McLaren: Striking a winning formula

It was a big moment when last month the firm — whose story began in 1966 when talented engineer and racer Bruce McLaren built his own Formula 1 car, continuing with the launch of the famous F1 in 1992 — announced that the 375th and final example of the legendary P1 sportster had been built, bringing, as the firm put it, “the curtain down on the most technologically advanced and dynamically accomplished supercar ever made”.

It was hardly an exaggeration and it sums up the firm’s credentials rather nicely. Ever since it was unveiled as a design study at the Paris Motor Show in 2012, the P1 has been breaking lap times and making news worldwide, so saying farewell to the £866,000 car can’t have been easy. It’s an engineering tour de force with a mind-boggling array of technology to keep even the most gadget and statistichungry motorist happy.

It boasts a dry weight of just 1,450kg thanks to its industry-leading use of carbon fibre, while its streamlined shape is complemented by groundbreaking RaceActive chassis control system offering a track focused set-up at the press of a button.

Other features include a 3.8-litre twin turbo V8 petrol engine that, combined with a lightweight electric motor, produces 903bhp, enough for 186mph in 16.5 seconds.

The P1 returns a claimed 34mpg and can run for 6.8 miles on electric power alone. Teamwork is the key: the McLaren F1 team’s cars are designed and built here too, alongside the research, development and engineering work that the McLaren Technology Group carries out for external customers worldwide.

And the story doesn’t end there, as I learn from Amanda McLaren, daughter of Bruce, as she shows me around the Foster + Partners-designed centre.

McLaren Automotive has just opened its sixth UK showroom, boosting the worldwide number of retailers to 80. It has now switched its energies to increasing production of its current line-up — the £126,000 540C and £146,000 570S, three versions of the 650 and two versions of the 675, including the latest, the open-top £285,450 675LT Spider.

Attention to detail throughout the technology and production centres is startling. It is also remarkably hushed and ordered, and a million miles from the conventional car factory. To ensure the purity of the product, positive air pressure is maintained throughout, to banish dust. The cars are still handsprayed (they claim to get a better finish this way) and are guided along the production line by hand on bespoke,computerised rolling jigs.

McLaren has its own 145m wind tunnel. Workers are tidily uniformed — and eerily focused. No wonder McLarens are described as the thinking man’s — or woman’s — car. No wonder, in this technology-focused company, that last year it committed 20 per cent of its annual £475.5 million turnover to research and development.

The second shift, announced today, adds 40 per cent to the existing headcount and will start next month. It will allow even more customers, worldwide, to get their hands on this justly celebrated product, proudly flying the British flag, not far from London.

@djrwilliams