McLaren Artura Hybrid Supercar Set To Be Revealed February 16

Feb. 2 – McLaren has been spawning more supercars than we can keep up with, recently the Sabre, and now the all-new McLaren Artura. What seems to be a similar looking platform to recently departed models such as the 570S, is actually a brand new design, and powertrain. The McLaren Artura, due for launch on the 16th of February, is being hyped by McLaren as a platform that will follow the footsteps of some of the greatest cars McLaren has ever made, including the Senna, Speedtail and Elva.

The McLaren Artura will make its debut as an all-new high-performance Hybrid Supercar, housing a twin-turbocharged V6 combined with an electric motor. This powertrain is designed to retain all of the performance benefits from McLaren’s larger V8 engine options, but come with the added advantages of improved torque in the lower rev ranges, and an option of running the Artura on only electric. This option, however, will most likely be for city jaunts as it’s not a full electric vehicle, so the battery will most likely be fairly small.

The McLaren Artura is also going to be built around their new carbon fiber chassis, known as the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA). Because of the batteries for the hybrid system, the carbon fiber chassis is a smart move to offset some of that added weight.

Tune in on February 16th for the official reveal to see just how incredible their new Artura is!

The McLaren Sabre: A Bespoke Hypercar Experience

January 4, 2021 – When you get the opportunity to participate in the development process of a bespoke commission hypercar, such as this McLaren Sabre, you don’t pass it up. This exclusive new hypercar, crafted for the first 15 lucky customers, was designed through McLaren Special Operations, McLaren’s bespoke division which is dedicated to providing owners with fully customizable options and building ultra-exclusive limited-edition or one-off models.

The McLaren Sabre has been designed and homologated exclusively for the U.S. market. It boasts the most powerful non-hybrid McLaren twin-turbo V8 engine to date, with an astonishing 824 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. This powerhouse jets the McLaren Sabre to a top-speed of 218 mph, making it the fastest two-seater McLaren, but not by much. The McLaren P1 has a top-speed of 217 mph, just beat by only 1 mph!

Because of the fact that the McLaren Sabre is limited to 15 bespoke examples, and only available in the U.S., this means it only has to meet standards set in the U.S. This leads to ideas and innovations on the McLaren that global homologation would not permit.

Customers were able to test drive a prototype of the car on track in partnership with O’Gara Motorsport and McLaren Beverly Hills, but that’s only part of the immersive journey McLaren has provided. Customers also flew to their style design studio in the UK, where they could work with the McLaren Special Operations designers to create a McLaren Sabre that best suits their style and needs.

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019

Often copied but never duplicated, The Goodwood Festival of Speed (FOS) is perhaps one of the most amazing events on the motorsports calendar. This year the FOS celebrated its 26^th anniversary and StateofSpeed.com was there for the party.

“The Festival is a fantastic event that I always enjoy but running up the hill in the rain is a definite challenge.”Duncan Pittaway, driver The Beast of Turin

The Festival occurs every summer on the grounds of The Duke of Richmond’s ancestral home, Goodwood House, Chichester, West Sussex, 100 miles south west of London, England. The event is centered around a timed hill climb up the Duke’s 1.16-mile drive. The long-standing record for the run was 41.6 seconds set in 1999 by Nick Heidfeld driving a McLaren MP4/13 Formula One car. His average speed was 100.385 mph. Nick’s record for an F1 car remains unbroken as they no longer allow F1 cars timed runs for safety reasons, however, this year Nick’s 20-year-old record was broken by Romain Dumas driving the all-electric VW I.D. R with a time of 39.9 seconds. Dumas might have gone faster on the Sunday but rain prevented a faster run.

The hill climb, which is by invitation only, sees an eclectic field of racecars. We went as a guest of Brit Duncan Pittaway, who muscles the amazing, fire belching “Beast of Turin” up the hill. Built originally in 1911, the 28.5-Liter Fiat ran 132 mph in 1913. Duncan, who recently drove the Beast through the streets of London, restored the car (that’s a book in itself), and drives it with gusto and even ran up the hill in the Sunday rain which sidelined most competitors saying, “The Festival is a fantastic event that I always enjoy but running up the hill in the rain is a definite challenge.”

“[Driverless cars] would be like climbing Mount Everest using virtual reality—who cares.”

Unlike most big-time events, the FOS pits are open to everybody and you can walk around, get up-close-and-personal with the cars and talk to the mechanics, owners and drivers: I bumped into a wide range of drivers from three-time F1 Grand Prix Champion Sir Jackie Stewart to NASCAR star “King Richard” Petty. Others in attendance included Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and his 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, now valued at an estimated $85 million.

This year, the FOS celebrated more than 40 categories of Motorsports from Early Speed Record setters through Brickyard Heroes of Indy, to the Giants of Rallying both past Group B cars to the Giants of Modern Rallying. There were also special celebrations of Aston Martin, that made its Goodwood debut in 1949, Bentley, March Engineering, Mercedes’ 125 years of motorsport, Porsche 917, and Michael Schumacher. Indeed, there are so many and so much to see it makes your head hurt.

Besides all the historic gas guzzlers, there’s an obvious and growing technological shift toward electric and even autonomous cars with no drivers. Call me old fashioned, but driverless cars to me means slot car racing and while skill is involved, I just wonder if removing the driver removes the point. It would be like climbing Mount Everest using virtual reality—who cares.

That said, as mentioned earlier, this year’s fastest time was set by the Volkswagen I.D. R electric car that recently won Pikes Peak. Driver Romain Dumas scorched up the driveway in 39.9 seconds during the Saturday practice. Rumor had it that he would have killed it on Sunday had rain not prevented it. It’s also a sign of the times that the fields of Goodwood were littered with supercars. Everywhere you looked there were lines of Lambos, Ferraris, Aston Martins and McLarens, et al. Time was they were a rarity on British roads but no longer.

The FOS’s accessibility to the cars and the drivers, particularly if you are a Formula One fan is amazing in this day and age of restricted access. You can get within a few inches of the cars, check them out, hear them run and meet and greet the mechanics and the drivers. I don’t know of anywhere else you can do that in such a casual atmosphere.

Besides the summer FOS, Goodwood hosts the fall Revival, this year scheduled for the weekend of September 13-15. The Revival is held on the old Goodwood Grand Prix circuit that is also on the Duke’s estate that was an airfield during World War II. The Revival features historic circuit racing with everybody in period dress. Like the Festival, it’s a fantastic event to add to your bucket list. For more info visit Goodwood.com

McLaren F1 Designer Peter Stevens Takes His T Black

What do you think the F1 designer of the amazing 240-mph McLaren F1 drives? It would surprise you to know that he mostly drives a Model A Ford and at weekends races his 1925 Ford Model T.

Supercar designer Peter Stevens grew up in England in his grandparent’s house with his uncle Denis “Jenks” Jenkinson who was a British motor racing journalist and most renowned as co-pilot of Sir Stirling Moss in the infamous Mille Miglia race in Italy. Pete’s father was an accomplished painter and Peter attended London’s prestigious Royal College of Art (RCA) where later he would become a professor in charge of the school’s acclaimed automotive design program.

Peter couldn’t help but become a gearhead and he loves it all, from off-roading to the local English pub, down the River Deben in his Jeep, to Le Mans, to land speed racing at Bonneville. After college, Peter established his own design consultancy and worked for Renault on the Alpine, Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), and even did work for the Brabham Formula One team.

In 1985, he became Chief F1 Designer at Lotus Cars where he worked on the Excel, the Esprit, the Elan and for outside companies such as Isuzu, Cadillac, Triumph, and Chrysler. However, in 1989, he worked with TWR on the design and development of the Jaguar XJR15 that remains one of his favorite designs and endures as a very collectible supercar. Only 53 were built and they command prices approaching $400,000.

Ron Dennis of McLaren saw Peter’s potential and hired him to design the then-new Mclaren F1. Design credit usually goes to Gordon Murray but while he was the engineer Peter actually did the design work.

When the F1 project was complete Peter worked for numerous clients including Audi, Lamborghini, Benetton F1, BMW Motorsport, Hyundai, IPN Indonesia, McLaren Cars, Nardi SpA, OZ Wheels, Prodrive, Panoz, Reynard, Rolls Royce, Subaru, TAG Electronics, Toyota Team Europe, Virgin Atlantic, and TATA motors. His impressive body of work resulted in numerous awards including the U.K.’s Autocar magazine Designer of the Year.

“The right pedal is the brake, the center pedal is reverse, and the left pedal is low, neutral, and high. The throttle is on the column—got that?”Peter Stevens

In the year 2000, Peter became the Director of Product Design for MG Rover and worked on the MG TF, the MG Z-Cars, the MG SV and the Bonneville MG ZT wagon. It was on that project that we were able to finally work together as I worked at So-Cal Speed Shop in Pomona, California, where the racecar was built.

But why a wagon for Bonneville, you may ask? Well, deep down Peter is a hot rodder as were members of the MG board and at the time MG was developing a line of V8-powered vehicles powered by Ford-Roush engines. The aerodynamic wagon seemed a natural, especially when powered by a 700-hp Roush NASCAR engine. The wagon eventually exceeded more than 230-mph but sadly MG Rover collapsed in 2005 and the project was shuttered.

Peter, meanwhile, continues to design for a wide range of clients and works on a lot of eco-friendly, mass-transit projects as well as some alternative-fueled supercars. He also judges Concours events around the world, lectures and gives his time to numerous educational projects including the prestigious REVS Institute in Florida.

However, his first love remains hot rods and Ford Model Ts in particular. Over the years, he has owned several T speedsters but his current ride is a barely shiny, Henry Ford “Any color as long as it’s black,” 1925 turtle-deck roadster. It’s called a turtle deck because of that add-on trunk bolted to the back of the roadster body.

…his current ride is a barely shiny, Henry Ford “Any color as long as it’s black,” 1925 turtle-deck roadster.

Peter purchased the T from the U.S. sight unseen on eBay and works and on it himself at home in his studio or his barn in Suffolk, England, about 100 miles northeast of London. The chassis is a narrowed frame from a later, 1929 Ford Model A right down to the lowered buggy spring suspension and rod-actuated brakes.

Thankfully, it does not have the quirky Ford T pedal arrangement. “The right pedal is the brake,” said Peter. “The center pedal is reverse, and the left pedal is low, neutral, and high. The throttle is on the column—got that?”

Power for the black beast comes from a mildly hopped-up Model B four-cylinder engine fitted with a Winfield cylinder head, an Ansen intake, a Mallory distributor and a Stromberg 97 carb that is made just up the road in Waldringfield, Suffolk. Over the summer, Peter’s plan is to install a hi-lift cam from H&H Antique in La Crescenta, California.

Peter is well experienced at driving these funky old cars. He not only drives them on the street but also races in such events as the Pendine Sands Hot Rod Races in Wales where we caught up with him, at the Rømø Motor Festival in Denmark, and at other European venues. It’s a far cry from the McLaren F1 but to Peter, “They’re all hot rods to me.”

For more information about Peter visit his website or follow him on Facebook.

McLaren Technology Centre

Of course, I’d heard about it, everybody in the supercar business has heard about it, but few have had the opportunity to tour the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC). Located near Woking, 30 miles southwest of London, England, and close to the historic Brooklands race circuit, the MTC is amazing. Nothing quite prepares you for rounding the corner at the McLaren Thought Leadership Centre and taking the long curving drive beside the lake that is overshadowed by the sweeping building designed by Norman Foster & Partners. The word “building”, however, is insufficient to describe this yin-yang inspired Taj Mahal to motorsports.

The Technology Centre provides a headquarters for the McLaren Group and is designed to reflect the company’s design and engineering expertise. It includes design studios, laboratories and production and testing facilities, including their own 145-meter long wind tunnel, for Formula One and high-performance sports cars. 

What’s cool about the MTC is that it enjoys an incredibly low carbon footprint and uses the lake water and heat exchangers to keep the air temp inside the building a comfortable 22 degrees Centigrade (72 Fahrenheit). When the wind tunnel is in use, the water gets hot, so it’s cycled out of the building, flowing out and down a stepped wall. This releases the heat, oxygenates the water, and ensures the lake never freezes during a British winter.

While no figures are given for what the central building cost, I was told that the adjacent, 32,000 square meter Production Centre cost around £60 million to build (that equates to around $70 million today but back when it was built, between 1999 and 2003, that was about double or, $120 million).

Upon my arrival, I was directed to park in Ron Dennis’ space. Ron, of course, was the man behind the phenomenal growth of McLaren. New Zealand racing driver Bruce McLaren founded the company in 1963. Unfortunately, Bruce died in 1970 and the remains of his company merged with Ron Dennis’ Project Four Racing in 1981. Ron is well known for his obsessive attention to detail and when designing the new Production Centre took the floor tiles home in order to calculate how big the building could be to use the minimum number of tiles with no cutting. It’s exactly the size he dictated.

As he is no longer with the company, I got Ron’s parking space and was met by none other than Bruce McLaren’s lovely daughter Amanda who was to show me around. We began our tour in the lobby where we checked out the cars beginning with Bruce’s Austin 7 Ulster that he raced in New Zealand as a boy aged 15—it’s a far cry from the current Formula 1 technology. Alongside the Austin was the Chevy-powered M8D Can-Am car that took McLaren and Denny Hulme to 39 race wins and five championships between 1967 and ’72. Alongside that was Hulme’s DFV-powered M19C of 1972. And so it went on, car after car until we came to a huge glassed-in shop that turned out to be the McLaren Formula 1 workshop. And while you’re not allowed to take photographs, for obvious reasons, you can stand and stare and just drool at the cleanliness and the attention to detail.

Eventually, Amanda dragged me past a line a McLaren F1 cars of the 2000s known as the ‘Silver Arrows’, a nod to the all-conquering original ‘unpainted’ Silver Arrows of the Pre-World War II Grand Prix era. The equally impressive line of late-70s F1 cars included the 1977 M26 of James Hunt—beautiful in its simplicity compared to the current F1 machines. Before I knew it, however, Amanda took me down a rabbit hole and through a long underground tunnel that connects the MTC to the Production Centre. Now, I’ve visited any number of car factories from Ferrari to Ford but I don’t think I have ever been so impressed. Again, no personal photos but here, in a pristine environment, several thousand workers, working two shifts assemble more than 4,000 McLaren road cars annually—everything from the 540C to the $1 million Senna (depending upon the prevailing exchange rate) and there was one sitting right in front of me. I could reach out and touch it.

For some, the Senna is a bit OTT as the Brits say. That means Over The Top, a bit too much, for some. But supercars are supposed to be a little OTT, are they not? At the heart of the Senna is the family’s 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 but here it is one of the most powerful McLaren road car engines ever, producing 800PS (789bhp) and 800Nm (590lb ft), with 700Nm (516lb ft) of torque available at just 3,000rpm. Designated M840TR, the powertrain features dry sump lubrication, a flat-plane crankshaft, and lightweight pistons and rods to reduce mass. Meanwhile, low-inertia, twin-scroll turbochargers and electronic wastegates deliver instantaneous throttle response. Max speed is 208 mph and the Senna accelerates from 0-62 mph in just 2.8 seconds.

Having worked as a young man in a pre-robot Chrysler factory, this facility was eye-opening, jaw-dropping, finger-lickin’ good. Still a lot of people scurrying around as the McLaren’s continue to be essentially hand built but there was a purpose about their actions, an obvious attention to detail and a pride in their workmanship. I could have watched it all day from the arrival of the carbon composite tub, through the assembly and on to the final monsoon soak test. It was fascinating. Unfortunately, I was dragged away; my tour was over with the promise of a drive when I got back to LA. Watch this space….

Built Brick by Brick: The Lego McLaren 720S

Lego McLaren 720S

If you ever had kids you’ll know the excruciating pain that follows stepping barefoot onto a sea of Lego bricks. Sea? Heck, one brick is enough to get your attention. So it was when Lego announced the build of a full-size McLaren 720S the world premiere of which would take place at the Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles, California.

Just so happens that two of my good friends have been intimately involved with the design of the real McLaren. Peter Stevens with the design of the legendary F1 and Mark Roberts who has worked at McLaren since the F1 and is currently the chief designer and an integral part of the team credited for the design of all contemporary McLaren sportscars including the critically-acclaimed McLaren P1, the 570S and 720S. Mark was in town for the Lego introduction and shared the podium with Lego master builder Chris Steininger one of only seven master builders in the world and with father Dan makes up the world’s only father-son Master Builder Team. How lucky is Chris to work with his dad on such cool stuff?

Lego, of course, is well known for its innovative marketing and product line that now includes a 720S along with a few other super cars in their Speed Champions series. To bring attention to the small-scale line Lego decided to build the full-size. According to Chris, it took 2,000 hours to assemble on a steel armature that rolls on real McLaren wheels shod with Pirelli 245/35R19 tires on the front and 305/30R20s on the rear. While the real car has carbon ceramic discs, the Lego version has, well, Lego discs. Nevertheless, it does roll, just not under its own power. In the industry it’s known as a ‘pushmobile.’

The real 720S, which is built in Woking, England, is powered by a propriety M838T 4.0-liter V8 with twin electrically-actuated MHI turbochargers. That’s good for 568 lb/ft of torque, 710 bhp and a top speed of 212 mph (341 kpm). It gets from zero to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds and from zero to 124 mph in 7.8 seconds. Top speed is 212 mph, however, there’s always more right?

As this event was more of a design exercise than an engineering seminar Mark discussed McLaren’s pillars of design philosophy. Firstly, McLaren ‘shrink wraps’ the exterior shape over the mechanicals to get the leanest car possible. He went on to explain the layering process that allows air to flow freely through the car and the use of natural prototypes to create a sinewy, muscular and organic aliveness to their designs. He talked about ‘functional jewelry’ whereby every component of the McLaren is designed, developed and shaped to be functional and yet aesthetically beautiful. It’s a less is more philosophy that when combined with a brave cohesive team approach results in such beautifully functional fast cars.

Mark went on to explain that while virtual reality is playing an ever-increasing role in the design process McLaren still rely on a full-size clay model saying, “We might walk around a clay model for two weeks, changing the tiniest details that might look right one day… but oddly not the next.” Such are the processes of honing great design.

Next time, we visit the McLaren complex in England.