RE: McLaren Confirms MP4-12C GT3 Racer
RE: McLaren Confirms MP4-12C GT3 Racer
Monday 20th December 2010

McLaren Confirms MP4-12C GT3 Racer

Customer teams to get their hands on new Macca Racer by 2012



McLaren has officially announced that it is developing a GT3 race version of the new MP4-12C.

Confirming the rumours we heard back in early November about McLaren's racer, the new car will be produced in conjunction with British racing team, CRS.

"CRS Racing will build, sell and support the 12C GT3 cars in close collaboration with McLaren," said McLaren in a statement.

"Racing is in our blood - it was natural to develop a GT3 car alongside the 12C road car", says Martin Whitmarsh, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Team Principal. "We have a legendary history in global motorsport, including GT racing, and we aim to maintain that reputation with this GT3 program, and any future sports car projects that may evolve.

"The 12C's architecture and design was always aimed at high-performance and ease of maintenance - two key criteria for potential customers. Combine that with the vast amount of racing experience in our automotive team, and CRS Racing's specialist development experience, and the 12C GT3 should be an exciting proposition."

McLaren will dip its toe in the water with a few selected races in 2011, but the first fully developed customer cars will take a bow in the 2012 European FIA GT3 series.

Oh, and to remind us of McLaren's endurance racing heritage, the folks up in Woking have put together this video about the Le Mans success of the F1 GTR. Which is jolly nice of them.

 

 

Author
Discussion

Car Enthusiast 1

Original Poster:

28 posts

189 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Magnificent car! When will they release the technical data? E.g. bhp, engine copacity etc. Then again if it compeets in the 24-hour le mans they won't be able to will they? I might sound abit stupid, but is mclaren made by mercedes? Or mercedes made by mclaren?

Car Enthusiast 1

Original Poster:

28 posts

189 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Magnificent car! When will they release the technical data? E.g. bhp, engine copacity etc. Then again if it compeets in the 24-hour le mans they won't be able to will they? I might sound abit stupid, but is mclaren made by mercedes? Or mercedes made by mclaren?

PhillipM

6,557 posts

218 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Niether.

soad

34,635 posts

205 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Cracking little video biggrin

Just know this one will be a good one.

[AJ]

3,079 posts

227 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Car Enthusiast 1 said:
I might sound abit stupid, but is mclaren made by mercedes? Or mercedes made by mclaren?
McLaren are built by McLaren, Mercedes are built by Mercedes. The Mercedes SLR McLaren was a collaboration between the two companies and McLaren built it.

smashbro

26 posts

189 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Loving the vid of the F1! Remember seeing a road car when they had just come out on a promoshoot on the Cat 'n' Fiddle, made an 18yr old V happy indeed. Still looks an amazing car, and that V12 soundtrack is to die for!

vintageracer01

873 posts

204 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Brilliant news! McLaren at Le Mans again. That's where they belong.

HowardB

152 posts

204 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
I for one would cheer that one on!!

freedman

6,015 posts

236 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
vintageracer01 said:
Brilliant news! McLaren at Le Mans again. That's where they belong.
Hardly, there heritage is F1, in the main

They may have won LeMans once but its hardly where they belong is it

Craiglamuffin

359 posts

209 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Looks similar to the Ascari KZ1 GT3 in British GT3, which I hear the team have now swapped for an AMG SLS. Just hope it sounds half as good as that Ascari!!

zakelwe

4,449 posts

227 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
That video made me proud to be British.

Cracker.

Hope the new car socks it to 'em.

Andy

MiniMan64

19,340 posts

219 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
vintageracer01 said:
Brilliant news! McLaren at Le Mans again. That's where they belong.
Jag and Aston belong at Le Mans, it'll just be nice to see McLaren back again there though, especially as the tin-top GT classes seem to be filling up nicely.

robm3

4,930 posts

256 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
zakelwe said:
That video made me proud to be British.

Cracker.

Hope the new car socks it to 'em.

Andy
I can understand that..

Aydogflipper

436 posts

195 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Great little vid.

Mark_Karting

899 posts

211 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Very nice and all that, but why not GT2 to take on Ferrari, Porsche, BMW and the Corvettes at Le Mans?

SonnyM

3,473 posts

222 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
This is great news - the MP4-12C is not just a road car then...

The GTR sounds awesome in that video!

Caractacus

2,622 posts

254 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
zakelwe said:
That video made me proud to be British.

Cracker.

Hope the new car socks it to 'em.

Andy
Made me proud to be a Kiwi.

After all, it was good old Bruce that started it all, back in Remuera, Auckland, and also had plans to create the ultimate road car...and he would have, too, if it had not been for that day at Goodwood whilst testing frown

The way he ran the company in the early days and the passion & ethos that were involved have been carried on to today. Damn fine to see, too.

As for soocking it to 'em? Without a doubt! smile


EDLT

15,421 posts

235 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Mark_Karting said:
Very nice and all that, but why not GT2 to take on Ferrari, Porsche, BMW and the Corvettes at Le Mans?
Maybe they have more chance of winning in GT3.

anonymous-user

83 months

Saturday 18th December 2010
quotequote all
freedman said:
vintageracer01 said:
Brilliant news! McLaren at Le Mans again. That's where they belong.
Hardly, there heritage is F1, in the main

They may have won LeMans once but its hardly where they belong is it
The initial heritage was most definately in Sports Cars, you may have an argument if just focusing on McLaren International, the post McLaren/Project 4 colaboration which brought Ron and Teddy together. But i dont think the poster was excluding F1 as also being where they belong. You can have your fingers in more than one pie and still win, as Bruce proved in his time and as the modern McLaren proved with the F1 GTR project.

ZeeTacoe

5,444 posts

251 months

Saturday 18th December 2010
quotequote all
It's nice to see that ferrari found someone to buy those spare F430gt3 front ends.

Nice recycling effort