McLaren for a long time was just a Formula 1 team, and a very good one at that, but they then moved into road cars with the F1, the Mercedes SLR and finally the MP4-12C in 2011, they offered a new technical and conservative approach to supercars and now the once outsiders are as a much a part of the supercar world as Ferrari whilst still being on of the top F1 teams along with a strong reputation in Can-Am, GT and Indycar. Here's all you to know about the company.
Year Founded: 1963 (1985- McLaren Automotive)
Founder: Bruce McLaren
Important People:
Bruce McLaren- A successful New Zealand racer, he came close to winning the 1960 F1 World Championship and did win the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1967 & '69 Can-Am series, he was also a skilled analyst and engineer.
Ron Dennis- Former head of the McLaren F1 team, he guided
them through their highs and lows from 1981-2009 and was also the founder of McLaren Group, he served as a mechanic for the late Jochen Rindt, and was also a big campaigner for greater safety, with his technical speak being dubbed 'Ronspeak'.
Gordon Murray- Having previously worked at Brabham until '86, Murray
brought his great mind to McLaren where he designed their dominant F1 cars from '87-'91, he also designed the incredible F1 road car and later
the SLR. He is truly one of the all time great automotive minds.
Ayrton Senna- Still arguably McLaren’s greatest driver, he
got them 3 Drivers titles in ’88, ’90 & ’91 and pushed their cars to the
limits, he could hold his own particularly against the dominant Williams of ’92 &
’93, he was the only non-Williams driver to get pole in both those years which
also included his incredible ’93 Donnington drive. Hakkinen, Raikkonen, Prost,
Fittipaldi, Hamilton and Norris have put in great performances during their
tenure, but they just can’t match Senna.
Important Cars
M6 GT- Believe it or not, this was McLaren’s first road car, well attempt, made as a road going version of the M6 Can-Am racer, it had a 6 litre Chevy V8 and could hit 165 MPH and 0-100 in 8 seconds thanks to a weight of just 800 KG. But Bruce tragically died testing a M8D Can-Am car at Goodwood and the project was shelved.
MP4/4- One of the all time great F1 cars, designed by Gordon Murray, powered by turbocharged Honda
V6 power and a dream team of Prost & Senna allowed the team to win 15/16 races in the 1988
season losing only the Italian GP to Ferrari, only Red Bull in 2023 could match that win record.
F1- McLaren’s first true road car is simply incredible.
Designed without compromise, made to be the ultimate supercar and just so
happened to be the fastest of all time. Everything from the engine to the
toolkit, seat layout, styling, plug-in modem, gold engine bay etc is just the
best. Don’t forget it won Le Mans in ’95 and won it’s GT1 class in ’95 and ’97
(where it finished 2
nd
overall).
MP4-12C- The follow up to the F1 is always a tough act to
follow, but, McLaren did their best. It’s 3.8 twin-turbo V8 gave it more power
than all it’s rivals bar the Porsche GT2 RS. It had sophisticated traction
control, computer-controlled suspension without anti-roll bars that gave it
incredible ride quality, and sleek styling that whilst at the time didn’t send
people frothing at the mouth, it is now a modern classic that set the standard for McLaren's going forward.
P1- The first in McLaren’s ‘super’ series of cars was a
giant leap forward for technology in supercars. Capable of electric, petrol and
hybrid driving modes, complete with a combined 903 BHP from a ferocious
sounding twin-turbo V8 and an electric motor, 0-60 in 2.8 seconds, 0-100 in 5.2
seconds and a top speed well beyond 217 MPH, all whilst doing over 30 MPG.
Somehow, in the years since, we still have done any better than this and it’s
Ferrari & Porsche rivals.
Senna- Named in honour of their greatest driver, the Senna
ditched the hybrid powertrain and focussed on cornering and braking, capable of
incredible lap times and using all of McLaren’s knowhow to improve lightness,
the Senna is as serious a hypercar as it’s possible to be. Both this and the P1
are the only ‘super’ series cars to have stood the test of time.
Ones to Forget:
MP4/9- Having lost their Honda engines at the end of the ’92
season, McLaren did better than expected with Ford power in ’93, for ’94 they
first trialled a Lamborghini V12 but ultimately went with a Peugeot V10, on
paper, this was a good choice, Peugeot had just won the Le Mans 24 Hours twice
with the same engine, but the Peugeot V10 proved unreliable, ’94 was McLaren’s
first winless season since 1980 with a best finish of 2
nd for Martin
Brundle and Mika Hakkinen at a few events. Jordan took the Peugeot unit and
McLaren swapped to Mercedes power for ’95.
MP4/30- Much like with the ’94 car, McLaren lost their
Mercedes units for 2015 and returned to Honda power for 2015, this sounded
great but was a complete disaster with many pointing to a lack of communication and Honda underestimating the technology required for the hybrid engine resulting in several faults with the engine's design which was basically a GP2 unit. Despite a double world champion pair of Alonso & Button, McLaren
finished 9
th in the Constructors with a best finish of 5
th.
McLaren would swap to Renault engines from 2017 and thus began their long road back to
the top.
Elva- A modern attempt at a speedster style supercar in the
vein of Ferrari’s Monza SP, it was priced at £1,425,000, nearly double that of a P1 and yet had no roof or windscreen, and with 149 made, it wasn't as exclusive as buyers would've hoped.
High Point: Across the ‘Turbo’ era of F1 (’82-’88) and into
the Naturally Aspirated era (’89-’96), McLaren did brilliantly, with 7 world
titles from Lauda, Prost & Senna from ’82-’91, McLaren were THE top team,
with only Williams and occasionally Brabham, Lotus and Ferrari challenging them
in this period that also saw the legendary F1 road car launch just after their
valiant ’93 season where despite a power disadvantage and a clumsy 2nd
driver (Michael Andretti), Senna led the championship early on and gave the far
more advanced Williams-Renaults a run for their money.
Low Point: Whilst McLaren’s disastrous 2 years with Honda in
2015 and 2016 were awful, there was also the Spy Gate incident in 2007 that saw
a Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney almost sent secrets to a McLaren employee Mike Coughlan for the 2007 season, whilst
McLaren weren’t found to have used this info, they still lost all their
Constructor points and were fined over $100 million dollars, but nothing
compares to when Senna left after the end of ’93 and then died at Imola, just 3
races into the ’94 season. Everyone across the sport was devastated, but the
McLaren team were hit hardest, he’d help negotiate the Honda engines and given
them 3 world titles. He is still greatly missed.
Fun Trivia:
The reason McLaren's F1 cars and their road cars come/race in Papaya Orange is because Bruce McLaren wanted his cars to stand out, particularly on black & white TVs.
McLaren’s development circuit used to be at Dunsfold
Aerodrome, better known as the Top Gear Test Track.
The McLaren F1 is so expensive to buy now (£10,000,000+), that
any repairs that have to be done will always cost less than the car itself, effectively
making it impossible to write-off.
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