McLaren Automotive at Cars&Coffee in Irvine

2412 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by RWD, Mar 14, 2011

Peloton25

Discussion Starter · Mar 13, 2011

McLaren Automotive brought out their new MP4-12C to Cars&Coffee in Irvine this morning. They also brought along a 12C bare chassis and so it was great to be able to pour over all the details.

It was wonderful to finally see the car in person. I was a little iffy on it from the initial studio shots released back in September 2009, but 'in the metal' it is a sharp looking car with a lot of presence. It's not wild like some prefer their supercars to be but I think that suits McLaren's style, that the design will age well and it is a good building block for future products while still carrying over a few elements from McLaren's past. The people who are lucky enough to put their names on the list for this car should have no regrets.

Here are some of my pics:

The other 140 or so I took can be found in my Flickr gallery.

>8^)
ER

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RoadTripper

· #2 · Mar 13, 2011

Peloton25, awesome shots. Bet it was good to see the car in person. It is cool they had the car and the bare chassis at cars&coffee. Impressive.

Were they provided by the local dealer? Any good conversations about McLaren worth sharing - driving related or otherwise?

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widowmaker911

· #3 · Mar 13, 2011

WOW great pix

12C looks SIK

you guys have all the FUN

thnx for sharing looked like a GREAT time

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Peter Jones

· #4 · Mar 13, 2011

Peloton25 said:
McLaren Automotive brought out their new MP4-12C to Cars&Coffee in Irvine this morning. They also brought along a 12C bare chassis and so it was great to be able to pour over all the details.

It was wonderful to finally see the car in person. I was a little iffy on it from the initial studio shots released back in September 2009, but 'in the metal' it is a sharp looking car with a lot of presence. It's not wild like some prefer their supercars to be but I think that suits McLaren's style, that the design will age well and it is a good building block for future products while still carrying over a few elements from McLaren's past. The people who are lucky enough to put their names on the list for this car should have no regrets.

Here are some of my pics:

The other 140 or so I took can be found in my Flickr gallery.

>8^)
ER

Exceptional photos, probably the best I've seen yet - thank you. Just to clarify, exactly what silver is that: ice silver, supernova or titanium? Cheers.

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Peter Jones

· #5 · Mar 13, 2011

Actually Peloton, on closer inspection of your photos (which again are superb!), I do have one query though.

Photo no 4, the rear qtr shot where you can see a gentleman standing in front of the bonnet, grey sweater and shades. He seems to be very pleased with what he's looking at!

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widowmaker911

· #6 · Mar 13, 2011

the double arm side mirror attachment from the photos will become a single arm in final production form. the double arm design (unique/ i liked it) looked GREAT but made a LOUD whistling sound (excessive wind noise) @ speed; reason for the switch in the FINAL design. you can see the change from the videos during the portugal press release.

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Peloton25

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 13, 2011

RoadTripper said:
Were they provided by the local dealer? Any good conversations about McLaren worth sharing - driving related or otherwise?

There were a few representatives on hand from the dealership that will open in Newport Beach, however, there were also a couple of McLaren Automotive employees there from the New York office as well and they were the ones who were in control of the cars.

MotorWorldHype produced an interview with Lynne Arciero from McLaren:

There's also this very detailed walk-around video from RedRyderMedia:

Peter Jones said:
Exceptional photos, probably the best I've seen yet - thank you. Just to clarify, exactly what silver is that: ice silver, supernova or titanium? Cheers.

Thanks!

You know, I never asked about the color and I probably should have because I am not 100% positive. I just went and studied the color wheel again on McLaren's website and I'd say out of all the choices this car most closely matches their online sample for Supernova Silver.

I could be wrong though - it may be the standard Silver, but it was definitely not the other two you suggested. The Ice Silver would be brighter and more blue, and the Titanium Silver would have more of a bronze tint to it than this car did.

widowmaker911 said:
the double arm side mirror attachment from the photos will become a single arm in final production form. the double arm design (unique/ i liked it) looked GREAT but made a LOUD whistling sound (excessive wind noise) @ speed; reason for the switch in the FINAL design. you can see the change from the videos during the portugal press release.

Yes - this car was one of the early Validation Prototypes built in the middle of last year and there were a few elements on it that were not 100% production spec. It was also lacking some functionality and had a built in limiter set for a max of 15 mph. No sense angling for a joyride in that case.

The one thing that made me laugh a bit was they were having to use a small string hanging from the inside of the wheel arch in order to open the release on the front bonnet lid. I knew this car was a prototype, but didn't really expect that one.

>8^)
ER

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Peter Jones

· #8 · Mar 13, 2011

I emailed a copy of one of those pics to my McLaren rep who responded this afternoon to confirm it is Supernova. That is stunning. Have just changed my order from Titanium to Supernova. Luckily havent gone 2nd stage dep yet so can still amend.

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RWD

· #9 · Mar 14, 2011

A+ for direct marketing and interacting with your potential customer base. That is really cool to see them bring a car to a low key event like a c&c.

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