going to be a huge success.

Looks awesome...

McLAren reminds me of apple shops

Any car with a thumping twin turbo V8 under the hood gets my

Quite impressive from McLaren. The aim is obviously to destroy anything red.

A friend of mine is at the launch, he's just offered to sell me his wife - apparently it is much nicer in the flesh than in the photos


the car that is

Was a good presentation from Ron with Lewis and Jenson getting involved too. Wasn't too formal or showy, some good banter between the guys regarding when they are given theirs to which Ron replies "when you win the titles this year".

Typical Ron though - when Lewis said 'can we keep them' Ron said - 'no, but you get a new one every year' which I read as you get to use one whilst you are winning!

I did like his comment about Lewis' choice - 'I was surprised it wasn't white with bright silver wheels'

The car in the tech vid in 'proper' McLaren orange with dark wheels. Reminiscent of the XP LM and an M8D. Beautiful piece of kit!.

you can see the 1 hour press conference here:
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2010/03/18/469696.html

Some performance stats here:
http://www.skiddmark.com/mclaren-automotiv...bon-revolution/

0 to 124 mph in under 10 seconds? That's seriously good for that market segment.

11 sec 1/4 mile? Just for comparison the Bugatti Veyron does it in around 10.5.

+ It will be 'developed'

emm, what were you expecting to hear


I like the fact that there was alot of unscripted banter btw the drivers n Ron....and the drivers didnt really lick arse about the car that much... they seemed to repeat what the presenter had described but in their own layman terms and came across as honest as you possibly can in a PR event.

If I could afford one, though im not really big on sport cars in general...id buy it. It seems like great value for money.

I like the Swiss watch analogy also... I hope they deliver the goods (and I think they will).



What was the asking price & do you have pics

I didn't expect it to happen so soon!

Mclaren are just so awesome and organized.

Absolutely. What else do you expect with Ron Dennis at the helm of affairs? He has had his share of detractors but you can't deny the fact that he runs a tight ship and has taken the company to dizzy heights. May it continue to flourish. Now, there's the small matter of starting an in-house engine program for the F1 team.

Love this bit: "Whitmarsh was speaking today at the launch of McLaren's MP4-12C sportscar, which he hopes can compete against Ferraris in the GT racing world. He has spoken to Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo about future competition between the two in sportscars.

"Our message there was: 'We want to race with you [Ferrari]. Where are you going to go? Why don't we go together?'"

Wonder what Monty had to say?

Some stats on the 12C:



For comparison, the F1's dimensions are 4287mm L 1820mm W 1140mm H (so 12C is 22cm longer, 9cm wider, and 6cm taller)
F1's acceleration figures:


The F1 does 60mph to 0 in 2.8s (39m) so the 12C has good breaking!

I thought that was quite sweet actually

I love both companies. Imagine how far they can go if they push each other.

What I like about the statement is that it fully acknowledges both their dependence on Ferrari for success and independent view on how to go about that. I'm actually excited about this car and hopeful of its success commercially and in a sporting sense. Dennis so badly wants to do this right and make the best possible car he can for the target price point. You have to admire that.

It's like Audi but with soul.

Ans I am fully convinced Monte digs this. He is a racer as much as Ron is. If he sees a chance to compete with McLaren in another series he'll probably do anything to win. As well as McLaren. So the biggest winner will be us, the audience.

ferrari currently race in gt2, i think there are gt3 and gt1 cars too, but gt1 is dead/rebirthing or something

in gt2 theres porche, corvette, bmw, spiker, ferrari, ford GT (i think) might be some others too

GT2 is the prime canidate

Probably GT2, they already have their F430 GT in there, and they are planning to replace it with the F458 in 2011. Would be nice, Ferrari, Mclaren, Porsche, BMW, Corvette in GT2 with other smaller efforts by Spyker, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Ford, Panoz...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjWo8VdMb8I
gt2 is pretty competative ;)

Yep

I wonder whether the launch today is planned to coincide with BaselWorld Watch Makers show that is on now. TAG Heuer is launching tomorrow something "special" at BaselWorld to mark their 150 anniversary. (see http://www.tagheuer.com/)

I could not help noticing RD making comparisons between the car's engine and a swiss watch in the BBC interview....

Wont be surprised if a "MP4/12C watch" is being unveiled tomorrow ....

AND... as a matter of fact... when the Mclaren F1 roadcar was sold, it was delivered with a TAG Heuer watch that carried the chassisnumber of the roadcar

the links between the two companies go back a long way when RD himself was shareholder in TH

....

I might be wrongly speculating.. but I would not be surprised