McLaren is a British manufacturer of racing and sports cars known primarily as one of the best Formula 1 teams. However, it has also competed in the Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours among other major competitions.
Show MoreA great brand, with a great legacy.
In 1963, Bruce McLaren (1937-1970), a driver and engineer of New Zealand origin, moved mainly because his then team did not wish to follow his engineering suggestions, announced the formation of “McLaren Motor Racing Ltd.”, with the headquarters established in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom.
McLaren recruited engineers and drivers and started the construction of Formula 1 racing cars. While developing his car, the team’s drivers used Cooper T70 vehicles.
Bruce McLaren died prematurely on June 2, 1970, at the Goodwood circuit in England, during a test of the McLaren M8D car, which he himself had designed for the Can-Am championship. He went off the track due to the detachment of a part of his car, suffering a severe shock that caused death. However, despite that unfortunate accident, the company continued on its way.
McLaren’s trajectory since then has been long and full of successes in competitions.
Street cars
As for street cars, McLaren also makes prototypes and designs of sports cars.
Derived from its racing cars, in 1969 and following the insistence of the brand’s die-hard drivers, McLaren introduced its first registered street sports car which it named M6 GT. The project consisted of equipping its usual M6 monocoque with a coupe body. The homologation conditions of this car were too hard for McLaren, since it was necessary to produce a minimum of 50 units, and that extreme prevented McLaren from producing it to market it in series. Bruce McLaren used one of the prototypes as a personal street car.
During the 1980s, McLaren collaborated with Ford by optimizing and customizing versions of its popular Mustang and Capri models, called ASC McLaren.
In 1994, McLaren unveiled an expensive and exclusive super sports car designed by Gordon Murray, called F1. The F1 was produced between 1994 and 1998, and a total of 100 units were manufactured. 64 street units, 5 LM units, 2 GT units and 29 GTR units. After several concept cars, including the F2, finally the commercial successor to F1 was the MP4-12C which was not introduced until 2011.
Since 2003, McLaren has collaborated with Mercedes-Benz in the development of the SLR series of the German firm.
If you still haven’t found the McLaren you were looking for, you might be convinced by Greenlight’s McLaren. There’s Fernando Alonso’s Indycar.
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