Mafalda
Stuttgart Specialist
- Messages
- 1,893
don't worry, just a lapsus of mineSorry Mafalda, I assume everyone knew the term CF for Carbon Fibre, will try and be clearer in future.
I usualy use terms like DCT, CCB (composite brakes), etc etc
The McLaren MP4-12C, later rebranded as the McLaren 12C, is a sports car produced by McLaren Automotive. Manufactured between 2011 and 2014, the MP4-12C was available as both a coupe and a retractable hard-top convertible, the latter known as the "Spider".
I usualy use terms like DCT, CCB (composite brakes), etc etc
bum-man
Driving Dynamics Pro
- Messages
- 3,567
Well that really narrows it down. Thanks for letting us know that the Mclaren will have a Ring time somewhere between 8 and 6 minutes.
- Messages
- 2,065
Well that really narrows it down. Thanks for letting us know that the Mclaren will have a Ring time somewhere between 8 and 6 minutes.
Well I hear it does the ring in the same time it takes to fry a steak.
But I didn't hear if that was cooked rare, rare to medium, medium, medium to well or just plain old welldone.
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- 2,304
Blog / GT3 version
Hello there !
Just a quick message to let you know I have started a blog on the MP4-12C in which I'll try to upload as much information as possible on the car, including test results. You can visit it here.
At the same time, here is a shot of the newly revealed GT3 race version of the 12C!
Hello there !
Just a quick message to let you know I have started a blog on the MP4-12C in which I'll try to upload as much information as possible on the car, including test results. You can visit it here.
At the same time, here is a shot of the newly revealed GT3 race version of the 12C!
- Messages
- 40,929
- Name
- Marcus
- Messages
- 457
McLaren MP4-12C Official brochure
McLaren started sending official brochures to prospective buyers. Some new info is in.
Cornering G up to 1,7G
6th gear up to 350km/h, 7th gear up to 480km/h
Download here :
Uloz.to! - MP4-12C E-Brochure.pdf
RapidShare AG, Cham, Switzerland
McLaren started sending official brochures to prospective buyers. Some new info is in.
Cornering G up to 1,7G
6th gear up to 350km/h, 7th gear up to 480km/h
Download here :
Uloz.to! - MP4-12C E-Brochure.pdf
RapidShare AG, Cham, Switzerland
- Messages
- 8,624
2012 McLaren MP4-12C vs. 1995 McLaren F1
2012 McLaren MP4-12C vs. 1995 McLaren F1
Finally we're at the wheel of the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C, streaking down the long straightaway at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, a racetrack in Portugal commonly known as Portimao circuit. A very brave McLaren test-driver is riding as our passenger and he fairly shouts, "Come on, come on — keep your foot down! I'll tell you when to brake!"
Mentally we cross ourselves and then do as we're told as an evil-looking right-hander looms ahead. The corner approaches at what seems like Star Wars velocity and we get a glance at the speedometer registering 154 mph at the same moment as our passenger shouts, "Brake now!"
We slam the 12C's ceramic brakes, holding back the left-hand shift paddle so that the gearbox downshifts repeatedly. The car bucks and fidgets underneath us during the massive deceleration. Still travelling at what seems an impossible speed for the corner, we spin the steering wheel hard right, expecting a dose of terminal understeer or maybe terminal oversteer — something terminal, anyway — as the laws of physics chew up this upstart product of humankind and spit it out with contempt.
But not only are we around the corner but also we're still on roughly the right trajectory and still moving fast. It's a convincing demonstration of how well the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C will look after even the most ham-fisted of drivers.
Déjà Vu All Over Again
The truck unloads a 2012 McLaren MP4-12C here at Chobham Test Track in the south of England after a week of being thrashed at Portimao and further testing at the IDIADA proving ground in Spain. It has covered 30,000 kilometers (about 18,600 miles) and there's been barely time to wipe the dust off.
And now it's head to head with the 1995 McLaren F1, as if peering at itself in a looking glass.
The McLaren F1 supercar began in 1988 with a desire by McLaren to diversify beyond Formula 1 racing, and everyone concerned was committed to making not just another supercar but also the best supercar in the world.
The McLaren F1 supercar was launched in 1992 into the teeth of an economic recession, and the car's price tag of $1.2 million didn't go far to stimulate sales of the 300 cars McLaren hoped to build. Finally a triumphant record in sports car racing with a victory at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans (as well as an economic recovery) helped F1 production reach a final total of 106 examples, including racecars and prototypes. McLaren has had the last laugh, however, as the F1's value has doubled since then.
Ironically enough, the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C has been conceived, engineered and now presented for sale under much the same circumstances as the original McLaren F1, from the corporate need to diversify to the catastrophically bad sales environment. Only one more comparison needs to be made between the McLaren F1 and the new McLaren MP4-12C: Does the new car measure up to the old?
Through the Looking Glass
This 1995 McLaren F1 is chassis 10R, the lightweight prototype for the McLaren racing program. Now owned by former musician Nick Mason, it's basically a Le Mans car that you can drive on the street.
If the 48-valve DOHC 6,048cc BMW V12 is cold, you need to prime it first by triggering the port-type fuel injection system for a few seconds with a tiny button. Then turn the ignition key, press the tiny start button and listen as the battery churns the engine painfully slowly. After a moment, the V12 erupts with a bassy boom that leaves you in no doubt that this is a car capable of reaching 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.2 seconds and then getting to 240 mph. This particular V12 makes 600 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 480 pound-feet of torque between 4,000 and 7,000 rpm.
The V12 warms at a slightly ragged idle, its racecar BRRRARRRRP accompanied by the whirring racecar transmission. Now ease up the clutch gently but decisively while using minimal revs, and we're away.
The F1 is unique for a relatively modern supercar in that it has no electronic driver aids whatsoever. This means no traction control, no ABS, no trick diff, and not even a brake servo. And all this means there is nothing to rein in the potentially apocalyptic effects of 600 hp except the driver's own reactions. We did our best to forget that actor (and vintage racer) Rowan Atkinson has confessed to spinning his own F1 a couple times while putting 30,000 miles on it.
The Track Experience
It's loud inside the McLaren F1, but not unpleasantly so, and most of the noise comes from the whine and clonk of the straight-cut gears in the transmission. Shifting smoothly at low speed is not easy, since there's so little flywheel effect that engine revs shoot up or drop instantly when you depress or relax the throttle, but at least the shift linkage is fairly slick, although the throws are long.
They say you never forget the first time you put your foot down properly in a McLaren F1. And they're right. Long straight, 2nd gear, full throttle and hang on tight. The F1 lunges forward like an F-18 being given a catapult launch, and the exhaust note changes from harsh blare to clean-cut howl, momentarily dipping again and again as you grab 3rd, 4th and then 5th, and the trees are rushing past in an insane blur.
Then suddenly you're approaching the steeply banked left-hander at the end of the straight and it's time to come to your senses and back off sharply before you hit the curve. A dab of the conventional brakes with iron rotors and the 2,251-pound (dry) F1 dives into the banked corner, bobbing as it hugs the lumpy asphalt. The F1 is now traveling at a fraction of its potential but still feels faintly nervous all the same, and you can't forget that there will be nothing to catch it if it starts sliding, apart from a row of tree trunks.
The car feels good and the steering effort through the unassisted rack-and-pinion setup weights up nicely. Now the banked left-hander is flattening out onto the next straight and it's time to open the taps once more. Again, an astonishing adrenaline rush as the digital numbers on the dash flicker remorselessly, and the engine yowls and the transmission screams and the blacktop streams beneath you.
Forward Into the 21st Century
At last it's time for what brought us here today, the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C. The story of the car is so like that of the F1, yet the 12C seems on the verge of achieving so much more if the scale of the enterprise is measured by the brand-new factory that has been built to make it.
Let's get this out of the way immediately. The 12C looks every inch a supercar, but we're not convinced it looks different enough from every other supercar. It's a professional design, and it has good proportions and well-controlled highlights. But some of the details are fussy and it's not very exciting overall. Peter Stevens, the designer who did the original McLaren F1, did this car, but now former Mini and Ferrari designer Frank Stephenson is in charge at McLaren and he promises more visual impact for the future.
You touch the underside of the crease that runs across the MP4-12C's door and the electro-magnetic latch releases and lets the scissor door swing upward in one beautifully damped movement. As with the F1, there's quite a drop between the door sill and the seat, so you enter backwards and wriggle beneath the Formula 1-style steering wheel. There's the inevitable push-button starter, plus two knobs for ride settings and engine/gearbox performance, both calibrated for Normal, Sport and Track.
Light the Candle
Push the start button and the engine fires immediately with a muted bark, then idles with a surprisingly rough edge, like a carburetor-fed V8 with race-type camshaft profiles. It's a twin-turbo 32-valve DOHC 3,799cc V8 with a racing-type dry oil sump and flat-plane crankshaft. The M828T V8 is built by Ricardo with technology acquired from Menard Competition Technologies (MTC), a company with an Indycar heritage.
Put your right foot to the floor and the V8 emits a blood-curdling racecar rasp that gets sweeter and more inspiring right up to the 8,500 rpm redline. Peak power of 592 hp arrives at 7,000 rpm, while the peak torque output of 443 lb-ft is maintained from 3,000 rpm to 7,000 rpm. The V8 doesn't have the deep-chested bass notes of the F1's V12, but once it's on song you won't have any complaints. In fact, the engine gets louder if you turn the Performance knob to Sport or Track, as a cunning amplifier mounted on the driver-side air intake modifies the sound frequencies being fed into the cabin so the V8 just sounds more intense.
As you move from Sport to Track mode, the shift speed of the dual-clutch seven-speed Ricardo transmission (it has durable wet-type clutches) gets quicker, and for real snap changes you can pre-load the clutch by applying moderate pressure to the shift paddle in what McLaren calls a pre-cog function.
Drive the Car
Oddly enough it's the fantastic balance between ride and handling that makes the 2,945-pound (dry) 12C a car you would want to drive regularly. The suspension has conventional cast-aluminum wishbones and coil springs, but the dampers are connected hydraulically from side to side and front to rear. Pressure within the system is regulated by a Citroën-style spherical accumulator, which in turn is controlled by a knob in the cabin. Fluid is circulated between the compression and rebound chambers of the dampers, so the ride quality can be supple, yet body roll can be quickly controlled.
For everyday driving you can happily leave the suspension in Normal mode, and only a trace of body float appears during fast cornering. The Sport mode sharpens things up pleasantly, but on a circuit you really want Track, because this mode not only reduces body roll but also changes the handling balance so the rear of the car will get a bit out of shape so you can have a bit of fun.
Once you're in Track mode, there's still a safety net of electronic aids that will rein in the oversteer to prevent you from spinning off the road (something the McLaren F1 did with great regularity in its day, even in the hands of company head Ron Dennis). Similarly, if you pile into a corner too fast, McLaren's brake-steer system prevents massive understeer by braking the inside rear wheel in order to bring the nose of the car into the corner's apex.
More on the Way
The 2012 McLaren MP4-12C is only the first of a planned range of road cars from McLaren. The new production facility is nearing completion next to the McLaren Technology Center and around 1,000 12Cs will be built there in the first year, rising to some 4,000 cars by the middle of this decade. More than 30 dealers around the world are ready and waiting to distribute them. The car will go on sale in the U.S. late this summer at a price of $231,400, including a destination charge of $2,400. (Gas-guzzler tax is still to be decided, as the car's EPA numbers haven't yet been calculated.)
This price puts the 12C in roughly the same ballpark as a Ferrari 458 Italia. We suspect it'll be a close call, for the 458 is the best-looking Ferrari for years, and its performance is pretty earth-shattering, too.
The question of whether the McLaren MP4-12C will take over the mantle of the McLaren F1 is much easier to answer. It won't. Not because it's inferior, because it is in so many respects a much better car — safer, less expensive to maintain, less polluting and near-as-damnit just as fast.
But it will always be less special. The F1 broke the mold and the passage of time has ensured that the mold can never be put back together in the same fashion. It's a car that was simultaneously both of its time and outside its time, and that's why we'll always love it.
2012 McLaren MP4-12C vs. 1995 McLaren F1
Finally we're at the wheel of the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C, streaking down the long straightaway at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, a racetrack in Portugal commonly known as Portimao circuit. A very brave McLaren test-driver is riding as our passenger and he fairly shouts, "Come on, come on — keep your foot down! I'll tell you when to brake!"
Mentally we cross ourselves and then do as we're told as an evil-looking right-hander looms ahead. The corner approaches at what seems like Star Wars velocity and we get a glance at the speedometer registering 154 mph at the same moment as our passenger shouts, "Brake now!"
We slam the 12C's ceramic brakes, holding back the left-hand shift paddle so that the gearbox downshifts repeatedly. The car bucks and fidgets underneath us during the massive deceleration. Still travelling at what seems an impossible speed for the corner, we spin the steering wheel hard right, expecting a dose of terminal understeer or maybe terminal oversteer — something terminal, anyway — as the laws of physics chew up this upstart product of humankind and spit it out with contempt.
But not only are we around the corner but also we're still on roughly the right trajectory and still moving fast. It's a convincing demonstration of how well the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C will look after even the most ham-fisted of drivers.
Déjà Vu All Over Again
The truck unloads a 2012 McLaren MP4-12C here at Chobham Test Track in the south of England after a week of being thrashed at Portimao and further testing at the IDIADA proving ground in Spain. It has covered 30,000 kilometers (about 18,600 miles) and there's been barely time to wipe the dust off.
And now it's head to head with the 1995 McLaren F1, as if peering at itself in a looking glass.
The McLaren F1 supercar began in 1988 with a desire by McLaren to diversify beyond Formula 1 racing, and everyone concerned was committed to making not just another supercar but also the best supercar in the world.
The McLaren F1 supercar was launched in 1992 into the teeth of an economic recession, and the car's price tag of $1.2 million didn't go far to stimulate sales of the 300 cars McLaren hoped to build. Finally a triumphant record in sports car racing with a victory at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans (as well as an economic recovery) helped F1 production reach a final total of 106 examples, including racecars and prototypes. McLaren has had the last laugh, however, as the F1's value has doubled since then.
Ironically enough, the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C has been conceived, engineered and now presented for sale under much the same circumstances as the original McLaren F1, from the corporate need to diversify to the catastrophically bad sales environment. Only one more comparison needs to be made between the McLaren F1 and the new McLaren MP4-12C: Does the new car measure up to the old?
Through the Looking Glass
This 1995 McLaren F1 is chassis 10R, the lightweight prototype for the McLaren racing program. Now owned by former musician Nick Mason, it's basically a Le Mans car that you can drive on the street.
If the 48-valve DOHC 6,048cc BMW V12 is cold, you need to prime it first by triggering the port-type fuel injection system for a few seconds with a tiny button. Then turn the ignition key, press the tiny start button and listen as the battery churns the engine painfully slowly. After a moment, the V12 erupts with a bassy boom that leaves you in no doubt that this is a car capable of reaching 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.2 seconds and then getting to 240 mph. This particular V12 makes 600 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 480 pound-feet of torque between 4,000 and 7,000 rpm.
The V12 warms at a slightly ragged idle, its racecar BRRRARRRRP accompanied by the whirring racecar transmission. Now ease up the clutch gently but decisively while using minimal revs, and we're away.
The F1 is unique for a relatively modern supercar in that it has no electronic driver aids whatsoever. This means no traction control, no ABS, no trick diff, and not even a brake servo. And all this means there is nothing to rein in the potentially apocalyptic effects of 600 hp except the driver's own reactions. We did our best to forget that actor (and vintage racer) Rowan Atkinson has confessed to spinning his own F1 a couple times while putting 30,000 miles on it.
The Track Experience
It's loud inside the McLaren F1, but not unpleasantly so, and most of the noise comes from the whine and clonk of the straight-cut gears in the transmission. Shifting smoothly at low speed is not easy, since there's so little flywheel effect that engine revs shoot up or drop instantly when you depress or relax the throttle, but at least the shift linkage is fairly slick, although the throws are long.
They say you never forget the first time you put your foot down properly in a McLaren F1. And they're right. Long straight, 2nd gear, full throttle and hang on tight. The F1 lunges forward like an F-18 being given a catapult launch, and the exhaust note changes from harsh blare to clean-cut howl, momentarily dipping again and again as you grab 3rd, 4th and then 5th, and the trees are rushing past in an insane blur.
Then suddenly you're approaching the steeply banked left-hander at the end of the straight and it's time to come to your senses and back off sharply before you hit the curve. A dab of the conventional brakes with iron rotors and the 2,251-pound (dry) F1 dives into the banked corner, bobbing as it hugs the lumpy asphalt. The F1 is now traveling at a fraction of its potential but still feels faintly nervous all the same, and you can't forget that there will be nothing to catch it if it starts sliding, apart from a row of tree trunks.
The car feels good and the steering effort through the unassisted rack-and-pinion setup weights up nicely. Now the banked left-hander is flattening out onto the next straight and it's time to open the taps once more. Again, an astonishing adrenaline rush as the digital numbers on the dash flicker remorselessly, and the engine yowls and the transmission screams and the blacktop streams beneath you.
Forward Into the 21st Century
At last it's time for what brought us here today, the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C. The story of the car is so like that of the F1, yet the 12C seems on the verge of achieving so much more if the scale of the enterprise is measured by the brand-new factory that has been built to make it.
Let's get this out of the way immediately. The 12C looks every inch a supercar, but we're not convinced it looks different enough from every other supercar. It's a professional design, and it has good proportions and well-controlled highlights. But some of the details are fussy and it's not very exciting overall. Peter Stevens, the designer who did the original McLaren F1, did this car, but now former Mini and Ferrari designer Frank Stephenson is in charge at McLaren and he promises more visual impact for the future.
You touch the underside of the crease that runs across the MP4-12C's door and the electro-magnetic latch releases and lets the scissor door swing upward in one beautifully damped movement. As with the F1, there's quite a drop between the door sill and the seat, so you enter backwards and wriggle beneath the Formula 1-style steering wheel. There's the inevitable push-button starter, plus two knobs for ride settings and engine/gearbox performance, both calibrated for Normal, Sport and Track.
Light the Candle
Push the start button and the engine fires immediately with a muted bark, then idles with a surprisingly rough edge, like a carburetor-fed V8 with race-type camshaft profiles. It's a twin-turbo 32-valve DOHC 3,799cc V8 with a racing-type dry oil sump and flat-plane crankshaft. The M828T V8 is built by Ricardo with technology acquired from Menard Competition Technologies (MTC), a company with an Indycar heritage.
Put your right foot to the floor and the V8 emits a blood-curdling racecar rasp that gets sweeter and more inspiring right up to the 8,500 rpm redline. Peak power of 592 hp arrives at 7,000 rpm, while the peak torque output of 443 lb-ft is maintained from 3,000 rpm to 7,000 rpm. The V8 doesn't have the deep-chested bass notes of the F1's V12, but once it's on song you won't have any complaints. In fact, the engine gets louder if you turn the Performance knob to Sport or Track, as a cunning amplifier mounted on the driver-side air intake modifies the sound frequencies being fed into the cabin so the V8 just sounds more intense.
As you move from Sport to Track mode, the shift speed of the dual-clutch seven-speed Ricardo transmission (it has durable wet-type clutches) gets quicker, and for real snap changes you can pre-load the clutch by applying moderate pressure to the shift paddle in what McLaren calls a pre-cog function.
Drive the Car
Oddly enough it's the fantastic balance between ride and handling that makes the 2,945-pound (dry) 12C a car you would want to drive regularly. The suspension has conventional cast-aluminum wishbones and coil springs, but the dampers are connected hydraulically from side to side and front to rear. Pressure within the system is regulated by a Citroën-style spherical accumulator, which in turn is controlled by a knob in the cabin. Fluid is circulated between the compression and rebound chambers of the dampers, so the ride quality can be supple, yet body roll can be quickly controlled.
For everyday driving you can happily leave the suspension in Normal mode, and only a trace of body float appears during fast cornering. The Sport mode sharpens things up pleasantly, but on a circuit you really want Track, because this mode not only reduces body roll but also changes the handling balance so the rear of the car will get a bit out of shape so you can have a bit of fun.
Once you're in Track mode, there's still a safety net of electronic aids that will rein in the oversteer to prevent you from spinning off the road (something the McLaren F1 did with great regularity in its day, even in the hands of company head Ron Dennis). Similarly, if you pile into a corner too fast, McLaren's brake-steer system prevents massive understeer by braking the inside rear wheel in order to bring the nose of the car into the corner's apex.
More on the Way
The 2012 McLaren MP4-12C is only the first of a planned range of road cars from McLaren. The new production facility is nearing completion next to the McLaren Technology Center and around 1,000 12Cs will be built there in the first year, rising to some 4,000 cars by the middle of this decade. More than 30 dealers around the world are ready and waiting to distribute them. The car will go on sale in the U.S. late this summer at a price of $231,400, including a destination charge of $2,400. (Gas-guzzler tax is still to be decided, as the car's EPA numbers haven't yet been calculated.)
This price puts the 12C in roughly the same ballpark as a Ferrari 458 Italia. We suspect it'll be a close call, for the 458 is the best-looking Ferrari for years, and its performance is pretty earth-shattering, too.
The question of whether the McLaren MP4-12C will take over the mantle of the McLaren F1 is much easier to answer. It won't. Not because it's inferior, because it is in so many respects a much better car — safer, less expensive to maintain, less polluting and near-as-damnit just as fast.
But it will always be less special. The F1 broke the mold and the passage of time has ensured that the mold can never be put back together in the same fashion. It's a car that was simultaneously both of its time and outside its time, and that's why we'll always love it.
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McLaren
McLaren Automotive is a British luxury automotive manufacturer founded in 1985 as McLaren Cars and later
re-introduced as McLaren Automotive in 2010. Based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England,
the company's main products are sports cars, which are produced in-house in designated production
facilities. In July 2017, McLaren Automotive became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the wider McLaren Group.
Official website: McLaren Automotive
Official website: McLaren Automotive
