[gripforce-mclaren]

Had a great time and got to meet bunch of gear heads from LA.
I was surprised to see Mr. Leno and the man.... Mr. Ron Dennis!!!

[Peloton25]

I was also fortunate to attend the Grand Opening celebration of McLaren Automotive's new dealership, owned by the AutoGallery. It was an awesome event - I had a wonderful time and met some great people including Ron Dennis - a real thrill for me.

I snapped some pics with my iPhone that I will share later, but here's InsideLine's take on the event with much better photos than I managed to capture.

Click one of the images below to access their full article on the event - their images are also clickable for hires versions.





If you look closely in the crowd shot above you might even spot the elusive Peloton25.

>8^)
ER

[6th element]

Ron Dennis was there? Wow! So, Peloton, had he heard of you?

[Peloton25]

Ron made a point of mentioning during his speech that he is a member of a very exclusive club of executives in the UK who do not send emails, adding that it was not something to be particularly proud of. He also does not - to use his word - "blog", and he had some funny off the wall definition for a "Twitter" that made everyone laugh. That said, he would have little frame of reference for knowing who I am, and thankfully no one warned him I was coming.

In our brief moment together I shared my enthusiasm for the direction McLaren are taking now and mentioned that I am 'the blogger' and that I have dedicated more than the last 10 years of my life in pursuit of learning every piece of knowledge I can with regards to the McLaren F1. I would have loved to have continued the conversation much further, but it was clearly not the time and place to do so. Perhaps another opportunity will someday come along.

My guest for the evening used his phone to record Ron Dennis' speech to the crowd. I will share a link to it shortly so those who were unable to attend can hear the things he had to say. Be forewarned that the '90210' crowd did not immediately show him all the respect that he deserved () which clearly put him off a bit from the start.

About a minute into his planned remarks, he did pause his speech to make an impassioned plea for the crowd to quiet down. I was pretty embarrassed that it happened and figured that "Ron Dennis" not being a well known figure in the US was likely to blame, but was told later on that the same thing had occurred at a similar event in London. I am guessing a lot of people in attendance just did not realize he was hosting the party and paying for all their drinks.

Enough of my mini-rant, I'll have the video link up shortly when I am able to get home to my PC.

>8^)
ER

[falb]

If Mr. Dennis is informed of car chat board activity then I am sure he has.

Nice to Patrick Dempsey there (the most active and prominent celebrity in racing) lusting after the McLaren orange 12C. Wish they had better pix of the M8 car. M8FP 72-09



M8F - 1971
The 1971 Can-Am M8F car was designed by G. Coppuck and included a number of innovations. It ran with an 8-litre Chevrolet built by McLaren Engines using the new Reynolds all alloy cylinder block. Horsepower was rated in excess of 740.

Trojan production cars for Can-Am were M8FP models in 1972.

[6th element]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

Ron made a point of mentioning during his speech that he is a member of a very exclusive club of executives in the UK who do not send emails, adding that it was not something to be particularly proud of. He also does not - to use his word - "blog", and he had some funny off the wall definition for a "Twitter" that made everyone laugh. That said, he would have little frame of reference for knowing who I am, and thankfully no one warned him I was coming.

In our brief moment together I shared my enthusiasm for the direction McLaren are taking now and mentioned that I am 'the blogger' and that I have dedicated more than the last 10 years of my life in pursuit of learning every piece of knowledge I can with regards to the McLaren F1. I would have loved to have continued the conversation much further, but it was clearly not the time and place to do so. Perhaps another opportunity will someday come along.

My guest for the evening used his phone to record Ron Dennis' speech to the crowd. I will share a link to it shortly so those who were unable to attend can hear the things he had to say. Be forewarned that the '90210' crowd did not immediately show him all the respect that he deserved () which clearly put him off a bit from the start.

About a minute into his planned remarks, he did pause his speech to make an empassioned plea for the crowd to quiet down. I was pretty embarrassed that it happened and figured that "Ron Dennis" not being a well known figure in the US was likely to blame, but was told later on that the same thing had occurred at a similar event in London. I am guessing a lot of people in attendance just did not realize he was hosting the party and paying for all their drinks.

Enough of my mini-rant, I'll have the video link up shortly when I am able to get home to my PC.

>8^)
ER

Great stuff, Peloton. You should know that when I did my first 12C test drive with Simon Andrew, we talked about you and he said a number of employees do know who you are and that they are all amazed by your encyclopaedic knowledge. He said specifically "He knows more about McLaren's cars than anybody within the company!". I believe he had recently spent some time with you, himself, perhaps at Pebble Beach?

Not that you do it for the recognition. I sincerely hope that you will have a McLaren in your garage one day, as you are undoubtedly the most dedicated fan of the brand and its vehicles!

Fantastic that you were able to meet RD.

[Osiris_x11]

Looks like a very neat outing! I believe the McLaren Dallas (Park Place Motors) event is coming up within a week or so as well. Hope Ron makes a pit-stop there!

Originally Posted by falb

Nice to Patrick Dempsey there (the most active and prominent celebrity in racing) lusting after the McLaren orange 12C...

Professional baseball player (formerly of the Texas Rangers, now w/ the Los Angeles Angels) CJ Wilson is another prominent "celebrity" automotive enthusiast & motorsport participant. He's very active on online forums & generally known as a Porsche'phile. Now being in the SoCal area, I wonder if he stopped by to attend this event? He's awaiting an MP4-12C delivery (presumably from McLaren Dallas as-per this tweet back in September, well before his free-agency move to LA).

[HyperMac954]

Damn, looks like fun!

[Senna]

i didn't take any pictures as i only had my i-phone and know there was "official" pictures being taken which I'm sure will be awesome. Meeting Ron and Anthony Sheriff was a real honor, but i couldn't get away from the F1 simulator in the corner...brilliant. great turn out, lots of gear heads, a few typical rude LA types that Ron did put in place when they talked through his speech, ( for which he got a round of applause )
The Mclaren Beverly Hills staff really pulled of a top notch job.
Peleton great that Ron signed you book

[Peloton25]

Originally Posted by 6th element

Great stuff, Peloton. You should know that when I did my first 12C test drive with Simon Andrew, we talked about you and he said a number of employees do know who you are and that they are all amazed by your encyclopaedic knowledge. He said specifically "He knows more about McLaren's cars than anybody within the company!". I believe he had recently spent some time with you, himself, perhaps at Pebble Beach?

Not that you do it for the recognition. I sincerely hope that you will have a McLaren in your garage one day, as you are undoubtedly the most dedicated fan of the brand and its vehicles!

Fantastic that you were able to meet RD.

Thanks for the very kind words - I am somewhat over-the-top with my enthusiasm for the McLaren brand and you are correct that it has indeed been noticed. I must clarify that my knowledge of the older cars and much of their fantastic racing history is not committed to memory quite yet, but with the recent purchase of "McLaren: The Cars" and "McLaren: The Wins" in a boxed set from Coterie Press I will be making an effort to fill in those gaps as soon as I can.

I did meet Simon at Pebble Beach this past summer along with several of the other folks from McLaren NA & the UK who had come over for the 12C Special Ops car reveal. Simon has been very generous with his time and attention since then - one of the good guys for sure!

The greeting I received from all of the McLaren folks in Monterey, and the kindness they've shown to me since then, has been extremely gracious. From my point of view it was also totally unexpected. You are correct that I don't do this for any kind of recognition - if anything I want McLaren to be the ones recognized - but I would be lying if I said that the recognition has been anything but sweet! I told the story of my entire Monterey trip on another forum I am active on - if anyone has lots of free time and is interested in reading about it, here's the link:

Monterey 2011 - the four most amazing days of my entire life....

As for a McLaren in the garage, that is definitely my goal someday. Of course the one I'd want the most would be an F1 - who here doesn't? I even have a few chassis numbers singled out that I would prefer to own, but with prices continuing to rise to even more stratospheric levels than they originally commanded, it really is beginning to seem like dreaming an impossible dream.

I have been very impressed by the 12C and how well it has adhered to the ethos of past efforts by McLaren - showcasing their DNA while still conforming to today's regulations and the need to offer a product that can be sold in all the important markets around the world, including the USA. I assume they will never be 'cheap' but certainly more reasonable as time goes on and hardly out of reach. I'm also excited about the proposition of a car that slots in beneath the 12C, so P13 may be my best chance. We will wait and see and I will most definitely be paying close attention.

Not only did I get to meet Ron Dennis, but he was also generous enough to autograph my boxed set of the two McLaren books.



I was excited to add them to my library, but now with Ron's autograph signed at my request they have clearly become one of the premier pieces of my collection.

= = = = =

Here is the video I promised above - shot by my friend Las who was as thrilled to be there last night as I was. It's a little shaky from a handheld camera phone but still better than nothing. I had hoped to record the speeches too but was too far away from the stage when the discussions started to secure a good place near the front. As you'll see at the start of the clip, Las was second row behind Jay Leno the entire time. Big thanks to him for sharing this!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151158885805454

>8^)
ER

[Peloton25]

An extended video from my friend Las is now available for viewing on Vimeo.com:

http://vimeo.com/34946947

He also shared a small gallery of photos on his FB page:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set...9301.545610453

>8^)
ER

[6th element]

Some more coverage, here:

http://www.motormavens.com/2012/01/m...2c-ron-dennis/

[6th element]

Originally Posted by Peloton25

An extended video from my friend Las is now available for viewing on Vimeo.com:

http://vimeo.com/34946947

He also shared a small gallery of photos on his FB page:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set...9301.545610453

>8^)
ER

Great video. Loved Ron's speech.

[Peloton25]

This piece was written by an e-friend of mine and has a link to a video shot by Las that I posted above.

http://hooniverse.com/2012/01/13/gra...beverly-hills/

I like the shot of Jay Leno's 12C parked out front.

>8^)
ER

[Peloton25]

Stanceworks published some quality shots from the event too:

http://www.stanceworks.com/2012/01/m...beverly-hills/

>8^)
ER