The composite materials side of McLaren has done work outside Formula 1 for many years. Bikes, prosthetic limbs, medical equipment have all benefited from the autoclaves that the F1 teams use as well.
I think (from poor memory) that the engine ECU monitors for all the F1 teams came from McLaren at one point. These were to ensure no over-revs or other things were done. Or was it Williams, such a poor memory.
I was a bit dubious of the road cars at first but they have really done well. When we did our tour in the Coupe in 2017 we fell in with a 720S down near Nice/Monaco and it looked stunning. I was not overly in love with some of their shapes but that was lovely from all angles. For me it needs to be fast and loud but also pretty to look at. Some of the Lambo's are starting to look like a kids toy with all the lines and angles etc. Fine for a playboy but a bit OTT for me. I guess that's why I love the Morgan shape and the AeroMax especially.
Although McLaren have excelled at composite technology and were the first to introduce it to F1, the tub on the current road car is produced by Mubea Carbo Tech (MCT) in Austria, using a patented system to produce a McLaren designed hollow structure in a resin transfer process with a 4-hour moulding process. However McLaren have their first
factory outside the Woking Mothership and pre-production of the tubs will switch to it by 2019 latest.
The 720S is a big jump in both quality and technology over the MP4/12-650S and the design is very much form follows function (just like my Plus 8’s and other Trad Morgan’s), in that the shape is dictated by the aerodynamics hence double skinned doors and quite a distinctively shaped car.
Incidentally, I forgot to mention to Tim that the McLaren/Ricardo designed and developed engine, built by Ricardo in Shoreham, was inspired by a TWR-developed engine (based on the Nissan VRH engine) which was developed for the IRL Indycar Championship, but was never raced. Virtually nothing remains of this original engine apart from the 93 mm bore in the 650S version of the engine...
Whilst I love the Morgan, I also love the opposite end of the scale which is the McLaren and one of the things that delights me is that both are British!
