Says the man who has never designed anything!

A decent design will have all those type of considerations taken into account...

Yes, it does. I just didn't mention it.

I'm sure it'll be a great car but a lot of the things said about the factory are standard practice in any car plant in Britain, Europe or Japan. e.g. no faults forward, quality defect 'swipe card' stations etc. As for the factory size this will be dictated by the layout of the production line, a couple of metres here or there at the end of the factory makes no odds. Remember don't confuse a pretty manufacturing facility with an effective one.

I think the difference with McLaren is that they have a particularly effective PR machine, one that thinks of publishing these things that other manufacturers may not.

I hear this car is quite a bit faster than the Ferrari so I look forward to seeing the first tests!

p.s. Engineers vs Stylists? There are ALWAYS stylists, don't be fooled.

Having run a small British Manufacturing company for some years I have nothing but admiration for Ron Dennis and his McLaren Organisation. If we all had that attention to detail Britain would not be in the state it is.

Over the last few decades we have lost to foreign soils the likes of : Land Rover, Jaguar, TVR, Lotus, Rover, MG, Bentley and Rolls Royce.

We need a British Marque to be proud of.

We already have a fantastic British F1 team with 2 British World Champ F1 Drivers. Just imagine if the England Football Team was as successful as McLaren.

Go Ron - Go McLaren - For Britain and the hell of it - The Empire Strikes Back...........Britain United !!

I was fortunate enough to get a guided tour of Mclaren, a friend of mine works there, amazing place. But Ron must be a nightmare to work for, apparently;

in the autumn he has the leaves blown out of the car park because they look messy


the amazing mirror like showroom floor had to be completely relaid because the first one had certain measurments that were off specification by microns, Ron used a micrometer to check!


Apart from the computers, desks must be cleared completely every evening and you only have what you are working on out during the day


Any spillages must be cleaned up within 2 minutes

despite this everyone loves working there!

That's true. With the addition that clear desk is at lunchtime too. I can picture having to "hide it somewhere" various parts in the process of being sub assembled in case Ron comes around. There are some great guys working there. But there are also an awful lot who have disappeared up their own arse and lost a little self criticism from working in that environment. Way beyond "quiet confidence" into outright arrogance sadly.

Indeed. About time they introduced the fault foward thing. As it would have stopped one car (SLR) getting virtually to the end of the line with the wrong wiring loom installed (Requiring a complete strip down) and obviously would have stopped muggins here having to go and find an electrician to repair various multiplugs that had become damaged by the tit fitting the radio standing on it! Had to do this as not allowed to touch anything not in your specific 5 tasks job description!

There were stylists involved in this design? Where they only equipped with tracing paper and Evora, F458, F360 and Ascari brochures

And another thing. Please stop sayng how this car will help the Brit Economy. The super whizzy carbon fibre tub bit is outsourced to Austria!

Well to be honest it was a bit over zealous (perhaps premature) figure of speech however a few things stand out to me.

I think the ownership experience is going to be different than other cars in terms of the connection to the factory and servicing. Watch this space - granted the Mclaren F1 had a modem jack to download (upload?) info to the factory but this car will have more info and driver specific info. I guess what I'm trying to say is, as I understand it, this car will offer the owner detailed telemetry. I could be wrong.

Is it not a ground breaking car for Mclaren as the beginning of a series of road cars going into the future?

and dont forget the expansion joints

A clear desk policy is not the result of an OCD driven CEO. It is a requirement of a standard for information security and integrity (aka ISO27001). We practice this in our offices too and we certainly don't have a Ron Dennis alike steering our business!

So how long is acceptable before you clean up any spillages?

Got to say, the MP4 is absolutely at the top of the lottery list. To be able to buy into this circle of obsessive engineered perfection would be such a buzz.

Ron Dennis is a magnificent englishman who has built the most successful engineering led road car company going forward in the 21st Century. His true genius is that he did this from zero i.e. from Project 4 running Niki Lauda's M1 in the Procar series, and has gathered around him over time the most talented minds to produce the F1 and now the MP4-12C. It won Le Mans first time out and now the cars are worth twice the original price-because they are still desirable. The new car will be a huge success and will help funding the next McLaren supercar, so all of the moaners posting "their" criticism should take a look at themselves as to why they are so negative in their opinions. "The pursuit of driving perfection" sounds good to me and should to every Pistonheader.
Let's all embrace the pursuit and see where McLaren takes us, as the vast majority of automotive production is boring to me because they are not making what I admire unlike McLaren.
On another note I drove the new Honda CRZ last week very good roadholding and good in sport mode, but have to ask why is it £25,000 (top spec) in the Uk and only starts at $20,000 in the US i.e. 50% of the UK price. Can we have a new discussion on why the UK is STILL Treasure Island to most car companies? Well done Ron, Gordon et al.