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McLaren Elva production cut from 399 units to 249

In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, McLaren Automotive CEO Mike Flewitt revealed the production quota for the new Elva speedster will drop from 399 units to 249. The boss explained lopping volume by 38% with, "the feedback from our customers is that they think the car should be more exclusive than that, so we’ve capped it at 249.” While it's to be expected that owners investing $1.7 million in a specialized road car would promote exclusivity — and thereby residual values — it seems dubious that McLaren would return 150 down payments if the automaker had 399 orders. More likely, the global market for windscreen-less roadsters, no matter how technologically advanced, couldn't absorb all 399 Elvas on top of 500 total Ferrari SP1 and SP2 Monzas, 88 Aston Martin V12 Speedsters, 40 Pagani Huayra BC Roadsters, and 12 Bentley Bacalars.    The production revision puts the Elva in company with the McLaren F1. Ron Dennis would have built more F1 road cars, but the market (just 20 years ago!) wasn't ready for a supercar that cost $810,000 before special requests, so production ended after 106 road and racing chassis' and a complete set of parts for another. The Elva represents technical high points for McLaren, too, being the company's lightest-ever car outside the F1, able to hit 62 miles per hour in under three seconds, and announcing its presence with the dual-exit "Nirvana" titanium exhaust. The handling, designed to be less intense than that of the Senna but more supple than that of the Speedtail, kept engineers up late due to the Elva being lighter than the Senna yet more powerful. Nevertheless, even without sharing its rear lights with an Italian bus, as the F1 did, the Elva may have had a hard time convincing shoppers it deserved to be the second-most-expensive model in the carmaker's Ultimate Series range, at the same time as being the least practical. The Elva runs about $700,000 more than the Senna and $500,000 less than the Speedtail. A lightly used P1 can be had for as low as $1.2 million. Autocar writes that build slots are still open for the model Flewitt called "a uniquely modern car that delivers the ultimate connection between driver, car and the elements," and if you're in the market, their values just went up. McLaren will begin building Elvas when Speedtail production ends later this year or early next. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences.

McLaren Indy 500 washout was a comedy of errors: 'We defeated ourselves'

INDIANAPOLIS — The comedy of errors that doomed McLaren's disastrous return to the Indianapolis 500 began months before Fernando Alonso failed to qualify for the race. How bad was it? A week before Alonso's first test in the car, the team realized it didn't even have a steering wheel. McLaren CEO Zak Brown acknowledged Monday the team was woefully unprepared, and small oversights snowballed into the final result. Bob Fernley, the head of the operation, was fired hours after Alonso missed the race, and Brown returned to England to digest the embarrassment of his venture. Brown on Monday provided The Associated Press a detailed timeline of the bloopers and blunders that led to Alonso missing the race, the last piece the two-time Formula One champion needs in his quest to win motorsports' version of the Triple Crown. "I don't think we came into this arrogant, I think we were unprepared," Brown said. "We didn't deserve to be in the race and it's our own fault. It's not like we showed up and gave our best. We defeated ourselves." The path to missing the 33-driver field began when the car was not ready the moment Texas Motor Speedway opened for the April test. Brown had personally secured a steering wheel the previous week from Cosworth to use for the test, and the mistakes piled up from there. "We didn't get out until midday, our steering wheel was not done on time, that's just lack of preparation and project management organizational skills," Brown said. "That's where this whole thing fell down, in the project management. Zak Brown should not be digging around for steering wheels." A cosmetic issue at the Texas test haunted McLaren deep into last week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. McLaren purchased a car from technical partner Carlin, and though the car was orange when McLaren received it, it was not the proper McLaren "papaya orange." It had to be repainted after the test, and that still had not been completed when Alonso crashed his McLaren-built car last Wednesday. "We will look at what we learned here, and the list is a mile long." The Carlin spare was in a paint shop 30 minutes from the track, more than a month after McLaren complained about the color, and it ultimately cost McLaren almost two full days of track time. The team looked foolish as other teams were able to move into backup cars in mere hours; James Hinchcliffe crashed in Saturday qualifying and was back on track in his spare that afternoon.

McLaren Artura hybrid officially set for February 16 reveal

The long-awaited hybrid-powered McLaren Artura will be revealed next Tuesday, February 16. There’s a special showcase video that McLaren is putting on from Woking, England, that will come online at 7:01 p.m. ET that day. McLaren promises folks from its team and “brand personalities” (i.e. celebrities) will be introducing the car. To catch the event, McLaren says youÂ’ll want to visit this site that will be streaming the video live at reveal time. We donÂ’t have all the information as it concerns the Artura, but we do know some vitals. McLaren says it will be powered by a hybrid powertrain that features a completely new V6 engine. This will be the first McLaren since the brandÂ’s road car reinvention with the MP4-12C that isnÂ’t powered by a twin-turbo V8. ItÂ’s unclear how many electric motors will supplement the gas engine, but a previous report from Autocar predicted at least two with power going to the rear wheels exclusively. The Artura will also use McLarenÂ’s new Carbon Lightweight Architecture that is specifically designed for electrified models.  Above, youÂ’re looking at the single teaser image that McLaren released with its announcement today. ItÂ’s unmistakable as a McLaren in profile, as the shape looks a whole lot like the 570S. To see the car in full view (but slathered in concealing camouflage) check out McLarenÂ’s preview photos in this post here. And if youÂ’d like to see the carÂ’s full reveal, make sure to circle back here to this link right before the reveal is meant to begin. Related video: