McLaren F1 Celebrates the Big 2-0

McLaren's F1 is 20 years old this year (18 if you consider its 1992 debut date, so it's still legal) and to celebrate, McLaren invited owners out to Woking for a dinner at its Technology Center. The highlight of the get-together has to have been the 21-car F1 roundup, featuring the largest collection of F1s ever seen together.

McLaren chairman (and anti-Bugatti spokesman) Ron Dennis was on-hand to express his own feelings about owning and driving the car: "The F1 is a technological tour-de-force and a real triumph in terms of packaging and design."

"Whether endurance racing or on road, it is supremely fast, agile and yet comfortable. Its styling is enduring and will never fade. I enjoy driving mine more today than ever before because I find its technical purity highly satisfying; the F1 remains one of McLaren's proudest achievements."

Over its twenty years on Earth, the F1 has spawned 72 road cars (64 F1s, 5 F1 LMs, and 3 F1 GTs), 28 racers (F1 GTRs), and 6 other prototypes. The F1 GTR took just three months to develop, and the 28 examples McLaren built were big time winners: the 1995 GT1 Championship and the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans (1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 13th places), both its debut seasons.

The five cars that finished at Le Mans were the inspiration for the five Papaya Orange F1 LMs, which get a "de-restricted engine" putting out 680 horsepower.

Lastly, the "Longtail" GT came out in '97 in order to meet homologation standards for the new GTR.

If McLaren's F1 weren't a household name after its impressive race history, it sure was once it became the world's fastest car (it's still the fastest naturally-aspirated car). After a 106-car production run, Mclaren decided to call it a day with the F1. After a brief hiatus working with Mercedes to create the avian SLR, the Woking wonders are back with their own purebred 911 hunter: the MP4-12C.

Still interested in an F1? The last we heard, there was a Longtail GTR for sale in the Land of the Rising Sun.

By Phil Alex

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McLaren Reveals First Dealer Locations in 35 Cities Around the World

The brand-new MP4-12C supercar from McLaren Automotive will be sold next spring (2011) by a network of dealers in 35 cities in 19 countries across the world, with more to follow in 2012, the British company announced.

McLaren Automotive's initial network will include eight retailers in North America (USA, Canada), 12 in Europe (UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland), two in the Middle-East, and one in Africa (South Africa).

Here's the official list with the cities that will be represented by McLaren retailers:

• Europe: Birmingham, London, Manchester; Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich; Brussels; Monaco, Paris; Milan; Barcelona/Madrid; Zurich
  
• North America: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tampa; Toronto
  
• Middle-East / South Africa: Manama; Doha; Jeddah, Riyadh; Dubai, Abu Dhabi; Kuwait; Johannesburg
  
• Asia-Pacific: Hong Kong; Singapore; Sydney; Tokyo
  

The company said that it will reveal more details on its first 23 retailers ahead of the MP4-12C's global debut at Goodwood Festival of Speed.

According to McLaren, between 300 and 400 cars are planned for North America, 400 to 500 for Europe, and 100 to 200 each for the Middle-East/South Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.

McLaren Boss Ron Dennis Vents over Bugatti's Veyron, Calls it "Pig Ugly" and a "Piece of Junk"

McLaren chairman Ron Dennis does NOT like Bugatti's Veyron. No really, he utterly hates it. For example, he recently call Bugatti's Veyron a "piece of junk", saying it only beat McLaren's F1 in the famous Abu Dhabi Top Gear race after ten tries.

Dennis vented a bunch in an interview with Arabian Business, and his actual words are decidedly more entertaining than mine.

"The Bugatti Veyron is a complete piece of junk. I think it is. I believe I can look at a range of women and I can see beauty in most of them, but I can look at a Bugatti and I think it is pig ugly."

"The Veyron doesn't do anything for me. I've been looking at it for years, and I don't see one single thing that makes me feel good."

Obviously not, considering it stole your company's top-speed crown...

Regarding the Top Gear drag race, he explains, "When we did the race in Abu Dhabi, we beat it off the line so many times that the film crew was getting frustrated because the outcome was supposed to be for the Bugatti to win."

"We had to do that whole thing about 10 times before it managed to get off the line cleanly and catch us up...Every time they dropped the clutch it bogged down and we were gone."

Hey, everyone's entitled to their opinion, especially when it comes to the competition (that's usually the best kind of opinion). But "pig-ugly junk"? That's a bit harsh. It's not a Sebring.

By Phil Alex

Source: Arabian Business & Reuters , Via: Worldcafans