The warring Red Bull teammates Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber need to be quick with their patch up work or otherwise close compatriots McLaren could surely use the situation to their advantage.
There have been talks about indifference between the two teammates as well as an internal division and in such a situation, the Red Bull outfit will definitely find it difficult to come up with positive results in Canada. The positive sign is that the supposed culprit Webber has shown intentions to patch up as he mentioned – We’ll probably have a difference of opinion about what happened until we go to our graves, but we’re both adults and we need to find a way of racing together. If the two cannot manage to get their relationship back on track, they won’t be sharing information as much at the next race and that, as per Jenson Button will benefit McLaren hugely.
It may be the most expensive production car in the world but for McLaren F1 Executive Chairman, Ron Dennis, the Bugatti Veyron is “a complete piece of junk.” There’s nothing about the Veyron to make Ron feel good and he says that the four-wheeler is pig ugly and cannot handle very well. He mentioned that the 16-cylinder engine is only taken out by cutting the car and this huge engine is one reason the car doesn’t do well around corners. Dennis recollected how the Bugatti was not able to defeat the McLaren F1 on Top Gear, though the crew was supposed to film exactly the opposite. McLaren is busy producing the MP4-12C lightweight supercar which renders 600bhp courtesy of its 3.8L twin-turbo engine but it is supposedly not the flagship variant.
The McLaren MP4-12C is being viewed as the next big thing in the world of automobiles and McLaren wants to make the experience even more entertaining. McLaren has gone ahead and introduced a new car Configurator – a program that allows the interested customers to choose from more than a dozens of options to create their own version of the race-inspired scorcher. The color options alone include 17 hues including the very vintage McLaren Orange. The exterior options include a lot of carbon fiber equipment while for the inside; the Configurator offers varieties of leather and Alcantara. Other attractions are carbon ceramic brakes, a refined exhaust and lightweight wheels.
McLaren has been a name that has mostly been heard around the F1 circuits but all this has changed with the launch of McLaren Automotive, a company that will strictly manufacture a range of super cars in the future. The company launch was accompanied by the launch of its flagship product, the MP4-12C which is touted to be a super car for a daily commute, though it can put the best ones to shame when pelted. The exact numbers are not yet known but the hopes are high as the company has its vast F1 experience to make the super car achieve astounding feats. The revealed details are that the MP4-12C rear-wheel driven beast will come with a 3.8-liter V8 engine capable of producing 600 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque.
Back in September we broke it that McLaren is working on a new supercar dubbed MP4-12C to be the successor of the McLaren F1, but we just caught wind that there are issues with actually bringing it to US dealer shops. Competing with the likes of Porsche 911 Turbo or the Ferrari 456 Italia, which already have a good presence in the US, the new MP4-12C was supposed to make its public debut at the LA Show in December, but the company pulled out of that one leaving us drooling over the powerful 3.8-litre twin turbo that outputs around 608hp and 600 Nm of torque. A more probable release date is expected to be announced for mid-2010. [via insideline]
The ‘Road Edition’ Successor to the McLaren F1 Supercar has finally been revealed and the scorcher earlier recognized as McLaren P11 has finally been christened as McLaren MP4-12C. The MP4-12C which will be revealed by McLaren in a couple of days, will directly compete with the likes of Porsche 911 Turbo and the Ferrari 456 Italia. This stunner will be powered by a worthy 6.0-liter V8 petrol engine assisted by 7-speed gearbox which will produce somewhere between 600 and 700 horses. Despite its Supercar categorization, it will still feature an onboard computer, WiFi connection and a self adjusting suspension ensuring that this beast has an everyday usability as well. Once debuted, McLaren will further develop this brand with three more models in the next six years.
Although we’ve been teased before, new McLaren P11 details emerged on the Internet. An amazing two-seater supercar with high-mounted exhausts, a flat underpan and louvred grille the new P11 is expected to be quite environmental friendly featuring Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) on board. Although we wouldn’t expect to see such a supercar being tested on a snowy road, the camouflaged McLaren P11 is definitely an agile, aggressive four wheeler that we’d love to hop on for a test drive— no matter where. [via WCF]
Though the trend is to go green, we don’t think the horsepower war is over. For that reason we bring you the new RENNTECH 777, a Mercedes-McLaren SLR based beast that outputs nothing more and nothing less than 777 bhp from a highly tweaked 5.5-liter supercharged Kompressor V8 engine. With an aero-kit that packs big wings, splitters and skirts, new suspension, a stronger transmission and a limited-slip differential, the little monster is expected to top at 210 mph. We’re sold on the design, but to be honest we’d expect a much better performance from such an engine. No? [via WCF]
Just a couple of day after Toyota announced their new F1 car, McLaren unveiled MP4-24, the little monster that will run the track for the 2009 F1 Championship. However, that’s not the only news we’ve heard? Apparently Ron Paul used the occasion to announce the pres that he’ll be stepping down as team principal starting March 1st, and that the new chief will be long time deputy Martin Whitmarsh. Now back to the new car features major aerodynamic changes that include a wider front wing and a more compact rear wing for better distribution, the addition of driver-adjustable front-wing flaps and a heavily revised diffuser. And did we mention that it will use the new KERS (Kinetic Enrgy Recovery System) device which harnesses the energy generated from the braking system and stores it in super-capacitor batteries for an additional 80 bhp. That definitely has to make it faster, don’t you think?
Next year the McLaren SLR is not going to be produced anymore. The two companies, Mercedes and McLaren decided to split and take their own paths with their own SLR successor. Rumors say that Mercedes will name their new model, SLC, while McLaren only has a project so far, project P11.
The same rumors said that McLaren P11 will be powered from a 550bhp V8 engine built by Mahle in Northamptonshire, England, and will probably be based on the current Mercedes unit. There will also be a McLaren P12, inspired from the famous McLaren F1 supercar and should be powered by a 600 bhp V10 engine.
It will be very interesting to see the new McLaren P11 live, but not before March 2010.
