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88

&10 McLAREN

FERRARI I.AiI

By building an advanced chassis

MGLaren and Garbo TeGh have developed a revolutionary new one-pieGe Garbonfibre tub

THOUGH THE NEWLY christened McLaren Automotive team started with a clean sheet of paper, it was more like headed paper than a completely blank page. And the McLaren name at the top meant that some of the questions had been answered before they'd been asked.

So the MP 4 was always going to be mid-engined for the optimum balance (the front-engined SLR was Mere's baby, remember). And it was always going to be made from carbonfibre. McLaren built the first composite Pi chassis in 1981 and the first carbon-monocoque road carin 1993 and it's spent much of the last decade building the SLR from the stufffor Mercedes.

How to make it was more complicated. Carbon is tough and light (the entire tub weighs just Bokg, 25% less than a comparable aluminium chassis). It's stronger than aluminium and not as perishable, but making chassis with it is a slow, massively expensive process, most tubs being built from multiple sections. That'swhyit's never been suitable for cars built in any significant volumes. For the

12C though, McLaren worked with Carbo Tech, an Austrian company involved with the Carrera GT and Pi teams, to create the Monocell, a revolutionary, hollow, one-piece tub that can be produced in just four hours. The SLR's six-piece tub took 400 hours.

Carbon's ugly in its natural state though - to make it look pretty means lots of work and, inevitably, cost. So McLaren took the decision to keep the carbon structural. Open the door and you you'll see carpet on the upper sill surfaces. Customers like to see carbon though so there is a package that gives a veneer of the stuff on the wheelarch, sill and centre console. It looks great, but McLaren's ex-Ferrari chassis genius Claudio Santini doesn't like it - he prefers carbon not be used for decoration.

'Take a car like the Mercedes SLS,' says Santini. 'It's made entirely from aluminium, but what's the first thing you see when you open the door? A big slab of carbonfibre on the sill.'

A different kind of cost concern is the reason

McLARENvsFERRARI I COVER STORY ••

that carbon

is limited to the central tub. In the SLR the entire structure was made from carbon, but that meant a smash at either end could write the whole thing off. So this

time there are aluminium extrusions mounted at either end of the tub, on which the suspension

and running gear are mounted.

The extrusions are manufactured in Germany and mated to the chassis tub in the old Woking industrial estate which was Mclaren's home before the spectacular new HQ was opened. That makes repairing the 12C much cheaper and easier. And it was also a boon when it came to homologating the car. McLaren was able to use the same tub over and over again, merely replacing the mangled sub-structures before starting the next test. ~

MP4·UC: THE CRUCIAL CHASSIS COMPONENTS 11 One-piece carbonfibre tub 2 I Aluminium extrusions fixed to each end of the tub 31 Not two separate gear paddles, but one unit integrated with steering column 413.8-lirre twin-turbo engine will rev to 8soorpm and produces S92bhp 51 Steel brakes are lighter than carbon 61 One of two turbochargers

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CAR_010910_Mcl.aren_3_068_246630.pgs 06.08.2010 10:36 VIP4

McLAREN passenger sit close giving an they take part of the sill or vice versa, something we computer. Screen is portrait FERRARI and indicators to the wheel but LCD displays either 41 _ GOOD TIDY UP long. Wheel itself now
MP4-12C almost Fl-like central driving with them. Looking for the first saw on the Schumacher- shaped to better suit sat-nav 458ITALIA too is bound to end in the odd side can be configured Electric hand brake means houses lights, indicator
position. That means there's exterior handle? There honed Ferrari 430 Scuderia. layout (unless you always outburst of road-rage fury. to show different there's less centre console and damper switches in
no danger of offset pedals isn't one: simply touch the have it north-up). Hi-fi is information, the left for clutter. Down here you'll find the hub, as well as LED
while the excellent rear underside of the scallop • I DIAL FOR FUN high-end Meridian system, 11 MANETTINO the car's vital signs, the the reverse and auto gearbox shift lights in the rim .
LORD FOSTER DOESN'T do cars, visibility beats Ferrari's. on the door to activate Main dash pod with Its the company's first stab at IT'S A PLACE FOR selfish people, the Controls the playfulness of right for infotainment or functions and the hazard
but the MP4-12C's elegantly simple the switch. enormous central rev sounds in a car. cockpit of a Ferrari 458. Almost every the E-DifF and Fl-trac stability a virtual speedo. warning light switch for when elVD_
cabin displays definite echoes of the 1 I THE DOORS counter looks like It was switch and display is angled towards system. The F430's ultra- you try the launch control Switch the manettino to Race
Foster-designed McLaren Technology To get into the 12C you've 51 I SPLIT built for a state-of-the 5 I HIS AND HERS the driver. Mine, mine, they're all mine. conservative ice setting is • I DOUBLE iDRIVE function next to them and or beyond and the Vehicle
Centre where it's built. You might expect first got to open one of PERSONALITY art superblke, not a car. _IR-CON Passengers are very much along only for out but there's now aCT-off A BMW iDrive-style rotary wreck the car. Dynamics Assistant appears
a company famous for its grand prix the spectacular dihedral Twin aircraft-style toggles Digital speedo reading is Climate controls are the ride. From the driver's seat it all feels position that switches out controller controls the in the left-hand digital display
racers to build a steering wheel strewn doors. Made from adlust suspension (left) and clearer than the Ferrari's. located In the armrest of excitingly hi-tech, and having controls traction control but leaves the functions of the right-hand SIPADDLES - it shows the condition of the
with buttons, but on the 12C there's not a lightweight SMC plastic, engine (right) characteristics each door, a nice touch like the damper switch on the wheel ESP safety net, a la Scuderia. screen display. We just hope Gearshift paddles are brakes, engine and tyres. Blue
single one. they're not Just for show. from mild to wild to suit road 4 I HI-TECH HI-FI that keeps the centre makes perfect sense. But compared that you're ambidextrous fixed to the steering means they're still warming
The switchgear is mounted on both Even opened just halfway, or track. They're not linked so The cabin is strikingly tidy console neat, but Renault with the stark modernist functionality 511 VITAL SIGNS because there's one on the column and so don't turn up, green means it's okay to
sides of the driver, as it was in the they make getting In and you can have a cushy ride but because most functions are Espace drivers have seen of the McLaren, the 458 looks a little Central rev counter Is a other side for the left-hand with the wheel, but at play. Too much red mist and
McLaren Fl supercar, and driver and out a breeze because whipcrack throttle response accessed via the touchscreen it all before. cluttered, and moving the lights, wipers traditional analogue job display too. least they're usefully you'll get the red light.
CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK I SEPTEMBER 2010 SEPTEMBER 2010 I CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK CAR_010910_McLaren..5_070_246754.pgs 06.08.2010 12:23 VlP4

72 COVER STORY I McLAREN vs

@ By perfecting aerodynamics Cheeky use of a device invented for - but now banned from - Formula 1 helps make MP4-12C rock steady

GETTING A CAR'S aero right, doesn't just make a car more stable, it also has a huge effect on C02 output through control of drag and of engine temperatures. 'It's a fine balance,' says Simon Lacey, head of vehicle technology, 'because driving cool air over and through the engine bay boosts performance, whilst keeping the oils in the engine and systems hot reduces C02. And you want both, of course.'

Naturally, the 12C benefits from McLaren's F1 racing experience. 'Rather like the turning vanes behind the front wheels of the McLaren Formula 1 car that have now been banned,' explains Ian Gough, McLaren Automotive's head of aerodynamics, 'the vanes on the underside of the 12C are designed to divert turbulent airfiow created by the wheels. If the wake from the wheels is allowed to interfere with

the clean air flowing across the smooth underbody, it prevents this clean air from generating downforce as the diffuser rises at the rear.'

One of the McLaren's most visible aero tools is the airbrake, an idea used on both the F1 supercar and the SLR. Under heavy braking above 60mph, a piston operated by transmission hydrauliCS raises the airbrake to 57 degrees. Once the wing is thrust into the airfiow, the centre of aerodynamiC pressure forces the bottom of the wing back. This moves the centre of pressure of the 12C rearwards, improving yaw stability under braking and creating more downforce enabling the conventional brakes to work more effectively.

CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK I SEPTEMBER 2010

&fa McLAREN

FERRARI J_,

By designing the anti-Ferrari

McLaren hasn't attempted the chic, Latin proportions of Maranello's finest. MP4-12C is epical/y bold, bullish, hard-nosed. Like its makers?

WORDS: Stephen Bayley

LIKE JULIUS CAESAR'S Gaul, car design is divided into three parts. There are thelaws of physics. Then the poetics of art. Lastly, ifcircumstances allow, there are the principles of functionality. It is, experience shows, difficult to get any two entirely correct in a single vehicle. Physics, in particular, is a cruel discipline. The general arrangement which puts engine and passengers between the axles provides the ultimate dynamic opportunities, but is ruinously wasteful of space.

Mid-engined cars are an ergonomic horror story: terrible packaging, worse visibility. But at the same time, the mid-engine arrangement offers designers the chance to draw something of arresting proportions. Ian Callum once told me: 'Every designer wants to do a mid-engined car'. He knows. He's done a few which got axed.

The Ferrari 458 and McLaren MP 4-12C are the ultimate expressions-so far and, let's faceit, perhaps forever-ofthemid-engineidea. Soapparentlysimilar, they are in design terms radically different. The 458 clearly evokes great Ferraris of the past. There are ghosts of the 330P3 sports-racer, the exquisite little Dino 246 and the BB512: this is no bad thing since the older cars are among the most glorious machines ever. If you have a heritage of great beauty, mad to ignore it. But the 458 is distinctively modem in its proportions, scale and stance. It took airframers 80 years to realise that winglets kept more air on the wings, thus creating additional lift for small incremental cost. The 458 benefits from a similar understanding of managed airflow: its gorgeous surfaces and lascivious orifices are a post-doctoral graphic of how to cope with pressure.

Incontrasttothisbravurastatementofaerodynamic glory, there is a polished cruelty about the McLaren. Only a dull person would not be impressed, but there is something missing. Clearly an evolution of the original Pi, it is more derivative than inspired. Given its markets, risks were possible. Instead, if such an outrageous proposition can be called tame, timorous it is. The 12C says nothing new. Nor does

the Ferrari, but the Italian says it with more grace.

Inside the McLaren, there is an overwhelming sense of techno-bravura. The doors pitch forward to reveal a cut-out in the carbon tub to aid access: a rare concession to practicality. The same door movement emphasises the sense of narrowness. With the doors closed, there is a catafalque's sense of enclosure. You feel the inspiration was not Bruce MCLaren'snut-jobM6Can-Amcarcomicallyadapted for road use, but rather an electro-shock weapon or a Polar-Ray Dynasphere. Just like the Thomas A Swift Electric Rifle, inside aMcLarenyoufeelcapable of subduing three subjects without overload.

By contrast, the Ferrari feels more like a car. In fact, with a sense ofblasphemous irrelevance, I found myself thinking about the Fiat X/19: it seems that light, airy and even delicate. So, in one sense more primitive, but more humanetoo, There is something humourless and sexless about the McLaren; something extravagantlywonderfulaboutthe Ferra:ri. Enzo disdainfully announced his firm's retirement from sports-car racing by saying: 'Porsche doesn't make racing cars, it makes weapons'. Rivartarsinella tomba, as they say up Maranello way.

Of course, each car represents a psychological state. In the Foster-designed North Korea that is the Mclaren TechnologyCentre, faceless technocrats have worked on the MP 4- By contrast, the epic partnership of Ferrari and Pininfarina began in a restaurant, and Ferrari's other epic design partnership waswith the repair shop over the roadrun by Sergio Scaglietti. I am certain that machines carry inherited character traits as indubitably as humans do. On the other hand, will they care about these things at theAbuDhabiimporterwhere these cars are headed?

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"

By re-thinking every

engineering solution

THE GEARBOX 66 DIFFERENTIAL

To McLaren the 120 is the perfect combination of technical componentry, It's not about innovation, it's about balance

AS IT DID with the engine, McLaren looked at using existing dual-clutch gearboxes, but none fitted the bill. The one they've come up with (in conlunctlon with an as-yet unnamed supplier) is lighter and more compact, says McLaren, resulting in a transmission up to 200mm shorter than off-the-shelf 'boxes.

It's shifted by steering-whee I-mounted paddles - or more accurately, just one paddle, like the F1 cars'. Pull the right side or push back on the left and the result is the same, the next gear up is selected. There's also something called pre-cog. Pull back halfway on the lever as the redline approaches (there's a noticeable detent) and the transmission readies the electro-hydraulics for the next change like pressing lightly on a camera's shutter button. Then press harder and the next gear fires home instantly, though how much more instant than the 458's changes you can get (or need), we're not sure.

But the most interesting story is McLaren's decision not to use an active differential. 'Most drivers never use their active diffs,' Paul Burnham says. 'We went a long way down that route but they're very heavy - it would have added 30kg and given us NVH problems and the customers wouldn't have got the benefit. With our brake-steer sytsem and the extra traction that comes from not having anti-roll bars, we don't need one.'

Brake steer is based on a technology first used by the F1 team in the late 1990s with massive success, which was banned after complaints from ... Ferrari, of course. Based on information gathered from sensors around the car, the 12C's inside rear wheel is braked to help the car turn in to corners and also prevent the same wheel from spinning up when power is applied at the exit.

Ferrari has a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox too, developed with Getrag, but it also employs an active differential, which Ferrari's head of powertrain told us weighs just 2.9kg more than the California's conventional LSD. Rather than applying the brakes, the Ferrari has a clutch pack at each driveshaft, regulating the power applied to each side to give optimum traction and stability. In the 458, the E-diff works together with the F1-trac stability system, but the idea is that the E-diff will try to sort things out before the ESP has to cut power or apply brakes. Mercedes is using this same gearbox under license in the SLS.

THE ENGINE

IF THE APPROACH to chassis tech puts McLaren and Ferrari poles apart, so do the engines nestling within those chassis. McLaren looked at off-the-peg solutions, but couldn't find anything suitable so ended up making its own in conjunction with Ricardo. So both cars use dry-sumped V8s, and both have racing-style flat-plane cranks that make them operate more like a pair of four-pots stuck together than a traditional cross-plane VR It results in much lower rotational mass so gives amuch sharper response, reduced weight, allows the engine to be placed lower in the chassis and produces a harder edge to the soundtrack.

But while Ferrari has gone for a relatively large 4.S-litre naturally aspirated V8, McLaren went for a much smaller 3.8-litre eight, albeit one aided by a pair of turbochargers. It's the McLaren that wins the horsepowerwar, posting S92bhp, 30bhp more than the Ferrari. And as you'd expect, the force-fed Brit packs more torque too, 4421b ft of the stuff from 300orpm.

But there are two surprises. One is that the Ferrari totes a surprisingly stout 398lb ft - although at an unsurprisingly high 6000rpm. The otheris that, far from running out of puff at 6soorpm like most blown engines, the MP 4'S will rev to 8soorpm, just soorpm short of the Ferrari's bonkers maximum. According to McLaren's technical director, Dick Glover, it's all thanks to careful matching of the turbo geometry and BCU software. Being more powerful and lighter, the MP 4 is at least o.gsec quicker to 124IDph says McLaren and will emit less than 300gJkm C02, making it even kinder to the planet than the impressively green Ferrari. ~

WHEELS 661111AKES

UNLIKE FERRARI, whose entire range of cars now comes with carbon brakes as standard, the MP4-12C

will leave the factory with cast-iron stoppers unless you delve into the options list. But here's the weird bit: the steel brakes are actually lighter than the ceramic alternative, when Ferrari reckons its carbon discs are 5kg lighter. McLaren says it's because the 12C's carbon brakes are massively bigger in size and come with extra ducting that the steel brakes, which come fitted to a lightweight aluminium centre, don't need.

However McLaren reckons the standard brakes are more than up to the job

of stopping a 600bhp supercar, not least because they're all fitted with a pop-up airbrake located on the rear deck, and that ceramics will be for the track-day fans. Hmm, try to telling that to the average metropolitan poseur who ticks every box on the options list out of habit. We'll have to wait for the first drive to determine for certain whose brakes work better and whose give the most feel.

But Ferrari's carbon brakes are among the best and far less wooden than Lamborghlnl's equivalent. We do know that Ferrari claims the 458 stops from 124mph in 128m. That's 12m earlier than the old F430 took. We don't yet have the same figure for the 12C, but McLaren claims it stops from 62mph in 30m, which is 2.5m less than the 458.

The two rivals take a different path when it comes to wheels and tyres too. The Ferrari employs 20s all round, 235/35 ZR20 at the pOinty end and 295/30s at the back. The McLaren goes for 235/30 ZR19s front and 305/30 ZR20s rear and can be ordered with stickier Pirelli Corsas instead of the standard P-Zeros. Ferrari doesn't offer a rubber upgrade but, like McLaren, makes lightweight forged wheels available (2kg lighter per corner) for committed dieters.

CAR_010910_McLaren_9_074_246638.pgs 06.08.2010 10:45 VlP4

'IIIE SUSPENSION

AFTER THE CHASSIS, its suspension make-up is the MP4's biggest departure from the supercar norm. Poke a head into its wheelarches and you'll notice something is missing - an anti-roll bar. This primitive staple of suspension design is a U-shaped metal bar running from the suspension arm on one side of an axle to its opposite number. Its resistance to torsion is what cuts body roll.

What they do well is offer roll stiffness without affecting the vertical spring rates. So when both wheels on an axle hit the same bump, the roll bar pivots as a piece rather than twists. The downside is that they severely limit the independence of independent suspension, reducing traction because every force transmitted to one wheel reaches the other too. And sometimes you get 'head toss' where the car struggles to cope with different bumps on the left and right sides.

McLaren isn't the first to replace anti-roll bars with hydraulics (Mercedes did it with its Active Body Contro!), but it's the first in this market and significantly lighter and more sophisticated than other car maker's active roll-bar solution. The work is done by a set of hydraulically-powered struts connected left and right and front to back. As the fluid is forced out of one strut when the car turns, it's fed to the strut on the opposite side, reducing body roll to almost nothing.

It's a passive system but by twisting a dial on the centre console you can change the pressure of the gas in the accumulators and change the roll stiffness, though only when the car is in a straight line.

'Ride and handling is a compromise: says Paul Burnham, the MP4's vehicle dynamics manager, formerly tyre expert for the F1 racing programme. 'But Proactive allows us to extend the breadth of abilities. It gives low warp stiffness (the diagonal force) but high roll stiffness (the left-to-right force) when you need it. It means the ride comfort is brilliant because when you're driving down a straight bumpy road you don't want any roll stiffness:

The Ferrari Is more conventional with steel springs and anti-roll bars at both ends, but compared to the all-round double wishbones of the McLaren, it uses a multi-link at the back. The L-shaped lower front wishbone arms and extra links at the rear massively increase lateral stability and mean Ferrari can fit a really quick 11.9:1 steering rack (down from 16.9:1 in the F430).

The 12C's suspension fluid, spheres and hydraulic lines add weight over a conventional steel sprung set-up, but ditching the roll bars saves a load too, so there's precious little net difference. Both use adaptive dampers that react to information from sensors measuring data about yaw, steering rate and angle. The Ferrari's use a Magnetorheological system that applies current to the fluid to change the damping force.

,

By keeping weight down

There's more than one way to lose weight. But who's lightest?

r::J THIN SKINNED ~~ AIRBRAKE

If you're going to cut ~~~ Initial SLR-style pulley

weight, the further up the ~~:J system was too heavy.

car the saving, the better. That's why the Finished version uses a mix of hydraulic

458's roofskin is an incredible 1mm thick power from the gearbox and air pressure

Ferrari quotes a 1485kg with-fluids kerbwelght but that's for a car equipped with optional forged alloys (2kg lighter per corner)

Ferrari phased out cast iron brakes when the F430 was still alive. As well as massively reducing brake fade, they're 5kg lighter

One of the results of a 'weight-down' workshop for the whole team. Weighs 10kg less than a lead acid battery

~~ .. _ ~O"". SMALLER '.iIT:l~ TECHNICAL

~.'" ~ FUEL TANK ~"t~ -... ~ SEAT FABRIC

," I ' Boosting the 458's I. ~ I 0- The fabric in the 12C

fuel economy meant Ferrari could cut doesn't just look cool, it weighs 40% less

fuel tank capacity from 95 to 86 litres than leather. Cow also available of course

ENGINE DIET Reducing the thickness of the intake manifolds does

nothing for power and response, unlike cutting rotational mass, but every little helps

DUAL USE PUMPS Why use separate pumps for the electro-hydraulic power steering and Proactive suspension? That's what McLaren thought...

FERRARI 458 ITAUA

McLAREN MP4112C

PRICE £170k (est) ON SALE Spring 2011 ENGINE

3800cc 32v twin-turbo V8, 592bhp @ 7000rpm, 4421b ft @ 3000rpm TRANSMISSION Seven-speed dual-clutch, rear-wheel drive PERFORMANCE approx 3.2sec 0-62mph, less than 10sec 0-124mph, over 200m ph, 30m 62-0mph WEIGHT/MADE FROM under 1400kglcarbonfibre, aluminium, plastic LENGTHlWIDTH/HEIGHT 4507/1895/1199mm

PRICE £169,546 ON SALE Now ENGINE

4499cc 32v V8, 562bhp @ 9000rpm, 3981b ft @ 6000rpm TRANSMISSION Seven-speed dual-clutch, rear-wheel drive PERFORMANCE less than 3.4sec 0-62mph, 10.4sec 0-124mph, over 202m ph, 32.5m 62-0mph, 21mpg, 307g/km WEIGHT/MADE FROM 1485kglaluminium LENGTHIWIDTHIHEIGHT 45271193711213mm

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The car is all but signed off, yet stili out there. 'We

don't stop, weJust

keep testing. •• '

em By testing your car in the real world

An F1-style test team is out there all day, six days a week, clocking up a million test miles

SIMULATION TESTING SAVED McLaren development time and money on the Pri project, but it can't do everything. You still have to drive the car. So after the initial concept had been tried on the PlayStation, McLaren built a mule based on a kit car to test the drivetrain, then switched to XP (experimental prototypes) for the first tests of the engine and gearbox in the correct chassis. Then the more advanced Beta XPs took over, before a switch to VP (validation prototypes) and finally the PP (pilot production) cars being built now.

Chris Goodwin and his test team will have completed over a million miles of testing by the time the cars go on sale, subjecting 20 prototypes to extremes ofhot and cold, autobahn blasts, crawls through cities and fast laps of the N ordschleife.

At the beginning of the project they operated the same way other car makers would, different groups going offindividuallyto do their own testing. But that soon evolved into an intensive, Pi-style programme of zahrs-a-day, six-days-a-week testing

The test driver. 'our car is quick, really quick'

at the ldiada test track in northern Spain. Coming from F1, most were happier this way. So during the day, one team carried out dynamic testing, then at night handed over to another team to carry out electrical tests that didn't need daylight.

Goodwin joined McLaren to race the F1 GTR and still races, although not for McLaren. Does he find road cars interesting enough after a career spent pounding down the Mulsanne Straight?

'Racing keeps me sharp, but I've always had a

parallel career as a development driver. I find myself getting excited about a door seal, though I realise that doesn't sound very cool!'

And what did he think about the 458 when he finally got behind the wheel? 'It's a good car, but it's better in areas we didn't expect it to be better and not as strong where we thought it would be. It was particularly goodwhen it came to wind noise, for example. Butwhere's the technology?'

Sowhich is faster? An impishly mischievous grin crosses Goodwin's face. 'I've driven both and all I'll say is our car is quick, really quick,' he teases, almost laughing, beforeintimatingthatthe McLaren will comfortably outpace the 458 on any road or track he's encountered.

Eight months before the car goes on sale, testing is ongoing. We're constandyrevisiting components to check they're okay. Ifwe're ahead of ourselves, we don't stop, we just keep testing. Final sign-off is in the autunm, but I've already driven a car you could sell. Some companies probably would.'

CD By using an F 1 simulator

Switch off the 'Hockenheim' setting and select 'bumpy B-road'

'YOU WOULDN'T DREAM of flying a plane without testing it on the simulator first,' says McLaren's technical director, Dick Glover, the man responsible for implementing the virtual testbed used in the development of F1 cars for the last decade and now the MP 4-12C too.

'Plenty of people thoughtitwouldn'twork,' Glover remembers, thinking back to when the idea of a simulator was first mooted in the mid 1990S. 'But Martin Whitmarsh (now F1 team principal) has an aerospace background and he was always ahuge supporter.'

And it really works. When McLaren was gearing up for the first Turkish grand prix in 2005, it had never driven the track but modelled the circuit on the simulator for testing purposes. When the F1 drivers eventually lapped the real thing later, the practice times were within 100th of a second of the numbers created on the simulator.

Of course, being able to drive your F1 car on a virtual grand prix track is one thing, but sports cars need to work on real roads too. So McLaren wrote code for some generic bumpy roads, and much testing was done at lower road speeds, although the simulator works better replicating at-the-limit behaviour. what about me Nordschleife? McLaren already tests mere extensively, butwouldn't a virtual version be useful? We're working on it,' Glover says with a smile.

The simulatorwas used to refine tyre specs, spring rates and me hydraulic suspension system. 'It's why when we built the first mule, it worked right out of the box,' according to dynamics guru Paul Burnham. It can't do everything though. It can't replicate hot or cold conditions or durability testing. 'Mileage accumulation has to be done on me road,' Glover says. 'That comes down to testing individual components and has to happen for real.'

Byyear's end, Glover's involvement in what started as the Pri progranlffie will be over. He's moving to the manufacturing side, making sure the new factory being built across the site from the existing MTC is up and running in time to deliver.

The current simulator isn't long for this world either, such is the pace of change in the computer world. Within two years an even more advanced version will have taken its place. ~

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'Bob, have you seen an anti-roil bar anywherei"

By offering the perfect customer service

Designing the car is one thing, building it another. But selling it? Believe it Dr not, that's the toughest part of all

DESIGNING AND BUll.DING aworld-beating supercar is just half the job. The other halfis down to McLaren's network development manager, David Lumley-Wood, the man tasked with setting up a global retail network from scratch.

He certainly hasn't been short of offers. 'Every week I get phone calls from people expressing an interest in becoming a dealer, from one-man-band outfits to huge multi-nationals. Technicians too, recognise that opportunities toworkfor a company like McLaren come along once in a lifetime.'

From 600 proposals, he whittled it down to two bidders perareawhothenhad to present to McLaren. Eachhad to prove thatthey hadintimate knowledge of their local market, were financially robust, had supercar selling experience and operated with the same focus on ethics and professionalism that pervades the rest of the company.

Nowit's busy finalising

the appointment of the first 35 dealers: 10 in the US, 13 in Europe, seven in the Middle East and five in Asia, They'll handle the first 1000 cars (McLaren already has 3000 expressions of inter est) but when the new factory being built at Woking is up and running, McLaren hopes to have around 70 oudets spread around the globe.

Not all dealerships will look alike, but there will be some core sirnilarities. Thefrontdesks,forexample. And though McLaren realises that customer needs are different around theworld, there are some shared desires. 'Customers want acarthatwillholditsvalue, tofeel part of acommunity, and to be shown excellent service,' Lumley-Wood says.

But it's all verywell sayingyou're going to provide betterservice- how is McLaren going to be different? 'One of the big gripes people have is when their car is off the road. Sometimes there's a delay at the dealership because the technicians don't know how

to fix it or haven't got the parts. Thatwon't happen with our car. Dealers will be obliged to take a kit of parts comprising almost everything on a car allowing them to fix a vehicle immediately.'

Some dealers though, have already elected to go further. Having seen the dedicated bays at MTC designed for fettling the F1 cars, one retailer has splashed out on his own recreation complete with glasswall toallow his customers towatch. Meanwhile the Ferraris in for service will be relegated to the other less glamorous side of the workshop.

Other dealers have requested a rolling display chassis because it illustrates the technical innovations and the link to Fl. Naturally F1 will form part of the marketing strategy, but not its whole. We have a number of buttons we're able to push,' explains Lumley-Wood. 'F1 has enabled this car to exist and ensures its incredible build quality, and credibility but it's not necessarily the reason to buy.' E]

.•

@ BY SUPREME CONFIDENCE

ONLY McLAREN would have the

balls to question the tech content

of a supercar from Ferrari. But

when It comes to Innovation, the 12C is formidable. The carbon chassis, hydraulic suspension and a turbo V8 that revs to an unheard of 8500rpm have us drooling. When It comes down to it though, the McLaren could be made out of garontlum carbostyrate from the planet Zarg and have

1200bhp, but if it's not as great to drive as the Ferrari then it will be the loser here. And having driven the 458, we know it'll take some beating. Can the 12C really deliver the shiver of the Ferrari kissing the limiter at 9000rpm? And is Brake Steer really a match for the 458's E-diffil Bring on the twin test ...

Who wins the tech batt/eil Cast your vote at carmagazine.co.uk

LIKE TIDS1 SUBSCRIBE AT GREATMAGAZINES.CO.UK/CAR I SEPTEMBER 2010

CAR_010910_McLarcn_15_080_246670.PIIS 06.08.2010 11:12 VlP4