RE: McLaren P1 - inside story

[toppstuff]

R5YUP said:

Ferrari seem to approach with emotion, Macca with logic. No contest for me

Same here. McLaren every time.

Emotion, schmotion, it's purely subjective. I prefer the logical way.

F12 is a lovely car mind you, but if I were ever to own one it would inspite of the "emotion" hyperbole, not because of it. Truth is, all the emotion and passion hyperbolic guff turns me right off.

[Rich_W]

Liokault said:

...Lots of Brits were employed at the MTC when it was making McMercs, good quality well paid work, and many many more were employed when 12c was thought up (many of my friends included).

.

Depends on your viewpoint. Uni students with BEngs on £12K a year? Best paid "Assembly technician" I knew of was on less than about 20K basic. What are your friends basics for putting the 12C's together? Are they still doing that daft "banked hours" stuff?

McLaren are lucky that they don't have to pay big. People WANT to work for them.


Ref the video: Name checking your competition and kncoking them is a fairly weak way of doing things. I remember Michelin v Bridgestone in MotoGP. When Mich left. Bridgestone said it was a real shame since they were a great competitor that helped make them better.

Ref McLaren v Ferrari and the "passion" I'd take a GT2 over the 12C/458. Less pretentious than both. Less flashy. More "honest" somehow

[Liokault]

Rich_W said:

Liokault said:

...Lots of Brits were employed at the MTC when it was making McMercs, good quality well paid work, and many many more were employed when 12c was thought up (many of my friends included).

.

Depends on your viewpoint. Uni students with BEngs on £12K a year? Best paid "Assembly technician" I knew of was on less than about 20K basic. What are your friends basics for putting the 12C's together? Are they still doing that daft "banked hours" stuff?

McLaren are lucky that they don't have to pay big. People WANT to work for them.


Ref the video: Name checking your competition and kncoking them is a fairly weak way of doing things. I remember Michelin v Bridgestone in MotoGP. When Mich left. Bridgestone said it was a real shame since they were a great competitor that helped make them better.

Ref McLaren v Ferrari and the "passion" I'd take a GT2 over the 12C/458. Less pretentious than both. Less flashy. More "honest" somehow

I’m not sure what the basic was for production work, it was a few years ago now and I never worked in production.
Right after I left McLaren I went to work for a long established premium Automotive OEM, they had guys there in their 50’s who had been with them since they left school, working as production team leaders earning 17.5K a year basic. McLaren must beat that.
Production jobs just don’t pay well and when I said “creating quality jobs” I mean more than just the guys who bolt things together. In terms of paying well,
Look at all the engineering, purchasing, quality, logistic jobs McLaren have added since they have expanded. None of these are minimum pay, even if they don’t offer top industry $ they beat the crap that JLR are currently trying to staff up at, and they generate skills in the automotive base which is great (and something which is dwindling) for the UK car industry.

[Gary C]

R5YUP said:

4 mins 30 seconds......

http://youtu.be/QzzlsDhptoc

Sums up the difference between Ferrari and McLaren perfectly. You're in one camp or the other! Ferrari seem to approach with emotion, Macca with logic. No contest for me

Ha. Opened that link and got treated to an advert before the main video. It showed a variety of Porsches, 917, 962, 935, 911R hybrid and it really underlined that it does not matter what configuration the engine is at all

Great cars are defined by the whole, not how many cylinders it happens to have.

[wc98]

aelord said:

One wants to like McLaren, but the company ethos and it's products have developed in the last decade a deeply unattractive smugness; an arid, passionless, anally retentive personality. No passion, emotion or humour, they take themselves far too seriously.

The F1 was their undoubted masterpiece; tellingly, it was in essence one man's project, not a committee design.

Edited by aelord on Tuesday 7th May 17:56

Edited by aelord on Tuesday 7th May 17:57

i think all those things you describe are typical of what F1 (the "sport" ) and the people within it have become,so its hardly surprising mclaren come across as they do.i do like the car though,apartr from the KERS.once a few more people get hit with huge capacitor discharges by touching the wrong part say after an accident,it will be banned,unless items spinning at ridiculous rpms cut someones head off first after same accident .

[HighwayStar]

wc98 said:

aelord said:

One wants to like McLaren, but the company ethos and it's products have developed in the last decade a deeply unattractive smugness; an arid, passionless, anally retentive personality. No passion, emotion or humour, they take themselves far too seriously.

The F1 was their undoubted masterpiece; tellingly, it was in essence one man's project, not a committee design.

Edited by aelord on Tuesday 7th May 17:56

Edited by aelord on Tuesday 7th May 17:57

i think all those things you describe are typical of what F1 (the "sport" ) and the people within it have become,so its hardly surprising mclaren come across as they do.i do like the car though,apartr from the KERS.once a few more people get hit with huge capacitor discharges by touching the wrong part say after an accident,it will be banned,unless items spinning at ridiculous rpms cut someones head off first after same accident .

Won't happen... Cars have been killing people one way or another forever. In accidents, cars have burst into flames while driver has been trapped by seat belts. Rare yes but it happens yet nothing banned. If there is a problem with KERS... It will be solved. There's too much at stake with energy conservation, efficiency etc for it to be banned.

[corozin]

Frankly I'm not sure I understand why MacLaren are investing so much effort in developing the handling of the P1

Half of them are destined to end up in collector's garages, whilst the other half will end up kerb crawling around Kensington on an evening in the hands of arab boy racers.

[The Vambo]

corozin said:

Frankly I'm not sure I understand why MacLaren are investing so much effort in developing the handling of the P1

You would if you had spent a millon bucks on one.

[andyps]

corozin said:

Frankly I'm not sure I understand why MacLaren are investing so much effort in developing the handling of the P1

Half of them are destined to end up in collector's garages, whilst the other half will end up kerb crawling around Kensington on an evening in the hands of arab boy racers.

They are spending it because those cars will be bought because of the capability of the car, even if they never use it.

Actually, having read about the capability which is being aimed for I am suspect it will be more than half the owners of the car who will not use the handling of the car to full capability purely because the limits will be so high.

[CraigyMc]

The Vambo said:

corozin said:

Frankly I'm not sure I understand why MacLaren are investing so much effort in developing the handling of the P1

You would if you had spent a millon bucks on one.

A lot for a pushchair... unless you mean "McLaren" in which case, shame on you for getting his name wrong.

[HighwayStar]

I'd have one if my numbers came up.... Jenson at the wheel at Goodwood!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HFwAIPRHAzY&deskt...