2018 Mclaren 570 Spider on 2040-cars

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McLaren Senna First Drive Review | What's in a name

LISBON, Portugal — Ferrari owners don't just buy a car, they buy an image of performance and sophistication. Let's be honest: this reflected glory is a primary motivating factor for supercar ownership, and it's great for self-esteem. More to the point, it's sustained Ferrari for the last 70 years. And now McLaren, on a much steeper learning curve, is catching on that supercars need more than just dominating performance figures to reach the next level. If you're going to name your car after Ayrton Senna, it had better be something special. Evidence is provided by the fact that the McLaren Senna isn't just wickedly fast, it puts you in the driving seat of a car named after one of the most revered F1 drivers in history, built by the road car arm of the team that powered him to three championships. Driving it might not make you his equal, but the marketing gold is self-evident. McLaren isn't letting this opportunity slip through its grasp, not least in its choice of launch venue — Estoril circuit outside of Lisbon, the scene of Ayrton Senna's first Grand Prix win back in 1985. The manner of that victory, conducted in pouring rain and seeing him lap all but one of the field, set in place a legend. OK, he did it in a Lotus and not a McLaren. But given how many of the people behind this car also started their careers at Lotus, that's kind of appropriate, too. Thankfully it's not raining when I arrive at Estoril, so we won't be required to display similarly God-given driving talent. That doesn't make it much less intimidating, though. Having had the full technical deep dive, I confess to approaching this drive with a degree of trepidation. Sure, it's road car with street tires, air-con and touchscreen navigation. But 789 horsepower in a car weighing less than 2,900 pounds, fueled and ready to roll? The Senna's 1,764 pounds of downforce at 155 mph is an impressive number, but pretty much an abstract concept unless you live on the track. But its 0-124 mph time, a whole second faster than a hybrid-enhanced P1? That's one to wake you up. Likewise, a track briefing before heading onto the track revealed that our braking point from 180 mph for Estoril's first turn will be 60 feet past what it would be in a 720S. A few reconnaissance laps reveal Estoril to be narrow, technical, and with an odd mix of slow, tight corners and hugely committed high-speed ones. All with authentic, mid-1980s quantities of run-off. Which is to say, not much.

McLaren boosts sales by 99 percent in 2016, moves 3,286 cars

McLaren has been on a roll both critically and commercially since it returned to the road-car business in 2011. The MP4-12C was followed by the 650S, 720S, and the nearly unequalled P1. Sales have been up, and 2016 was the automaker's most successful year ever, moving 3,286 cars into customer hands. That's a 99 percent increase over 2015, and with 1,500 pre-orders for the 720S, 2017 is looking even better. The big news is McLaren's fourth consecutive year of profitability in just six years. News for the automaker looks good on all fronts (the struggling Formula 1 team is run separately). McLaren added 114 employees in 2016, raising the staff count to 1,606. Sales revenue is up 44 percent to $843.6 million with an $11.9 million profit. Like with sales numbers, things are looking good for 2017. McLaren Special Operations, the bespoke group behind cars like the MSO HS and the 720S Velocity, grew by 147 percent over 2015. Sales of the 570S and 570GT Sport Series totaled 2,031 cars. The addition of the new 570S Spider should only help matters. North America was the largest region for McLaren, with a total 1,139 cars coming across the Atlantic. For such a young company, this is all good news. Yes, McLaren has been around for decades in one form or another, but success like this is still surprising. Many automakers have grand ambitions to build world-class sports cars, but few are ever truly successful. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: McLaren Earnings/Financials McLaren mclaren automotive mclaren 720s mclaren 570s spider

McLaren-Honda goes 8-bit in Turbo Heroes

Formula One is all about speeding forward, but it's not without its spats of nostalgia – from retro liveries to a return to turbo power. Take, for example, this latest animated short from the McLaren-Honda team. It's called Turbo Heroes, and it sends us back to the days of our childhood in the 1980s and 90s in glorious 8-bit form. Part Street Fighter and part Aryton Senna's Super Monaco Grand Prix, Turbo Heroes is a game-style video short – the start to a series from the looks of things. It portrays an epic battle in which basic animated versions of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso (coached by a grumpy Ron Dennis, no less) chase the evil Exhaustus in a race to recover the fabled (and equally fictitious) Jade Dragon of Suzuka to its rightful home in Japan. It's brought to you by the same team responsible for the Tooned series that was targeted at today's kids, only this one takes a decidedly different aesthetic approach. If you grew up around the same time as many of us here at Autoblog did, and got a kick out of films like Kung Fury and Scott Pilgrim vs The World, you'll probably enjoy this one. So put on your snapback, grab a can of Jolt Cola, and crank the ghetto blaster you've got hooked up to that Nintendo Entertainment System for a high-speed race down memory lane. You don't even have to blow in the cartridge.