[dennis]

It was a beautiful morning at McLaren SF as McLaren Automotive MD Antony Sheriff stopped by to celebrate the first customer delivery from the dealership. Larry Blair's Volcano Orange car was front and center, but attention quickly turned to the transporter that arrived with three more MP4 12C's, much to the surprise of their owners who did not expect them until next week. At least for today, Palo Alto CA was home to the most McLaren's outside of Woking: 2 F1's, the 2 pre-production cars that have been hanging around, 2 demo's and the 4 customer cars.

Antony, accompanied by McLaren US head Anthony Joseph, spoke and took questions for about 45 minutes. Interesting tidbits:

- Current production is 40-45 cars per week
- They will deliver 129 cars to US customers by the end of December.
- 700 cars slated to go to the US in 2012
- Annual production for 12C limited to 1500 to keep residual value high
- A new model coming every year (refused to answer questions on Spider)
- F1 successor will be "significantly faster" and must exceed expectations for an F1-class price point
- In every category they enter, McLaren will have the highest performance by having the most advanced technology, derived from their Formula One experience

So Santa came early for 4 happy 12C owners in NorCal, and the rest of us left the event totally stoked about getting our cars in early 2012.

 

[HyperMac954]

Yeah, rough morning.

Nice to have met you Dennis, and Marin12C (lucky guy).

 

[Osiris_x11]

Great update, thanks for the share!

As silly as it may sound, I'm trying to make it a point to venture to any/all McLaren dealer showroom(s) in an area that I'm visiting when traveling!

Where is the import location for U.S. bound MP4-12C's (ie. New Jersey, Southern California, etc)? Is it the same for all North American deliveries? Anyone take note of particular stamping or label/tag on MP4-12C demo-testers/showroom-models/customer-cars designating a location/importer? Just curious. . .

 

[roundincircles]

Antony is a top bloke as we say in Blighty. I like his enthusiasm and straightforward approach combined with clear direction on the companies goals, both short and long term.

But above all, in these early days he is customer centric , like he understands he and Mclaren can only thrive with customers in front!

 

[Marin 12C]

Nice to have met you Dennis, and Marin12C (lucky guy).

Nice to have met you too, sorry to have missed Dennis, but I have to say that you guys have great taste in car color.

It was great to finally see my car, and I can't wait until the PDI is done and I can take it home. For those of you who like to see photos, here are a couple of poor ones from my phone.

 

[HyperMac954]

That girl in the corner... she's probably up to no good...

But then again, she's very patient with her crazy boyfriend...

 

[dennis]

Where is the import location for U.S. bound MP4-12C's (ie. New Jersey, Southern California, etc)?

I spoke to the driver of the transporter and he said that the cars were picked up in New Jersey.

 

[falb]

what a great day and a great report. Very exciting to see all those cars in one place.

A new model every year? Sounds like a lot.

 

[Peloton25]

Awesome - wish I could have joined you folks.

More pictures are always welcome. I assume the silver F1 was #062 brought by LB?

>8^)
ER

 

[HyperMac954]

Yup. To be honest, I thought the 12C sounded better than the F1 just rolling down the street at low RPM. That said, very cool to see a couple that actually get used, all in one place.

 

[Osiris_x11]

Interesting tidbits:

- A new model coming every year (refused to answer questions on Spider)

A new model every year? Sounds like a lot.

Seems plausible...

MY2012 [P11] MP4-12C
MY2013 [P12] Le'Big-Mac/F1-successor
MY2014 [P11'] MP4-12C Spider/Roadster
MY2015 [P13] "baby" McLaren ("entry-level" exotic-supercar/911-competitor)
------
MY2016 McLaren 4x4 SUV
MY2017 [P11-ii] MP4-12C successor
MY2018 McLaren 4dr-coupé/fastback-saloon
MY2019 [P11-ii'] MP4-12C Spider/Roadster successor
MY2020 McLaren shooting-brake/fastback-GT
MY2021 [P13-ii] "baby" McLaren successor ("entry-level" exotic-supercar/911-competitor)
MY2022 McLaren city eco-hybrid micro-compact (cross-platform w/ Hyundai-Kia offering)

Yes, all in humour w/ regards to anything after 2015... though it's been working for Aston Martin, Porsche, and Ferrari!

 

[falb]

We know nothing about P12, so to have them ship cars next year seems unrealistic. Seems like they...
2011 Ship some P11s
2012 Ship many P11s
2012 Q4 announce P12
2014 announce P11 spider
2014 deliver P12
2014 announce P13
2014 deliver P11 spider
2015 deliver P13
2016 announce GT-P11
2016 deliver GT-P11

That is 4 cars in 6 years...not far off.

Don't worry...Ron can't make a world class SUV or KIA so we should be okay.

 

[HyperMac954]

I asked Antony about the forthcoming cars, and got absolutely nothing for an answer. lol.

 

[Chrisb]

I asked Antony about the forthcoming cars, and got absolutely nothing for an answer. lol.

Great story but let's enjoy what we have for now with the 12 c rather than wishing our life away into 2014 onwards for more models, they will come all in good time. I just wish that I didn't have to wait until April 2012 for mine.

 

[HyperMac954]

Well, the reason I pushed was that when I spoke to him and Frank Stephenson at the Concours d'Elegance earlier this year, they both said we should be seeing mules by the end of October.

 

[andy c]

Well, the reason I pushed was that when I spoke to him and Frank Stephenson at the Concours d'Elegance earlier this year, they both said we should be seeing mules by the end of October.

Im quite surprised we havent seen any,then again we might have ,as there have been plenty of cars around in plastic wrapping,so maybe they have been testing the engine and drivetrain.Chris Goodwin also said they had mules,and he had been in the SIM testing the next 2 models for several months now.

 

[Senna]

Im quite surprised we havent seen any,then again we might have ,as there have been plenty of cars around in plastic wrapping,so maybe they have been testing the engine and drivetrain.Chris Goodwin also said they had mules,and he had been in the SIM testing the next 2 models for several months now.

Andy, they probably have been seen, but being mules no one recognized them. I sure they looked like disguised 12C's so no one paid attention.
I would imagine the spider will came before the hyper car, would seem less of an engineering challenge to get that to market first. But then again maybe they don't want to disrupt excitement in the coupe.

 

[Senna]

It was a beautiful morning at McLaren SF as McLaren Automotive MD Antony Sheriff stopped by to celebrate the first customer delivery from the dealership.
QUOTE]

Was he in town just to go to SF or is he visiting all the dealers ??

 

[roundincircles]

Andy, they probably have been seen, but being mules no one recognized them. I sure they looked like disguised 12C's so no one paid attention.
I would imagine the spider will came before the hyper car, would seem less of an engineering challenge to get that to market first. But then again maybe they don't want to disrupt excitement in the coupe.

They have visibility of the spider customer list and the coupe O/Book so it's easy judge.....take at least a year or 18 months before launching the spider. Lot of spider interest according to the dealers.

In some ways the Mega Mac lifts the Brand and positions the MP12 as VFM. It would not surprise me to see an early release of MMac

 

[dennis]

Was he in town just to go to SF or is he visiting all the dealers ??

He has been in the US visiting dealers. The event was organized about 10 days ago, and then they miraculously materialized 4 customer cars to coincide with his appearance.