Inside McLaren automotive

McLaren's expert engineers discuss the development of the new MP4-12C.

Testing of McLaren's new supercar has begun in earnest! As you'll see in this video, prototypes of the MP4-12C have been put through their paces in environments as varied as the heat of the Bahrain Circuit in the Middle East to the freezing wastelands of Arjeplog in Sweden.

SEE THE MCLAREN MP4-12C LAUNCHED LIVE HERE

Auto Express paid an exclusive visit to the McLaren Technical Centre in Woking for an update on the MP4-12C supercar. Scheduled for launch in December 2010, the Ferrari 458 rival has now finished the first significant phase of its development.

The first Experimental Prototypes (XPs) are being replaced by second generation cars (codename XP Beta). These match the styling of the production car, but boast a matt black wrap in place of McLaren’s trademark orange paint.

Rumours have been circulating that McLaren has been having overheating problems with its bespoke 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8, and the new cars feature a revised cooling package. “It is about balancing the load around the cooling circuit,” says technical director, Dick Glover. “If you have too much cooling, you get too much aerodynamic drag and so it’s important to get the balance just right.” Part of the problem, reckons Glover, is McLaren’s determination to push everything to the limit. “We are never just going to take the safe option with this car.”

Joining Glover in Woking was Chris Goodwin, the man with the enviable title of chief test driver. Goodwin’s been testing MP4-12C mules since mid-2007. “This car will be defined by its driving experience,” he says. “This is a high performance sports car but we’ve also added loads of comfort. It will be very useable.”

The lucky few able to afford the likely £150,000 asking price can switch between three driving modes – track, sport and normal - which alter the throttle, gearbox and suspension. “This is not a marketing exercise,” says Glover. “The set-ups are manually chosen by the driver and they make a big difference.”

“We’ve spent a lot of time at the Nurburgring Nordschleife in Germany and on the road, but we’ll also be testing on billiard-table smooth race circuits,” continues Goodwin. “This car will feel great on a track, but it also needs to work on the journey home. We’re putting a lot of effort into ensuring that the car will deliver a fun experience at 50mph as well as at 200mph.”

A successful GT racer, Goodwin’s also responsible for demonstrating McLaren’s Formula One cars. “I’ve benchmarked everything from Lewis [Hamilton’s] title-winning F1 car to a Smart and they will all influence the MP4-12C,” he says. The road car team has also made extensive use of McLaren’s multi-million pound F1 simulator, but they’re keen not to oversell the grand prix links.

“[Ex-McLaren F1 driver] Heikki [Kovalainen] has driven the car,” admits Goodwin, “but not really in an official capacity. It would be much easier to develop a car for a Grand Prix driver but then we’d only sell twenty. We want to create a car that makes the average guy feel like a Formula One driver.”

Goodwin, Glover and the rest of the McLaren Automotive team will spend the rest of November at the Idiada facility in Spain for high performance testing of the new prototypes. This follows

McLaren is determined to prove that it has the resources and the expertise to establish itself as a proper rival to Ferrari and Lamborghini. Now all it has to do, is to prove that it can build a car to match the hype.