2016 Mclaren 650s on 2040-cars

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McLaren sells its Woking, England, headquarters for $236 million

McLaren has found a buyer for its headquarters in Woking, England. It sold the facility to a New York-based investment firm named Global Net Lease, but it's not planning on moving to a new home anytime soon. Hit hard by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the British firm put a "for sale" sign on its lawn in September 2020 with a major catch: The new owner would need to lease the facility back to McLaren in the foreseeable future. Canadian real estate firm Colliers listed the carmaker's headquarters at GBP200 million (around $256 million at the time), and Global Net Lease announced it haggled the price down to GBP170 million, which represents about $236 million. The deal includes the McLaren Technology Center, the McLaren Production Center (which manufactures road cars, like the GT), and the McLaren Thought Leadership Center. Parking lots and a small man-made lake are part of the transaction, too. Moving everything to a new location would be immensely expensive, not to mention time-consuming, so McLaren will lease the 840,000-square-foot site from Global Net Lease for the next 20 years. What happens after that isn't known yet; McLaren will presumably either sign another multi-year lease or buy the site back. This is the second time McLaren has received a nine-digit cash injection in less than a year. In June 2020, it arranged a GBP150 million round of financing from the National Bank of Bahrain. At the time, it said the funding would allow it to get through the coronavirus crisis while putting it in the best possible position to be competitive in the future.  McLaren's sale of its headquarters isn't unprecedented in automotive history. In 2012, PSA Peugeot-Citroen (which is now part of Stellantis) sold its historic headquarters on Avenue de la Grande Armee in the heart of Paris for about $327 million to raise much-needed cash; it still leases the building in 2021. And, in January 2004, troubled British carmaker MG Rover sold most of its Longbridge, England, site to a property developer with plans to rent it. It signed a 35-year contract, and it optimistically added a renewal clause, but it shut down in April 2005 after years of losses. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

McLaren 720S reaches series production, first car built

The first production example of the McLaren 720S has been finished at the supercar maker's Production Centre in Woking, England. A 400-car launch edition series follows Job 1, and all of these have been sold already, according to McLaren. In addition to these cars, a batch of 800 720S models are expected to be built in 2017, and next year will see 1,500 cars roll out of the factory gates. The 720S was formally launched at Geneva in March. It represents the second generation of McLaren's so-called Super Series cars, and the manufacturer has now moved to the P14 designation from the earlier P11 series of cars. The P11 platform was unveiled in 2009 as the wraps came off the 12C model, which reached production in 2011. More than 7,000 P11 cars have been sold, including the 650S models introduced in 2014. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. "The new McLaren 720S entering volume production is a momentous occasion for McLaren Automotive, marking the first time since the company was formed in 2010 that we have replaced a model family with an all-new generation," says McLaren Automotive CEO Mike Flewitt. The 720S model name stands for the 720 horsepower put out by the supercar's four-liter V8 engine, and the manufacturer promises an impressive 2.8-second 0-60 mile per hour time and a 212-mph top speed. Launched from standstill, the car will reach 200 km/h (124mph) in just 7.8 seconds. The various ways a 720S can be configured can be seen in this Autoblog gallery. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Race Recap: Abu Dhabi GP is reversals, luck, leanness and last dances

We weren't sure if Alter Ego Nico Rosberg, the one who flew into Brazil and showed Mercedes AMG Petronas teammate Lewis Hamilton that he knew also knew how to grab an entire race weekend by the scruff of the neck, arrived in Abu Dhabi. In both Friday practice sessions Hamilton showed Rosberg the way. Then on Saturday, Alter Ego Rosberg took over, taking the last Free Practice session and then pole position by a whopping four-tenths of a second over Hamilton. Thanks to the gimmicky and soon-to-be-obliterated spectre of double points, if Rosberg won the race and Hamilton finished lower than second, the World Championship would remain in German hands. Behind Hamilton came the Williams duo, again, with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Felipe Massa. Daniil Kvyat did swell to put his Toro Rosso in fifth, Jenson Button was just as swell getting his McLaren into sixth. Kimi Raikkonen outqualified his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso for the third time this year, the pair taking seventh and eighth on the grid. Kevin Magnussen lined the second McLaren up in ninth, Jean-Eric Vergne making the top ten for Toro Rosso in his last race for the team. To be clear, that was the final grid for race: Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel had both qualified in the top ten but were sent to the back of the grid when their Infiniti Red Bull Racing front wings were deemed illegal. They'd start from the pit lane, which was still ahead of Romain Grosjean in the Lotus, who took so many penalties for new engine components that he started the race in Turkey. At lights-out on Sunday, well, it was pretty much lights out. That's when Hamilton got the start of the year, bolting off the line so quickly it didn't take him 100 meters to get in front of Rosberg. The Brit took Turn 1 in the lead, then laid more than a second into the German on the first lap. Rosberg kept close, about 2.5 seconds back, but it was Hamilton's race to lose and everyone knew it; barring a reliability issue or the kind of driving mistake Hamilton hasn't made all year, Britain would have its fourth double world champion. Rosberg was left asking his engineer what kind of strategy they might use to claim first place. That reliability issue did come, but it struck Rosberg on Lap 26 when his entire Energy Recovery System failed, robbing him of 160 horsepower and taxing his brakes.