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McLaren's F1 team will 3D print parts trackside

When McLaren Racing heads to the Bahrain Grand Prix next week, the constructor will take with it something the motorsport has not yet seen trackside: a 3D printer. The Formula One team has confirmed that as an expansion of its partnership with 3D printing specialist Stratasys, it will print "race-ready" parts for the new McLaren MCL32 car in order to quickly integrate design modifications and reduce its weight. The parts include carbon-fiber reinforced nylon material hydraulic line brackets, rubber-like flexible radio cables, brake cooling ducts and rear wing flaps, which help increase the rear downforce on the car during high speeds. In most cases, 3D printing has reduced manufacturing time from weeks to days or even hours, which helps the team during testing and when readying its cars for race days. "We are consistently modifying and improving our Formula 1 car designs, so the ability to test new designs quickly is critical to making the car lighter and more importantly increasing the number of tangible iterations in improved car performance," said Neil Oatley, McLaren Racing's Design and Development Director. "If we can bring new developments to the car one race earlier - going from new idea to new part in only a few days – this will be a key factor in making the McLaren MCL32 more competitive." While the Stratasys uPrint SE Plus will perform important duties on the road, McLaren Racing employs more complex machinery at the McLaren Applied Technologies headquarters in Woking, England. Both fused deposition modelling (FDM) and PolyJet printing technologies are being used for prototyping new car models, production tooling and development of custom parts, which McLaren hopes will translate to faster race times on the track.Matt Brian wrote this article for Engadget.Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: EngadgetImage Credit: Mark Thompson / Getty Images Motorsports McLaren Technology Emerging Technologies Racing Vehicles F1

McLaren 720S Spider debuts with new roof, colors, glass flying buttresses

McLaren Automotive's special gift to attendees at the company's Winter Ball was the reveal of the 720S Spider. Coming about 18 months after the launch of the 720S Coupe, McLaren has made a few specific changes compared to the hardtop, like frameless doors and new rear spoiler programming, along with wide improvements over the last Super Series roadster, the 650S Spider. The carbon Monocage II tub in the fixed-roof 720S becomes the Monocage II-S in the Spider. Even though the tub discards the overhead spine, new carbon supports at the tub's rear return the lost rigidity. The 650S used steel supports fitted into its Monocage; switching to carbon means saving 15 pounds in the rollover protection structure compared to the predecessor car. The Monocage II-S needs no extra strengthening elsewhere, keeping the slim A-pillars and header rail of the 720S. A new hardtop mechanism operates the standard all-carbon-fiber roof. Electrically instead of hydraulically actuated, the mechanism is another source of weight loss and performance gain. The motors raise and lower the roof in 11 seconds, at speeds up to 31 miles per hour. The operation happens six seconds faster than on the 650S Spider, at a top speed 13 mph higher. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The rear end's carbon fiber deck has been redesigned to stow the roof, leaving a two-square-foot cubby underneath for luggage when the roof is up. To maximize visibility to the rear-three-quarter, McLaren made the buttresses extending from the roll hoops to the fenders out of glazed glass. Customers wanting more visibility skyward can order an electrochromic glass roof that tints or goes all clear with a button push. Kitted out so, the glass top tints automatically when the car's turned off, then returns to its last setting upon restart. The M840T 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 possesses familiar gumption here, being 710 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque. McLaren redrew the underfloor aero and tuned the rear spoiler to manage the Spider's unique airflow. Because the 720S Spider puts on just 108 pounds more than the coupe, performance varies by only a tenth of a second in some cases. The 0-60 dash transpires in 2.8 seconds, the top speed clocks in at 212 mph, both the same as the coupe. Gunning on to 124 mph takes 7.9 seconds, the quarter-mile needs 10.4 seconds, both times a tenth more than the coupe.

Jason Statham and The Rock drive under a semi in 'Hobbs & Shaw' trailer

It's an unwritten (or maybe written) rule that every spinoff has to have heavy nods to the series or movie from whence it came. Jason Statham and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson wasted no time checking that box by driving a McLaren beneath a semi truck box in the first trailer for "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw." Sound familiar? The stunt, seen at about the 1:28 mark, is a direct callback to the original "The Fast and the Furious," in which the team drives a Honda Civic under a semi while boosting goods. The first film debuted in 2001, and 18 years later, much has changed. In a unique direction, the Fast franchise is branching off into a spinoff that focuses on two former bad guys, The Rock as Luke Hobbs and Statham as Deckard Shaw. In the new movie, Hobbs and Shaw are brought together to work on the same team in order to defeat the new villain played by Idris Elba. Brixton, as he's called, is a "human evolutionary change," AKA a tech-infused invincible superspecimen. As one would expect, Hobbs and Shaw are expected to save the world from his threatening plot. Rather than a trailer filled with dozens of high-end recognizable cars, this one is mostly filled with the wild stunt cars the series has used more and more often. The McLaren 720S is the most noticeable automobile cameo, with several motorcycles and military vehicles also making appearances. Further building the story, The Rock teased a separate part of the film on his Instagram. In the photo, he's at Hobbs Customs, a chop shop turned legal garage owned by the Hobbs Bros. Surely this will make for some major car scenes throughout the film. In other Fast news, The Rock said at a Sundance festival interview that he likely wouldn't be in "Fast and Furious 9" but could return for the 10th installment. Vin Diesel also made headlines via Instagram when he spoke on the upcoming female-focused "Fast and Furious" film, the second of three total spinoffs. "Hobbs & Shaw "will hit theaters this summer on August 2. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.