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19 Comments on “McLaren Builds Ferrari Lookalike, With Lambo Doors...”
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Don’t know who designed it, but the person is a hack.
Do a search of Japanese Oni Masks and compare the front end. Or better yet do a google image search of “maori tongue”.
…and a Kia grille.
Those aren’t Lambo doors. Those are McClaren’s signature hawk doors.
McLaren.
Isn’t the driver supposed to be in the middle of this thing? What would Gordon Murray do?
My… That is… Underwhelming.
Sorry, I was too busy yawning to form a complete sentence.
To see something 99% similar, but a decade old and more interesting, look up the Japanese ASL RS01/Tommy Kaira ZZII.
Baleen edition? (It’s what whales use to filter krill with.) I guess the buck teeth panel is for the license plate. Try harder, McLaren, or I’ll just get an old F1.
I’m a gonna wait on road tests before I judge this one.
It’s not a hypercar like the F1, but more of a stab at the exclusive sportscar market… and it doesn’t look half-bad… just a little generic.
Robert,
Flashpoint is right. That’s McLaren doors, not VW, I mean not Lambo. Lambo uses scissor style doors.
Wow, the new 350Z
It looks like a generic mid-engined sporty car. All in all very underwhelming in my opinion.
Lambo doors or not, this thing needs Lambo style front end lifters to get out of any driveway I know of.
Put it next to the original Mclaren F1 and it looks very similar. Meaning everyone else copied the F1, or that Jaguar that does 217mph.
I hope the Turbo engine is not another On and OFF switch, and it weights under 3000lbs. Also that its very well balanced, and not another NSX (which I love) or F355.
Eh, it’s prettier than the Italia. At least they mostly aped the 360.
Still this is some interesting context for the whole “We’re building more than one car; we’re building a brand,” spiel…
This picture definitely indicates that styling flair won’t be a cornerstone of the McLaren brand. The numbers had better be phenomenal, although it does seem harder to make a splash that way than it was in the McLaren F1’s day.
So… is McLaren the supercar for Mika Hakkinen fans? And if so, why use the MP4-12 name from the year before Mika and McLaren swept Formula 1? Even as a racing geek car this doesn’t add up.
This car makes apparent the extent to which the F1 was a Gordon Murray special. Murray specifically avoided turbocharging, ABS, automatic transmissions, and active suspension because he felt they would filter the driving experience. He was right. While I’ve great respect for McLaren’s advances in carbon fiber chassis technology, that’s the only new feature in the spirit of the F1. This car is not a successor, and McLaren’s press statements alluding as much are disingenuous.
Edmunds has a line representative of the disconnect:
“Like the McLaren F1, the 2011 McLaren MP4-12C is meant to be the foremost expression of the automotive technology of its time, an obsessive expression of pure performance.”
That’s wrong. With the F1, technology was incidental to the purpose of providing purity in the driving experience. Advancements were primarily in the form of high strength-to-weight materials and computer design. Relative to other cars of the era with AWD, 4WS, and forced induction, the basic operation of the F1 was a throwback.
Nor was the F1 ever about “pure performance,” at least in the way that McLaren currently seems to mean. Numerical performance was a byproduct of Murray’s weight obsession and BMW’s stellar engine design. Murray never intended the F1 to be the quickest or fastest. He simply wanted it to drive the best.
With regard to the styling of this new car, I’m not sure what to make of double scoops, nor the LED display in the rear. They will date quickly. The latter is especially odd, given that the designer railed against the LED look for the front headlights in the Edmunds interview. It’s still a very pretty car, perhaps even beautiful from some angles. I don’t see how it merits the snark above.
Although it has styling cues from a Ferrari, I still like it.
It’s not a bad looking car, but I’m sceptical as to how this is going to take a chunk out of Porsche sales. In fact I’m not sure why Porsche buyers would be buying new Porsches’ in the next year or so either.
Who knows, Mclaren might pull this off and be to Britons what Ferrari is to the Tifosi. For now it appears the egg that is their long term plan to cash in on their racing history hatched in the middle of a global recession.. good luck with that Ron, you picked a fine time to retire.
A little bit Ferrari, a little bit Lotus. I like it.
This car was never meant to be a true successor to the F1. The F1 was an ultra exotic hypercar, this is not.
+1 on the door corrections. McClaren’s doors are as original as the Lambo style scissors doors have become cliched.
For now it appears the egg that is their long term plan to cash in on their racing history hatched in the middle of a global recession..
I think the middle of a recession isn’t necessarily a bad place to start a business plan. There’s downward pressure on prices so things can be done cheaper than otherwise (there are great deals on assembly plants these days), and if everything works according to plan you hit the market with your product just as the economy is starting to swing up.