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On Tuesday 16th of July 2013, my wife and I went to Woking to visit the McLaren facilities and view our spider being built.
Our car was on it's last hours of a 20 day journey on the production line. It was being readied to do the dynamic test followed by the monsoon test. The road test was to take place at the end of that day.
Caroline Haynes greeted us with Danielle Fenemore whose father used to be a mechanic I believe,on the Formula 1 circuit. She grew up around the pits and her knowledge of the Formula 1 world is very impressive.
Here are some of the few bits of information that I gathered during my tour. For some of you guys it might be old news but I hope that for others it will be informative.
-McLaren is working out the details of an extension to the 3 year warranty. (Official announcement in 2014)
-All current production cars have a new and improved IRIS system but I could not get any details on the new features or improvements. The only information I could get was that it: " ....includes a more user friendly interface and improved satellite navigation.. " (Waiting to make an official announcement?). Note that the word "System" was used, not "Software" when talking about the upgrade. On the second picture below you can see the unit but I don't know if it looks like the one you guys have in the car of if it's different. I'll post screenshots after delivery.
-Mclaren plans to only build just short of 7,000 MP4-12C units.
-The planned follow up car will be a less expensive type car.
-I saw a few P1s being built on the production line but those will not go to end users. They are currently used as training tools for the techs that will be building the retail cars. The finished "training" cars will be delivered to dealerships and for other non-customers uses.
During the visit, we came across the actual F1 GTR car that won the Le Mans in 1995. It was in a hallway being readied to be put back on display in the building's main hall. It was coming back from the Goodwood Festival of Speed. While looking inside the cockpit of the car I had a brief chat with one of the techs working on it. At one point he told me to come around the left side of the car while he pulled the steering wheel out. I then realized that he was going to let me wiggle my way onto the seat. I was floored!
A funny thing happened as I was struggling onto the seat. The fuel pumps started humming in the back but we couldn't figure out what switch I might have accidentally hit while I was making my way in. After unsuccessfully going through all the switches on the right hand side panel, we found a very small red button just to the left of the seat which I had brushed, unwittingly turning the fuel pumps on.
I don't think that too many people were given such an opportunity to sit at the controls of this historic car. I was very fortunate.
Overall the tour was extremely well done. Danielle was incredibly generous with her time and Caroline was kind enough to take pictures of us next to our car at the end of the tour. She promptly emailed us the pictures that same afternoon. I've included a few below.
For any future owners I would highly recommend doing this trip, especially with your spouse. My wife was not aware of the heritage carried by the McLaren name but she now has a much deeper appreciation and respect for the brand.
Cheers.
Our car was on it's last hours of a 20 day journey on the production line. It was being readied to do the dynamic test followed by the monsoon test. The road test was to take place at the end of that day.
Caroline Haynes greeted us with Danielle Fenemore whose father used to be a mechanic I believe,on the Formula 1 circuit. She grew up around the pits and her knowledge of the Formula 1 world is very impressive.
Here are some of the few bits of information that I gathered during my tour. For some of you guys it might be old news but I hope that for others it will be informative.
-McLaren is working out the details of an extension to the 3 year warranty. (Official announcement in 2014)
-All current production cars have a new and improved IRIS system but I could not get any details on the new features or improvements. The only information I could get was that it: " ....includes a more user friendly interface and improved satellite navigation.. " (Waiting to make an official announcement?). Note that the word "System" was used, not "Software" when talking about the upgrade. On the second picture below you can see the unit but I don't know if it looks like the one you guys have in the car of if it's different. I'll post screenshots after delivery.
-Mclaren plans to only build just short of 7,000 MP4-12C units.
-The planned follow up car will be a less expensive type car.
-I saw a few P1s being built on the production line but those will not go to end users. They are currently used as training tools for the techs that will be building the retail cars. The finished "training" cars will be delivered to dealerships and for other non-customers uses.
During the visit, we came across the actual F1 GTR car that won the Le Mans in 1995. It was in a hallway being readied to be put back on display in the building's main hall. It was coming back from the Goodwood Festival of Speed. While looking inside the cockpit of the car I had a brief chat with one of the techs working on it. At one point he told me to come around the left side of the car while he pulled the steering wheel out. I then realized that he was going to let me wiggle my way onto the seat. I was floored!
A funny thing happened as I was struggling onto the seat. The fuel pumps started humming in the back but we couldn't figure out what switch I might have accidentally hit while I was making my way in. After unsuccessfully going through all the switches on the right hand side panel, we found a very small red button just to the left of the seat which I had brushed, unwittingly turning the fuel pumps on.
I don't think that too many people were given such an opportunity to sit at the controls of this historic car. I was very fortunate.
Overall the tour was extremely well done. Danielle was incredibly generous with her time and Caroline was kind enough to take pictures of us next to our car at the end of the tour. She promptly emailed us the pictures that same afternoon. I've included a few below.
For any future owners I would highly recommend doing this trip, especially with your spouse. My wife was not aware of the heritage carried by the McLaren name but she now has a much deeper appreciation and respect for the brand.
Cheers.
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