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What got you interested in McLaren's?

71K views 192 replies 143 participants last post by  driverstherapy 
#1 ·
In my case, it was very simple, seeing Nick Mason's F1 for the 1st time. Brilliant packaging on a brilliantly designed car. Everything about it was completely thought through. Interest was cemented after my first trip to the MTC.
 
#2 ·
I was completing a formula racing course at Bondurant in Arizona and wandered over to the Penske Racing Museum. On the TV monitors they were playing the full length film CAN-AM: A Speed Odyssey. I stood there and watched the entire movie twice, back to back, and that was it for me.

 
#3 ·
Well, I'd had it with 911's (brilliant cars for what they are) simply because I wanted a change.

Started to look at options.

Wanted a car for driving not cruising. Met a F1 owner, a complete petrol head, who had done 20,000 miles and just talked about how it was to drive. Got my attention.

Trusted that Mclaren would deliver.........
 
#4 ·
Ever since I was a kid I've been entrenched and enticed by beautiful cars and women for that matter. The neighborhood that I lived in as a kid growing up had a multitude of rare and exclusive type cars. So yes I've been influenced by the lifestyles at home and abroad which has had a positive impact on me and my love of cars. Cheers....??
 
#6 ·
My dad took me to the 1983 Grand Prix of Detroit when I was a 9 year old kid. I remember a photo of the MP4/1' naked carbon chassis in the race program. It looked light years ahead of everything else. At that age, I wasn't sure what I was looking at but I knew I liked it. Also loved the clean lines of the MP4/1. It was all about the 'looks' of the car. That was it, I was a McLaren fan for life.
 
#7 ·
Seeing the F1 at the park lane showroom many years ago. Had of course seen pictures in various magazines previously but nothing quite like seeing the car in person as I don't think one really gets a sense of just how well the car is engineered/packaged without seeing it up close.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Me too! I was visiting the UK at the time and stopped in. I think I visited that showroom some several times over a few years just to gawk at it's beauty many times. What an amazing machine! One day I'd love to own one but it seems highly unlikely given how few there are remaining and how incredibly valuable they are now. That ship has likely sailed for me but the P1 is attainable and I hope it turns out to be even half as much of a classic for its time as the F1 is today.

Beyond the heritage and obvious engineering prowess, there are few things driving my current interest in the brand:

- Hearing that they upgraded MP4-12C cars as improvements were introduced - can you imagine Ferrari offering to do that?

- Seeing what a great car the MP4-12C is considering it is only their 3rd significantly produced road car and maybe really only their second considering the SLR was more Mercedes than McLaren.

- Getting to meet some of the truly nice, passionate, people that work for the company.

- Seeing the P1 in person and learning about its design and specifications.

- The fact that they're a British company. I have a special place in my heart for the UK and their people.

- Cheering from the sidelines toward them becoming a true alternative to Ferrari in design, passion, engineering, luxury, exclusivity and sales/financial success.
 
#11 ·
Bit of a story to this but its what happened,
I got a magazine for my birthday when I was in grade 1 it had the mclaren f1 on the cover and a nice write up about it( still had the mirrors high up on the doors). Loved that magazine, i read it a million times until the pages got ripped,That was the start, Part two came in the form a trip to the motorshow, which dad and i do every year its in melbourne, there was only one car i wanted to see, i knew it was going to be there as id seen it in the newspaper, there it was in the bmw stand, a real live mclaren f1. i remember standing there for hours, trying to soak it up from every angle, the harder i looked the more details i found to explore. i stood there until security asked us to leave as the show was closing. i asked the lady at the stand if she had any literature i could have to post on my bedroom wall, to which she replied "sorry we dont have any left for today" devastated i had one last look and stretched my neck till we rounded the corner and it was out of sight. i wouldnt see another car i liked so much until we got Grand Prix tickets in 97, I flicked through the program and saw the Mclaren in the papaya orange prototype colours with Dc and mika, as the drivers. At The track I stood glued to the fence waiting for the orange cars to come around, I felt bad for liking these awesome looking black, white, silver and neon red cars flying past, saying "they sound the best" to my dad and grandfather. It wasn't until a lull in the practice session that I looked up to the screen to see where the Mclarens were, and I realised the cars I secretly was drooling over we're in fact the Mclarens I came to see!
Meant to be. Lol:D
 
#12 ·
I've been a McLaren fan ever since, during one vacation in Hong Kong, my Dad bought me an issue of Road & Track Magazine that had a cover shot and feature test of 3 of the great supercars of the 20th Century - the Ferrari F40, the Porsche 959, and most significantly, a McLaren F1. Though I can't recall its' chassis # right now, it was painted in what is now called Volcano Orange - and I'd never seen anything quite like it. I was only 14, the age when most boys are still going oooh and aaah over NOS and Lambo doors and 800Bhp Skyline GT-Rs, so it warped my mind a bit when I first read the F1's performance and technical specs, and words like 'immediate throttle response' and 'synapse-quick handling reactions'. The central driving position seemed so out-of-this-world yet just right at the same time.

That was how my love for McLaren cars was kindled, and it only grew through further experiences. I later discovered a car encyclopedia in my school library that listed all the F1 variants in it, and that was how I discovered the F1 GTR, F1 LM, and the Longtails, and what made each one so special and unique even in the rarefied world of supercars.

It's been a whirlwind ride ever since. Getting my copy of Driving Ambition, and discovering all the stories behind the F1's gestation and #01R's win at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. Studying and researching them all over the Internet, happily drinking in details like the changes made to F1s like #014 and #018 and #040 and #073, what the various LMs and road-converted GTRs went through and the lives they led and still lead, the record-breaking sale of #065. Starting to collect F1 models and memorabilia..

And that has brought me here today, to the 12C and P1.

It is, as they say, a very exciting and thrilling time to be a McLaren fanatic and enthusiast.

;)

ADW
 
#15 ·
I drove a 12C with the new upgrades! ;)
 
#17 ·
Being older than most of you, while in college I went to the USRRC (pre CanAm) race at Mid Ohio in Aug. 1968 and saw Mark Donohue win in a McLaren M6A Chevrolet. Then I moved to California and saw Denny Hulme win the CanAm race at Laguna Seca in the M8D in 1970.

Fast forward to 2010. Once I started reading about the forthcoming MP4, I got fascinated by the concept of bringing F1 tech to a road car. The more I read, the more I wanted one. I kept bugging the newly minted dealer about taking a deposit from me. When I finally got a chance for a road test, I knew I had to have one. 1 year and 7500 miles later, I couldn't be happier. :D
 
#21 ·
I would have thought there would have been a mention of Bruce McLaren. One of the last who could design, engineer and drive at the highest levels and of course the marque's namesake.

And of course Gordon Murray's F1

While I like the F1 program it has precious little relevance to road cars and sports racing cars and I don't like to think how many thousands of dollars per unit could be involved if road car sales have to pay for much of the F1 budget.
 
#25 ·
Because McLaren had its roots and close association with Formula One, I was intrigued how their philosophies albeit different from Ferrari would translate onto their production road cars.... it was indeed a viable alternative!:cool:

I also like what the original McLaren F1 had achieved in terms of outright performance and revolutionized the hyper-car segment.:)
 
#26 ·
I remember hearing about McLaren first when the F1 came out. Then again when the McLaren Mercedes came out.

Being a big fan of Top Gear, I saw the review that Clarkson did and I became fascinated by the beauty of the car. The front, the back, the profile, all just awesome. Clarkson talked about how comfortable it is, how well it drives, and that it gets good gas mileage.

Then I hit youtube and watched all the reviews of the car, but the one that really sold me on it was the BBC show 'How To Build A Supercar: MP4-12C. That did it.

A supercar that is easy to drive, decent gas mileage, looks awesome, yet few know what it really is, and goes like stink? Perfect!

I have always been a fan of Ferrari since I first saw the 308 on Magnum PI and still am. But if I had to choose between the 458 and the 12C, I would take the McLaren (spider, please).
 
#27 ·
I've always liked Niki Lauda for his bluntness and I've always liked John Watson because he is John Watson. When the two of them became teammates in 1982, that got me focused on McLaren. When the F1 won Le Mans in 1995, basically a street vehicle winning Le Mans, that so impressed me that there could be no further discussions of who held sway in engineering and performance supremacy.
 
#28 ·
am with you there George... I was always in awe of F1 but when they took their 'road car' and put it on track and not just won but almost shut out the top of the finishers, I started to take much more notice... plus the LM sounded freakin magnficient braking into the mulsanne chicane.... and then powering out the otherside... will never forget... particularly as when the panoz went by they almost made you sick with the vibrations coming from the v8..
 
#29 ·
As a kid I always loved cars. Ferraris, Lambos, Maserati (the Bora is still a gorgeous car), Lancia, Panteras, the mid-engines. So amazing.

Then when got older, we became a Honda family because we got tired of fixing all the US cars (although I like a lot of current day US cars, there are really a lot of good ones now). And that got me interested in the Honda/McLaren F1 partnership. Senna. The mid-engine NSX. So much awesome.

And then the F1. Was something so lustworthy. So pure. So insane. So clean. It's wacky that the car could be all those things.

So I finally had the $ to get a super car. I'm going to get a 458. My mind is set. I just wasn't sure if it would be black or red. I go down to test drive them. The coupe is great (not a fan of the spider--despite it's gorgeous looks). It was a serious upgrade from my vette (great car by the way). Ready to plunk my cash down. Dealer says why dont you try the Mac. It kind of melted my mind.

It was instantly clear right after I hammered the gas, the car was a terrorist. Right at that instant, I knew I was getting the car. If you love sheer, brutal, exacting performance, it's not clear to me how you could possibly come to any other conclusion. Driving the car is like being on shrooms, while being shot out of a rocket catapult, and folding fractal factorials to find alien life.

All those little bits ended up being a thread that just gave me a positive intuition/feeling for the thing.
 
#30 ·
I like your prose John,even though I don't quite understand it,but the passion is there like the rest of us.I think you have to have a different mind set to own a McLaren compared to your average supercar owner ,now everyone can tell me what that might be !!!
 
#33 ·
McLaren has always had my interest. One of the few F1 teams/builders with time and performance under their belt. So that meant to me a car that would work if I bought one, not a science project someone built a handful of to call it a production car for class racing rules (several come to mind guilty of this, ahem GT40 Mk3). I also did not want an ultra rare car I could not maintain reasonably easily (not have to ship across the continent for an oil change) or be fearful to drive because it's irreplaceable. I've owned enough rare, race oriented, performance figure kings to know that I don't want a race car or a car that can out run a bullet. Those cars are fun for 20 minutes at a time and usually only good when measuring your length at the car shows. I wanted a super/hyper car that was the king of the hill but wouldn't kill me when my skills fall short of Hamilton or the road surface/condition changes, etc. a car I could carry a couple weekend bags and take my wife on a get away in. I think the racing heritage, F1 technology, etc. are huge. Also it was important to me to get a car built in the MTC, I think maybe some extra F1 magic dust might have settled on it. I also am a good enough driver to know I'm not a professional driver and that I operate a manual gearbox like a caveman, I make stupid mistakes on the track and the street, I don't pay 120% attention to street driving 100% of the time. The 12c was the only one left after filtering thru my list & experiences of how I use a car like this. Throw the exclusiveness, looks and other ego satisfying bits into the equation and the 12c is simply the only choice.
 
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