This is what McLaren's 'next chapter' looks like
How do you bring together 'past, present and future in one connected expression'? New logo, obviously...
The times they are a-changing. McLaren has made that abundantly clear. You don’t mobilise the Prime Minister without some headlines in your back pocket, and Britain’s best-known supercar maker had a bunch last week: more factories, more jobs, more cars, more ambition. The keynote speech, delivered by CEO Nick Collins - and underscored by a delighted-to-be-there Secretary of State for Business, Jonathan Reynolds - occurred at one end of the McLaren Production Centre, in front of not just the press, but what seemed like a significant portion of Woking’s current workforce. If they were inspired by what they heard, they hid it well.
This is understandable. As is the nature of new buildings and new cars, much remains over the horizon. For now, it seems the most prominent thing that will change in the short term is the brand’s visual identity. A new logo, as Jaguar discovered not so long ago, is simultaneously easy to announce, and yet very hard to nail to everyone’s satisfaction. McLaren is helped in its endeavours by the fact that its previous logo tended to look better on paper in two dimensions than it did on cars in three - although any wordmark that can trace its look back to the nose of the F1 is doing something right.
Though McLaren’s intentions here seem clearheaded enough - it plainly does consider itself at the start of a new chapter, and the sheer number of new faces in its leadership team means that its way of looking at things has genuinely changed - inevitably not everyone is going to be convinced by the need for an ‘evolved identity’, much as they might not like the fact that a hybrid SUV is very much at the head of the queue when it comes to a new product lineup. But insofar as the logo is concerned, McLaren can at least point to a proper deep dive into its heritage.
After all, the new wordmark is said to be inspired by the sign above the family-owned service station in Remuera, Auckland - i.e. the place where Bruce McLaren built his first race car. ‘Recrafting that identity for today, [the new logo] reconnects McLaren with its origins while giving the brand a confident visual language for the future’. This broader impulse to speak at length about the ‘vision and restless ambition’ of its founder, is not something the firm previously indulged - it was too busy craning its neck toward the future, a tendency that can be traced back to Ron Dennis’s unflinching way of looking at the world.
According to David Woodhouse, McLaren’s new Chief Creative Officer, and Kemal Curic, its Chief Design Officer, this was not necessarily a strength, and paid too little heed to the “maverick spirit” (and oft-used phrase in Woking at the moment) that took Bruce from his parents' service station to an exalted position in the annals of international motorsport. A renewed focus on his story, as evidenced by the reveal of the McL 6GT - and the restored M6GT that preceded it - is promised as McLaren moves forward with its strategic overhaul.
Beyond the broader effort to evoke the ‘values, spirit and pioneering mindset’ of its figurehead (helpful qualities to foreground when you’re investing £500m to help McLaren build a heavyweight, high-sided SUV), there are the practicalities involved with expanding the portfolio elsewhere. Growing its retail network, expanding MSO (a digital members club is promised), launching in new markets and improving the ownership proposition generally are all aspects made easier - or are at least helpfully greased - by the public seeing ‘a more connected expression of where we’re heading next’.
This will include, in time, the racing side of the McLaren coin, with the new wordmark set to also appear in all motorsport settings - and even, from today, on the sign outside MTC. And while the Speedmark has been separated from the lettering, we’re assured it remains ‘at the heart of the brand’, as does Papaya as a colour - though McLaren Automotive is set to use ‘Midnight’ (a dark grey) as a way of distinguishing itself from the Racing division. The so-called ‘Speedy Kiwi’, as featured prominently on the McL 6GT, will also be retained in the design language toolkit.
As you might expect, McLaren was keen to use its Pebble Beach concept - now returned to the UK - as a prime example of the ‘ambition, creativity and forward moment shaping our future’. Or as Curic succinctly put it: “we wanted to go back to go forward”. The McL 6GT is indeed comely in the flesh, more so than McLaren’s current lineup, and only a corpse would claim not to be intrigued by the prospect of a manual transmission standing proud of a carbon fibre tub. Of course, its presence reflects the fickle demands of the high-end market, but it is tangible evidence of a company that’s now prepared to cross lines that it might previously have considered red.
Certainly, McLaren is going to become more inclusive. “There are people who don’t pay attention to power-to-weight ratio,” says Chief Commercial Officer, Henrik Wilhelmsmeyer, simply. To a veteran of BMW and Rolls-Royce, the firm’s evolving worldview is not hard to quantify either: “there’s no reason why you should exclude your family when driving a McLaren.” While that sentiment absolutely underpinned Lamborghini’s arrival in the SUV segment a decade ago, you can imagine it getting short shrift when McLaren previously mulled a rival to the all-conquering Urus.
At any rate, the acceptance that the firm must now head in the direction of a car with back seats says a good deal more about the ‘recoding McLaren’s DNA’ than a new logo ever could. But precisely what shape its great white hope will take is clearly open to question, many of them still to be answered in-house. Chief Operating Officer, Michael Straughan, suggested that the case for a carbon fibre platform is a strong one based on McLaren’s expertise and existing production facility - but there are equally solid technical and financial reasons for erring toward an aluminium solution, as every current rival does.
Of those, the Aston Martin DBX and Urus were singled out, though not the Ferrari Purosangue, which suggests a V12 is not on the to-do list. An electrified V8 almost certainly is - presumably the powertrain that will also power the production version of the McL 6GT - ditto a V6 to replace the Ricardo-built unit currently used in the Artura. That model’s doom has been prophesied elsewhere on the internet, though for now McLaren will continue building its current lineup, with only the limited edition 6GT and forthcoming SUV set to arrive before the end of the decade.
Much then, is still to do. McLaren points to its new design centre in Bicester (handily located close to the talent-rich Midlands) as a concrete sign of early progress, but the proposed second production line is obviously years away from fruition. A new front-engined platform will provide the manufacturer with the kind of flexibility that makes a four-door GT car viable - yet even the architecture remains closer to the drawing board than it does a showroom. The good news - and in the light of JLR’s stuttering performance, the Government is right to champion it - is that the investment, and the jobs it secures and eventually creates, appear to be locked in for the long haul. Now McLaren must live up to it.
Apparently taken from the old family garage in New Zealand but the marketing people insist that it's not retro, no, no, they're only looking forward. Because all the big luxury brands (I kid you not they are quoted as comparing themselves to Louis Vuitton and Hermes in one article) acknowledge their founders.
Dropping the corporate orange is just plain stupid.
I'm naturally skeptical about these things, but at least it's not quite as bad as Jaguar's recent effort.
https://www.mclaren.com/racing/2026/mclaren-announ...
LinkedIn tells me that the current head of brand and marketing was at JLR, then Lotus, then Forseven, now McLaren.
I wish McClaren well but I wonder if the SUV will come too late ferrari lamborghine lotus porsche Bentley Aston Martin Rolls Royce all make SUVs and even BMW Audi Mercedes make fast SUVs along with Range Rover and Jag did till they decided to kill their own company. Even Hyundai / Kia can see you a fast one now
Personally I hope the rebrand does well but I'm not convinced by the logo. the crest looks OK (though to should have the whole name across the top). But the kiwi on it looks like a joke. Porsche and Ferrari have stallions, Lamborghini a fighting bull, Alfa a snake (eating a human being!!). All of these are things that need to be tamed or they will kill you. McLaren have a bird that looks like someone stuck a cocktail stick on a tribble.
It is the Hufflepuff of logos.
That said it's better than the old swish, that just looked like someone had turned the Nike logo upside down and called it a day.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff