McLaren MP4-12C, 2011

 

 

 

McLaren MP4-12C, 2011

The McLaren MP4-12C is revealed as the first in a range of high-performance sports cars from McLaren Automotive, the independent car division based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. The 12C, and future models within the range, will challenge the world's best sports cars, benefiting from the expertise and virtuosity of the McLaren Group.

20 years of sports car design, engineering and production combined with inspirational success in Formula 1 have driven Ron Dennis, McLaren Automotive Chairman, to announce his plans for the ultimate line-up of technology-led and customer-focused performance cars for the 21st century. The rules in the sports car world are about to be re-written.
McLaren MP4-12C - what's in a name?
The name of the new McLaren sports car is MP4-12C.

What does this signify? As one might expect at McLaren, everything has a purpose and the nomenclature is no exception.

    * 'MP4' has been the chassis designation for all McLaren Formula 1 cars since 1981. It stands for McLaren Project 4, resulting from the merger of Ron Dennis' Project 4 organisation with McLaren.
    * The '12' refers to McLaren's internal Vehicle Performance Index through which it rates key performance criteria both for competitors and for its own cars. The criteria combine power, weight, emissions, and aerodynamic efficiency. The coalition of all these values delivers an overall performance index that has been used as a benchmark throughout the car's development.
    * The 'C' refers to Carbon, highlighting the unique application of carbon fibre technology to the future range of McLaren sports cars.

The elements of this name represent everything that the McLaren MP4-12C stands for:

    * 'MP4' represents the racing bloodline
    * '12' represents the focus on complete performance and efficiency
    * 'C' represents the revolutionary Carbon MonoCell

Design: everything for a reason
The McLaren MP4-12C has been designed around a demanding mechanical package that puts emphasis on aerodynamics, compact dimensions, performance and efficiency, practicality and comfort. Although the design of the 12C was driven by aerodynamics, it aims to remain contemporary and elegant throughout its lifetime as well as distinctive among its peers.

From the side, the 12C cannot be mistaken for another sports car. The dominant side air inlets act as turning vanes and help direct cooling air over the side radiators. This shape was designed and optimised using McLaren's extensive computational fluid dynamics capability. Likewise, the scalloped shoulders drive airflow to the airbrake, thereby enhancing its effectiveness in the aerodynamic package.

The other prevailing design characteristics are the dihedral doors (a hereditary gene from the McLaren F1), which has a clear purpose, like every other element of McLaren's design ethos.

The concept of dihedral doors is simply to allow the driver and passenger to get into and out of the car as easily as possible as well as allowing a smaller door opening than would otherwise be necessary.
With its single hinge, the dihedral doors offer weight-saving features and are unique to the McLaren brand. As is the unique handle-free door entry system.

The 12C's rear is unique. It has an aggressive, business-like appearance with its downforce-optimised rear diffuser. The exhaust pipes exit high and in the centre of the car and the rear end is open to ensure efficient evacuation of hot air from the engine bay. The engine itself is visible through the top deck. The LED tail light clusters do not dominate the rear and are hidden behind horizontal black bars. They are only visible when illuminated: the two upper bars light up as LED brake lights and turn indicators.

Aerodynamic efficiency drove the 12C's design. High downforce helps maintain traction, cornering ability and stability while low drag aids top speed and acceleration. It has a completely flat underbody and smooth upper body surfaces to yield a highly effective drag coefficient and generate very high levels of balanced downforce at high speed.

A nose splitter gives more downforce at the front while guide vanes near the front and rear wheels help to increase downforce with minimal drag penalty and direct air towards the all-important diffuser at the rear.

The active Airbrake is another innovation that made its debut on the F1 supercar and was also incorporated into the SLR. It deploys hydraulically under braking, or when the driver wants to trim the car for increased downforce by using a switch on the Active Dynamics Panel.

Under braking, a piston operated by transmission hydraulics raises the Airbrake to a certain angle. Once a small amount of wing angle is pushed into the airflow, the centre of aerodynamic pressure forces the bottom of the 'wing' back. In this way, it raises the airbrake to maximum angle using the 'free' airflow rather than relying on another mechanical device.

The Airbrake moves the centre of pressure of the 12C rearwards, whereas it would normally move forward under braking. It improves yaw stability under braking and allows the brakes to work more effectively due to increased downforce. It is also a weight-saving solution that took almost 50 per cent of weight out of the mechanism.

Overall, the 12C is lower, shorter and narrower than key competitors, but has much shorter front and rear overhangs due to its longer wheelbase - a layout that promotes stability and assists handling response.

Inside: it all starts with the driver
Packaging was fundamental to the McLaren MP4-12C design challenge. Externally, the car had to be compact, yet internally it had to offer an unparalleled driver and passenger environment where comfort and driving enjoyment at all levels were not compromised.

The interior is extremely space efficient and is designed to accommodate 98th percentile adults in comfort. This has been partly achieved by the 7 inch touch screen telematics system oriented in 'portrait' mode. This is a first for the automotive industry and is more intuitive than 'landscape' orientation - we read down a page and our mobile telephones and other personal information devices are configured this way.

McLaren designers paid great attention to all-round visibility for both safety and driving precision.
The low cowl gives a full six degrees downward vision from eye height and, importantly, allows the driver a clear view of the front of the car. The view of the top of the front wings, with the highest point positioned directly above the centre of the wheel, also facilitates perfect placement of the 12C in a corner. Rear vision is excellent too and an internal buttress with a rear three-quarter glass provides a clear rearward view.

The steering wheel is probably the most important sensory item for any driver. Apart from the feel and feedback from the front wheels, the actual grip and design of the wheel itself is paramount. The steering wheel is 'clean' - there are no buttons to distract the driver. It also needs to be small and very tactile.

McLaren designers and engineers found the solution to the steering wheel design challenge under their own roof. Having employed an advanced and compact airbag, the steering wheel design was then inspired by McLaren's racing expertise.

The steering wheel grip of the 12C is as technically precise as a McLaren racing driver's wheel.
This is because past Formula 1 championship-winning drivers' grips were modelled and scanned and the most effective feel and thickness of their wheels was replicated for a high performance road car.

The McLaren F1, the driver has controls on both sides, which allows for a rational positioning of switches:

•     * Climate controls on each door console
•     * Telematics on the upper centre console
•     * Active Dynamics Panel on the middle centre console
•     * Transmission and minor controls on the tunnel console
•     * Trip computer and cruise controls on steering column

The Active Dynamics Panel provides two rotary switches and four push buttons:

•     * 'Start/Stop'
•     * 'Active' activates all the dynamic controls.
•     * 'Winter' sets powertrain, suspension and electronic aids to maximum driver support.
•     * 'Launch' initiates the launch control system.
•     * The two rotary switches control 'powertrain' and 'handling', each having three position settings for normal, sport and high performance driving modes.
•     * 'Powertrain' changes throttle response, gearbox strategy, shift times and impulse (how much one can feel the gearchange). The coaxial 'Manual' button controls use of manual gearbox functions.
•     * 'Handling' changes stability control, steering weight, suspension firmness and roll stiffness. The coaxial 'Aero' button allows the driver to deploy the airbrake for increased downforce.

Testing and simulation

McLaren has developed one of the most sophisticated driving simulators in the world. It is an immensely powerful tool that can be used to predict handling, performance, and a multitude of other dynamic properties.

Production
The production process for the McLaren MP4-12C will enable McLaren to build on its recent success of record production volumes and quality for a luxury supercar with the SLR.
The McLaren Production System brings a large scale lean production mentality into a small-scale, flexible operation. The process is championed by Production Director, Alan Foster's experiences at Japanese and European car manufacturers.

12C volumes will remain low, but will require a change of mindset for McLaren's production line teams as the company moves to higher volumes. But the build process will still focus on craftsmanship, a hand-built philosophy but with a lot of science behind it. Quality gates will ensure that a car cannot leave a work station until everything is completed perfectly.

McLaren will maintain its high standards of final approval before a car can be released.
The build of prototypes has already proven the robustness of this approach because investment in the manufacturing assembly fixtures that will actually be used in production has already prepared the team and shown the build process to be on track. The 12C station cycle times have already been reduced by almost a further 20 per cent through knowledge gained from building the prototypes. In short, the risk has been removed from the production process so that final production quality will be guaranteed.

Aftersales, retail distribution, personalisation
Not only is McLaren establishing a new company, a new production plant, an all-new high performance sports car engineered and developed in house... it is also building a global network of retail distribution partners.
This small number of super operators will deliver the dedication and purposefulness necessary to ensure an ownership experience for the 12C that is as good as the car itself.