McLaren MP4 12C

[tigler]

Did anyone see the program on BBC2 about the building of the McLaren MP4 12C ?
The car and the factory are absolutley amazing !! I had no idea that McLaren plan to produce and hopefully sell upto 4000 of them per annum !!
This is a car with a carbon tub for which they've developed a volume production system for !
The engine is designed and made by McLaren and so is the very sophisticated transmission.
I don't impress easily these days but this is a truly incredible project and even makes me proud to be British !
Ferrari should be worried !

 

[cumbriasteve]

4000 / year...so much for the recession For me to consider one they would have to do a good part ex on the Mondeo and throw some mudflaps in as a freebie.

 

[tigler]

They know where the money is, they recently opened their Asia centre !!
I know this is a perverse comment in a way but £168K for this much exotic tech is actually good value for money ! The attention to paint finish alone is totally obssesive, it's the process that takes more time than anything else on the car ! Wonder if there's a discount for a naked carbon finish ?!
Must keep doing the Euromillions Lotto !

 

[tigler]

Youtube link for the documentary,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXgs1yCH7LM

I particularly like the bit about making it's pistons, they go into quite a bit of detail !

 

[stuvy]

i saw the programme too such a stickler for detail is mr. dennis!

We went to there old factory in surrey for a meeting years ago before this facility was built and that was an impressive place to say the least. Its the comment that one of there staff made about loosing your arm, he would rather be at the mclaren factory than the local hospital, that goes without saying after seeing it!

 

[HOUNDMAGNET]

i saw it, what an amasing place that Mclaren factory is.

Brilliant to see a British company at the top end,prepared to make the investment and take a risk.

 

[philsmin]

They should open a dealership and anyone with enough cash to walk through the door should be shot in the face for being paid too much

Nice car but it aint no F1

Will check it out on the Iplayer

 

[Andy from Workshopshed]

What wirespeed do you use when MIG welding carbon fibre?

 

[tomsutton529]

They should open a dealership and anyone with enough cash to walk through the door should be shot in the face for being paid too much

Nice car but it aint no F1

Will check it out on the Iplayer

And if you had that kind of money you will give it all to charity.

 

[Ragnarok]

anyone else spot the huge mistakes when they were talking about the engine though? absolutely awful..

 

[rocketron]

Thanks for that link Tigler, it has a really good "feel good " factor and I enjoyed it immensely. Makes you realise how bloody good the F1 road car was when first produced all those years ago.

 

[hotrodder]

anyone else spot the huge mistakes when they were talking about the engine though? absolutely awful..

Yeah, i caught it on Sunday and turned the sound off part way through. I get having to 'dumb down' this sort of thing but the commentary was inexcusable.

 

[malcolm]

Yeah, i caught it on Sunday and turned the sound off part way through. I get having to 'dumb down' this sort of thing but the commentary was inexcusable.

Glad that wasn't just me. The whole thing was full of comedy and our household of automotive engineers was in stitches watching it.

I actually wrote a letter of complaint to the BBC about the programme. They called all the fitters engineers and then when they did interview an engineer they called him a technician. The majority of my engineering friends have moved abroad where engineers are respected and paid like doctors. Over here they are not respected despite being world leading still. The BBC doesn't help.

 

[tigler]

Yup, certainly did !! I was apalled ! Thankfully it didn't rely on the narration too much !!

 

[Ragnarok]

haha yeah but not even just the commentary, some how they'd got it wrong on that cutaway of the engine running too, firstly the guy says that a v8 is basically 2 four stroke engines bolted together with a common crank... 2 four stroke engines bolted together huh *rolls eyes* even if he'd said 2 four cylinder engines i'd have been cross.

but after that he says the exhaust valve is forced open by pressure.... and the cutaway CG engine thing actually moves as if it is being forced open backwards.... i don't see how they managed that, but it annoyed me, you see the valve literally get pushed through the seat, supposedly by the pressure in the cylinder.

they must have some people with absolutely no knowledge of engines and just a poor basic description to go by making these programs.

rant over, haha

 

[tigler]

The Beeb really should know better, most of the audience for that program would have been petrol heads with anorak type knowledge, with an acute ability to detect such cobblers !! More worrying is that McLaren surely would have had a preview, why didn't they pick it up ?!

 

[philsmin]

And if you had that kind of money you will give it all to charity.

Nope but there's a lot of people live in poverty, no-one needs obscene amounts of money.....

 

[Ragnarok]

More worrying is that McLaren surely would have had a preview, why didn't they pick it up ?!

that's what i thought, they say hardly anyone gets to see all this stuff, then the people they do let see it present it like idiots, reflects badly on them imo..

 

[weldequip]

Ridicule already...the British disease
Hat's off to em and they certainly ain't playing at it!

 

[tigler]

Nope but there's a lot of people live in poverty, no-one needs obscene amounts of money.....

Thats capitalism for you. It's worse in China !