The new McLaren MP 4-12C is the first of the new generation of supercars from the same F1 team that has been victorious 12 drivers Championships and 8 Constructors Championships. The McLaren MP 4-12C is not the F1 team’s first road going car, this was the McLaren F1 GTR in the 1990s, and was the world’s fastest production car for over 10 years. In its race form it was the out right winner and group winner of the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1995, and you might think this was the purpose for developing the car but it was created to be the ultimate road car not a race car. McLaren’s next road going car was the Mercedes McLaren SLR which was created in partnership with Mercedes and was a luxury supercar. As Mercedes had requested adding lots of electronic equipment and a big heavy engine with a bulky automatic gearbox, it was initially hard to call this a supercar. This was because all this extra weight made the car very heavy, which made the car slow round corners but with the big powerful engine it could reach a top speed of 208 mph in a straight line, which put it concretely in the supercar class.
With these previous road going motors McLaren have had help from its partners in creating some of the smaller aspects of the motors, for instance on McLaren F1 GTR the main concern regarding wiper blades was to make sure they did not create any unnecessary drag, which would depress the motors top speed, and this is why they chose a flat wiper blades. This is one of the reasons why the McLaren F1 GTR was the fastest production car for such a long time. The only reason they added any wiper blades to the McLaren F1 GTR was it was necessary to remove grime from the windscreen. The windscreen had a special coating that made precipitation flow from it, keeping it clear when in motion, so it was not important if the wiper blades lifted up at fast speeds. When McLaren design the Mercedes McLaren SLR they turned to their partner’s Mercedes when it came to creating small things like wiper blades as they have day-to-day experience of these, and also replacement wiper blades had to be available from Mercedes garages. McLaren also let Mercedes design some of the larger parts of the car, like the large and very powerful supercharged engine and also the automatic gearbox.
McLaren and Mercedes announced an end to their professional relationship in 2009, although McLaren will continue to use Mercedes Formula one engines for years to come in its Formula one car. This meant that when McLaren began designing the MP 4-12C they had no partner to help them, although in a team with the resources of McLaren this will not be hard. The McLaren MP 4-12C has flat wiper blades similar to the ones used in the McLaren F1 GTR, although the replacement wiper blades are available off the shelf from almost all good motor parts suppliers. Also, with the exception of the tyres you will not find any other mass produced parts on the McLaren MP4-12C, as they have all been design and produced by McLaren automotive. This is because everything on the MP4-12C is customised by McLaren for the car, even the 3.8 L V8 twin turbo engine is built by Mercedes in its new engine development department. McLaren has borrowed a lot of its Formula one technology in building this car, it has a 7 speed dual clutch gearbox just like the Formula one car, but this one has “Pre-cog” this which allows the driver to preselect the next sprocket by half pulling the paddle shifter, which allows for much speeder gear changes. The McLaren MP4-12C also has “brake steer” that was first seen on the McLaren Formula one cars before it was quickly banned, this system decrease understeer when cornering at high speeds.