McLaren 720S Performance Spider, page #2

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MSP Sports Capital buys minority stake in McLaren Racing

LONDON — U.S.-based investment group MSP Sports Capital is taking a significant minority stake in McLaren Racing in a deal the Formula One team said would give them the tools to return to the top of the sport. The long-term investment, announced on Sunday, is for an initial 15% holding rising to a maximum 33% by the end of 2022. McLaren said it values the British racing outfit at 560 million pounds ($740.5 million). Under the deal, MSP will put 185 million pounds into the former world champions, who last won a race in 2012 but are still historically the sport's second-most successful team, over a two-year period. Luxury sportscar maker McLaren Automotive remains wholly owned by the McLaren Group, whose majority shareholder is Bahrain's Mumtalakat holding company, and is not part of the transaction. The consortium members include The Najafi Companies, a private investment firm, and UBS O'Connor, a hedge fund subsidiary of Swiss investment banking firm UBS. MSP is headquartered in New York and the principals have a background as owners and investors in Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association (NBA) among other ventures. Jahm Najafi will become a vice-chairman of McLaren Racing, while Jeff Moorad of MSP and Rodrigo Trelles Zabala of UBS O'Connor will join the McLaren Racing board. McLaren Racing chief executive Zak Brown said the investment marked the start of "the next chapter" and would allow the team to "turbocharge" their efforts. Paul Walsh, executive chairman of the McLaren Group, told a video conference that the new cash flow would not impact the debt level of McLaren directly. "We have got a number of activities in place where we will look to refinance some of our debt next year and attendant with that there could very well be some kind of equity raise," he said. "What this (deal) does is mean that McLaren Group is not funding on a cash basis in Racing." MSP's arrival increases North American interest in a sport whose commercial rights are held by U.S.-based Liberty Media. Moorad, a former NASCAR team owner, said MSP had looked into acquiring Force India when that team, now Racing Point and owned by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, went into administration in 2018. They also considered former champions Williams, whose sale to U.S.-based Dorilton Capital was announced in August.

McLaren's next hypercar won't arrive until the middle of the 2020s

McLaren will slow its cadence of hypercar launches until the middle of the 2020s, according to its chief executive. It released the Senna, the Speedtail, and the Elva in rapid-fire succession, and it's now ready to take a break. "We've come to the conclusion that actually we didn't need to launch another Ultimate Series car after Elva," revealed company boss Mike Flewitt in an interview with Automotive News. He added that his team made this decision after realizing that "the market was getting a little bit overpopulated," and he stressed that the on-going coronavirus pandemic wasn't the main push behind the company's shift from hypercars. In hindsight, the writing was on the wall. McLaren unveiled the Elva (pictured) in 2019 as a roof-less, window-less roadster with 800 horsepower and 399 available build slots each priced at $1.7 million. It backpedaled in April 2020 and said that only 249 examples would be built, which was a big reduction and an unusual move. Officially, the firm's customers said they wanted more exclusivity, but the difficulty of filling 399 orders was likely a factor, too. It sounds like the next Ultimate Series will be well worth the wait because it will be the long-awaited successor to the gasoline-electric P1 released in 2013. Flewitt said it will make its debut near 2025, undoubtedly as a limited-edition model, and all signs point to another hybrid powertrain with jaw-dropping horsepower and torque figures.  "All of the significant launches going forward will be hybrid cars. I think by 2026, we'll be fully hybridized right across the range," Flewitt told the same publication in a separate interview. He indicated that the next Ultimate Series model will not be electric, because the company's first battery-powered model isn't scheduled to make its debut until 2028 at the very earliest. Engineers still need to solve key packaging-related problems. Although hypercars are on hiatus, new product launches will carry on as planned, and McLaren isn't out of ideas. It announced in Nov. 2020 that its first series-produced hybrid model will be called Artura when it makes its debut during the first half of 2021. It will ride on a new platform developed specifically for electrified powertrains, and it will ditch the brand's V8 for a smaller, lighter V6 that partially offsets the battery pack's weight. Related Video:

Lego Technic's first McLaren kit is an 830-piece Senna GTR

Autoblog may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. McLaren and Lego have worked together on several projects since 2015, but the British supercar manufacturer's models have never appeared in the more advanced Technic line of kits. That's scheduled to change in early 2021 when the Senna GTR comes to your favorite retailer's toy aisle with a surprising realistic set of features. Designed for builders aged 10 and up, the Senna is an 830-piece kit that's 12 inches long when fully assembled. It's far more accurate than the Senna that's in the standard Lego catalog thanks to features like a V8 engine with moving pistons and a functional suspension system, but the coolest part of the kit is that the dihedral doors open just like in the real car. The Senna GTR's roof-mounted air scoop and its huge rear wing are on the kit, too. "Recreating a car that is so extreme to the core as the McLaren Senna GTR with Lego Technic gave us an incredibly interesting challenge. This track car is not like any road car I've worked on before. It's got some unique details, like silhouettes and the awesome rear spoiler, which differentiates the building experience from others," explained Uwe Wabra, one of the Danish brick-building company's senior designers, in a statement. Lego Technic's McLaren Senna GTR will be available on Lego's official website, in Lego stores worldwide, and at select retailers starting on January 1, 2021. It's priced at $49.99, which makes it relatively affordable. Lego Technic's recently-announced Ferrari 488 GTE kit costs about $150, and the real Senna GTR starts at $1.65 million. Featured Gallery Lego Technic's McLaren Senna GTR Auto News Motorsports McLaren Coupe Racing Vehicles

McLaren's first series-produced hybrid model will be called Artura

McLaren's first hybrid, the P1, arrived in 2012 as an acclaimed, epoch-shaping hypercar built in strictly limited numbers. This bodes well for the Artura, the British manufacturer's first series-produced gasoline-electric car. Expected in showrooms in 2021, the Artura is marketed as the first model in a new range of cars named High-Performance Hybrid (HPH). It's built on an architecture developed specifically for electrification, and it's primarily powered by a new twin-turbocharged V6 engine. Performance specifications haven't been released yet; all we know is that the car delivers V8-like performance while giving users the ability to drive exclusively on electricity. British magazine Autocar believes the Artura's plug-in hybrid drivetrain will consist of the aforementioned V6, at least two electric motors, and a relatively compact lithium-ion battery pack. It adds that the system's full output will be channeled to the rear wheels. In contrast, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale relies on a system that places two of the three motors over the front axle to zap the front wheels, giving the car through-the-road all-wheel-drive. Hybrid technology is heavy, and weight is the sworn enemy of performance, but McLaren stressed it went to great lengths to offset as much of the system's weight as possible. It built the Artua's architecture using carbon fiber, and it explained it applied unspecified weight-saving techniques to the chassis, the body, and the powertrain. Preview images released by McLaren suggests the Artura won't attempt to conceal the internal combustion part of its powertrain. Its rear end is dominated by a cooling grille and a pair of round exhaust tips. It still wears the proportions of a mid-engined supercar, and it's recognizable as a McLaren, but its design remains under wraps. McLaren will begin delivering the Artura globally during the first half of 2021, meaning that we could see it before the end of 2020, and that it might be labeled a 2022 model when it arrives in the United States. And, unlike the P1 and the Speedtail, it will arrive as a regular-production model. Pricing hasn't been released yet, however. Related Video:

2020 McLaren GT Suspension Deep Dive | A grand tour underneath

This is not the first Suspension Deep Dive I’ve written that featured a McLaren. The last one happened just over 10 years ago, if you can believe it, after a colleague and I had the chance to photograph an early naked rolling chassis of the MP4-12C before it went on sale. But this McLaren GT came to me as a fully operational machine, which allowed me to scrutinize it in my own driveway. That meant using my own tools, of course, which was frankly nerve-wracking when it came time to lift it. But it wasnÂ’t as bad as IÂ’d feared, as the jack points (more like zones) were clearly marked with stickers that depicted a floor jack icon that looked encouragingly like my own aluminum race jack. WhatÂ’s more, IÂ’d recently bought soft rubber jack and jackstand pads meant for safely supporting vehicles such as this. Thing is, the GT sat so low that I couldnÂ’t slide my floor jack underneath without additional measures. In front, this simply meant raising the carÂ’s nose lift, which weÂ’ll see later. But the rear has no such system. To gain the needed clearance I had to drive this quarter-million-dollar GT up onto a 2x6 laid flat on a square of plywood as if I were leveling a motorhome to make the fridge work properly. Yes, really.   Even with the front wheel safely removed, the GTÂ’s huge carbon-ceramic brake rotor blocks most of the view and makes it hard to see much of anything else. The main exception is the top end of what looks like a somewhat familiar damper assembly.   Like the MP4-12C and 720S, the McLaren GTÂ’s shocks are inverted to minimize unsprung mass. The damperÂ’s narrow shaft (green arrow, and hidden by a protective telescopic boot) makes up the moving end at the bottom, while the more massive business end and its horizontally arrayed and electronically controlled damper valves (yellow) are fixed to the chassis at the top. The higher of the two lumps is the compression valve, the lower one is the rebound valve. The McLaren GT parts ways with the MP4-12C and 720S at this point in a big way. Those Super Series cars have a kinetic hydraulic roll stabilization system, in which transverse piping links the compression valve on this side to the rebound valve on the opposite side, and vice-versa. But here we see a traditional stabilizer bar (red) of the same sort as the 570GT and 570S, albeit with a different specification that befits the GTÂ’s role as, well, a GT.

Limited-edition McLaren Elva receives heritage-laced Gulf livery

McLaren tapped into its vast racing heritage to create a Gulf-themed version of the limited-edition Elva. Its partnership with the Pennsylvania-based oil company began in the 1960s, and it continues to this day. Like every Gulf-colored car released over the past few decades, the Elva receives light blue paint with orange accents. It's not the first model to feature this color combination, and it's undoubtedly not the last, but it wears it particularly well. It's not fitted with a windshield — it doesn't need one, according to McLaren — so the separation between the exterior and the interior is blurred, and even the dashboard and the door panels are light blue. Photos of the interior haven't been released, but we spot a pair of white seats separated by a Gulf-colored panel. Oddly, the car is not equipped with a rear-view mirror. McLaren Special Operations (MSO) has already applied heritage-inspired paint colors to two examples of the Elva, and both wore a dashboard-mounted mirror. McLaren announced plans to make 399 units of the Elva, but it dropped that number to 249 after analyzing feedback from its customers. Pricing starts at $1.7 million, and the Gulf-themed model displayed at the SpeedWeek event held on England's Goodwood track illustrates one way to customize the roadster. MSO's earlier creations paid homage to Bruce McLaren's 1964 M1A race car and his 1967 M6A racer, respectively. Ansar Ali, MSO's managing director, explained the Gulf-colored Elva celebrates the renewed partnership between McLaren and Gulf. Customers are now able to order the historic blue and orange combination directly from the factory regardless of whether they're buying an Elva, a 765LT, or another one of the British company's models. SpeedWeek starts today and runs through October 18. Spectators are exceptionally banned from the event due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but you can catch all of the action online. We're expecting to see a handful of new car launches, timed supercar laps, a huge auction, and, of course, dozens of race cars going flat-out. Related Video:

McLaren's new hybrid sports car caught in fresh spy photos

Our spies caught McLaren testing its upcoming hybrid sports car on the street, catching it from just about every angle. Unofficially dubbed the HPH (for High Performance Hybrid), the Unfortunately, it didn't tell us anything we hadn't heard before. Earlier this month, McLaren released a couple of photos of a lightly camouflaged test car that gave us our best look to date at the new hybrid undergoing development, but the photos provided Monday are far more numerous and detailed.  Despite using a new carbon fiber passenger cell and a hybrid V6 engine, the new sports car looks a whole lot like the outgoing McLaren Sports Series models (570S, 620R, et al). The headlights are a very similar shape, particularly with the similar headlights, radiator intake locations and roofline. The roof almost looks unchanged, down to its flying buttress sections. There are differences, though. It looks like a lot of the lower grille area at the front has been blocked off. The headlights look more sunken in, a bit like on the Super Series 720S. The radiator intakes are more open. And at the back, the exhaust now juts out high up in the grille between the taillights. Those taillights have much less of an arc to them, and a different illumination pattern. The new hybrid McLaren will be revealed in the first half of 2021. It will have a V6 engine, reportedly twin-turbocharged, and McLaren's CEO says it will have "an all-electric range capable of covering most urban journeys." Reports suggest a range of 21 miles. This of course suggests it will be a plug-in hybrid. It's expected to make more than 570 horsepower combined, too. As for the Sports Series the hybrid is replacing, the last examples will be the 620R special edition cars. Related Video:

The McLaren 765LT is even quicker than we thought

We have good news and bad news for those who happily find themselves in the market for a brand-new supercar. We'll start with the good: The McLaren 765LT is even quicker than initially announced. According to the British automaker, the 765LT will run from 0-124 mph (a nice, round 200 kilometers per hour) in seven seconds flat. Sure, that's a scant 0.2 seconds quicker than previously claimed, but in the world of supercars, a couple of tenths is a major achievement. McLaren further claims a 0-60 time of 2.7 seconds and a 9.9-second quarter-mile time, which is impressive no matter which way you slice it. So is its 205-mph top speed, courtesy of a 755-horsepower twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 engine. Now for the bad news: If you haven't already obtained a guaranteed order from McLaren, you're out of luck. The automaker says it will produce 765 units for 2020, and they are fully allocated. Along with those two nuggets, McLaren says it's also showing off some MSO-customized examples of the 765LT to buyers. Two themes have so far been unveiled, the first of which is called Strata (above left). It's "inspired by a city skyline and realized in a three-color design requiring 390 hours of hand painting and finishing," the automaker says. The Azores orange, Memphis Red and Cherry black scheme carries on into the interior, as well. The second theme is called GEOHEX and features Tarmac Black and Tokyo Cyan paint inspired by a 3D honeycomb. A large array of carbon fiber elements inside and out reportedly complete the look. Sadly, we don't have pictures of this finish, but we're sure those will eventually leak out. Buyers who really love carbon fiber, though, may prefer the MSO Bespoke Carbon Fiber Body treatment (above right). One car has already been produced with a glossy finish, but McLaren says it can also tint the visual carbon with a number of colored finishes.

McLaren Senna GTR LM cars created by MSO to honor the F1 GTR's Le Mans success

The McLaren Special Operations division has outdone themselves again. Today, we get to present to you five McLaren Senna GTRs that were commissioned in a group. Their design and liveries are meant to re-create the five McLaren G1 GTRs that raced in the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. McLaren took first place in that race, with the remaining four cars finishing third, fourth, fifth and 13th.  These five Senna GTRs are much more than just Senna GTRs with stickers on them, too. The (faithfully re-created) liveries were hand-painted on every one of the cars. McLaren says each car took approximately 800 hours to paint, with some taking far more than that. All five are kept as close to the originals as possible, as McLaren coordinated with the Le Mans organizer to get permission to re-create every last detail of the logos and trademarks on the cars. The only sticker you’ll find on the exterior is a replica of the scrutineering sticker. It isnÂ’t just the appearance that received all the attention, though. McLaren has found a way to give the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 a small power boost. It went from making 814 horsepower to 833 horsepower. The rev limit has also increased from 8,250 rpm to nearly 9,000 rpm. This is accomplished through metal matrix composite valve spring retainers (65% lighter), higher grade steel for the valve springs and CNC ported cylinder heads. A recalibration of the whole powertrain takes advantage of these new parts, leading to the increase in power. Small changes abound elsewhere in the car, too. OZ Racing designed a bespoke set of wheels for these cars; the suspension wishbones are made in an anodized version of their previous selves, and the brake calipers are finished in satin gold. New exit pipes are bent for the Inconel exhaust (for a new look), and the interior gets a small work over, too. ThereÂ’s a new racing steering wheel with anodized gold paddles and control buttons, titanium nitride pedals, carbon fiber racing seats with a bespoke headrest embroidery, leather door pull straps and an MSO six-point racing harness. WeÂ’re afraid to know the prices for these five cars, but we wonÂ’t know anyway, because McLaren hasnÂ’t released that information. All five owners will be allowed to take a lap of Circuit de la Sarthe on the day of the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans, which only seems right given their Le Mans re-creation provenance. 

McLaren's global headquarters could be yours for $256 million

McLaren is giving rich enthusiasts and affluent investors a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own one of its most valuable tangible assets: its headquarters. Before you launch a GoFundMe campaign, keep in mind the next owner will be obligated to lease the property back to the carmaker for an undermined amount of time. Hit hard by the on-going coronavirus pandemic, McLaren commissioned Canadian real estate firm Colliers to sell its headquarters for GBP200 million, a sum that represents approximately $256 million at the current conversion rate. It's interesting to note the facility is worth about 13 times as much as a 1994 F1 LM-Specification. Located in Woking, which is about an hour from London, the property includes the McLaren Technology Center, the McLaren Production Center (where road cars are manufactured), and the McLaren Thought Leadership Center. There is also a small man-made lake, parking lots, several picturesque acres of grass, and thousands of trees. McLaren isn't moving. It will remain in Woking, but it will lease its headquarters from the person or company that purchases it. Details about the transaction, like how long the firm will lease the property for and how much it will spend per month, haven't been made public, unsurprisingly. However, it's reasonable to assume there will be a clause stipulating the next owner can't kick McLaren out to plant alfalfa or to open a Texas-style ranch. Executives are analyzing other ways to make money, reduce expenses, or both in the coming months. McLaren cut 1,200 jobs in May 2020, and it announced it sold only 307 cars between February and May, down from 953 the previous year. It secured a $185 million boost from the oil-rich National Bank of Bahrain, yet unverified rumors claim it's considering selling a relatively small stake in its Formula One team in order to free additional cash. Sale-and-leaseback deals aren't what we'd call common in the automotive industry, but McLaren's move isn't unprecedented. In 2012, PSA Peugeot-Citroen sold its historic headquarters on Avenue de la Grande Armee in the heart of Paris for about $327 million to raise cash; it still leases the building in 2020. 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 optimistically added a renewal clause, but it shut down in April 2005. Earnings/Financials McLaren