Or not. I mean, it’s got to be an April Fool’s joke, right? With Aston Martin desperately seeking suitors, with cars sales in general and luxury car sales in specific in free fall, could there BE a worse time to announce your intention to enter the supercar arena? (And I sincerely hope the answer to that question is no.) And yet Autocar tells us that “McLaren is planning to claw its way back to the very top of the supercar ranks with an extended range of high-performance models, including a hi-tech successor to the legendary F1.” But be very, very quiet; they’re hunting Bugattis. “Details of the plans have been outlined to Autocar by a high-ranking official with intimate knowledge of the company’s secret business plan.” McLaren’s man in the know says that the P11 will be joined by a new F1, called the P1 (of course). And more! “The Woking firm will use its new mid-engined 430 Scuderia and Gallardo LP560-4 rival, the P11, as the springboard for the eventual introduction of a complete range of cutting-edge supercars designed, engineered and produced in the UK.” As JP said, dreamin’ just comes natural, mate.
And you wonder where did all that trillions of bailout go? Paulson’s friends at Merrill Lynch pocketed $3.5B of TARP bonuses. The purchasing power is certainly there…
A: McLaren has a lot of Middle East sovereign family funds for financial backing, so money is not is an issue.
B: Additionally, it takes anywhere from 2-5 years to engineer and design a car line, so starting when the world economy is hitting near bottom is not really a bad time to start thinking about tomorrow. If you waited until times were good again, by the time the car hit the market after the 2-5 year gestation, the economy will be on the downslope again…witness Camaro, Challenger.
C: According to various FIA surveys, McLaren is the most popular F1 team today, has won LeMans, has won Indy and yet still does not have a family of road cars to offer…their name brand equity in the supercar realm is second only to Ferrari and yet, they don’t even have a car to offer today…so it makes sense for them to start thinking about it.
There’s profits in them thar supercars!!
Stu’s got it with point B. A ground-up new chassis and a substantially redesigned powertrain takes a minimum of 2 years, even for a one-off, and for production you need to add a fair bit more – for full mass production you’d be talking a minimum of 5 years. Since presumably the GFC is sort of predicted to sort itself out in 2010 then anything aimed at that recovery needs to be being designed/developed now.
If the engine is truly a clean sheet design then it’ll take 2 years to get the first one running, never mind sorted.
I sort of take issue with his final sentence tho, you certainly can make a profit from supercars, but I don’t think it is a given.
Good to see McLaren having another go anyway.
Supercars fah! When are they going to build a SUV?
Supercars are very cool – but what’s not cool are the Vibrant Media ads that pop up if you’re not careful about where you point your mouse.
I understand the need to generate revenue.
But I’m also a long time ad-blocker. Since the latest bunch of ads are obfuscated, I just block things one after another until the annoying ads are silenced.
So instead of losing an incremental amount of ad revenue, you’re losing the majority of it just because of those annoying ads. I haven’t found the way to snuff those yet, but I’ll keep blocking scripts until I find the magic one.
Gordon Murray is one of the very best automotive designers working today. If he wants to design a supercar, as the Indian chief in Blazing Saddles says, loizem gein.
As much as I’m a sports car fan, I’m really more interested in the small city car Murray is developing.
The economy seems to be bottoming out and when things start growing again, minimalist cars like Tata’s Nano and McLaren’s T25 may be where the action is.
Quote Greg Locock “ I sort of take issue with his final sentence tho, you certainly can make a profit from supercars, but I don’t think it is a given.”
You’re right Greg, I was making a very general unsupported statement. Many, if not most supercar companies are poorly run, not profitable and go bust. For example, Aston Martin has always needed a sugar-daddy to support their unprofitable business models. Conversely Porsche is amongst the most profitable car companies in the world…Ever.
Like any other business, some will succeed and some will fail.
According to various FIA surveys, McLaren is the most popular F1 team today,
I am certainly NOT a fan of McLaren. McLaren is probably also the most hated Team in F1, now that Schumacher has retired. At least judging from the Comments on most of the F1 Sites.
I can’t stand that sanctimonious robot Ron Dennis or his jack-ass Pinnochio puppet Lewis Hamilton.
Internet flames equals unpopular?
The rabid frothing of the 13-25 year old, Ferrari-flag-waving demographic doesn’t really have much to do with the 35-65 demographic that’s actually going to buy those cars when they come out.
And Ron Dennis isn’t any worse than Mr.Playboy Flavio Briatore… far from it… although Lewis does kind of look like Pinocchio…