RE: McLaren's second production facility opens

[MarkH1987]

NJJ said:

Good news, we need more of this high-end specialist manufacturing to keep advancing UK engineering.

I totally agree, and it will be highly skilled, well paid jobs for people. As a British car fan it would be nice to see one of the iconic British car makers like Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, etc back in British ownership again some day too. If some of our car makers were under foreign ownership then fair enough, but I don't think we should have sold every single last one. Germany, Japan and France would never do this.

[HighwayStar]

MarkH1987 said:

NJJ said:

Good news, we need more of this high-end specialist manufacturing to keep advancing UK engineering.

I totally agree, and it will be highly skilled, well paid jobs for people. As a British car fan it would be nice to see one of the iconic British car makers like Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, etc back in British ownership again some day too. If some of our car makers were under foreign ownership then fair enough, but I don't think we should have sold every single last one. Germany, Japan and France would never do this.

Just the 3 marques you've mentioned... the story of British industry right there, old ideas and lack of investment. It's traditional British built will only get you so far when the rest of the world has moved on.. BMW, VW and Tata have invested billions in each of those companies to get them where they are now and Jaguar and still not there. If they weren't sold, as independents they'd be gone.
I to wish they were British owned companies, part of a landscape of fine British industries but governments have been happy to see our best companies sold off because 'it shows confidence in the UK.' As you say, Germany, Japan and France take a different more long term view.

[pagc1]

There used to be 150,000 people employed in the Sheffield steel industry. 200 doesn't really replace those.

[greenarrow]

Matty3 said:

What's up with some folk on here? - a great UK engineering success story and they want to rubbish it - McL are relocating their CF production facility from Austria to UK - whats not to like??

Attended opening today and was chatting to Ruth Nic Aoidh of McL - what a rather engaging person

People on Pistonheads love their BMWs and Mercs and also love to bash McLaren and Jaguar. Its sort of a national past-time.

Personally, as someone who has followed the progress of McLaren road cars since 2011 without ever hoping to afford one I am delighted.

[PhillipM]

Dodgey_Rog said:

Looks like its a standard business park build, so was probably finished on spec. Agreed though, wasted opportunity, somewhere like Leafield or Enstone would have been cool.....

It is, the whole thing is just a business park, similar buildings, my old man works pretty much next door.

[MikeGalos]

And they'll have some catching up to do since the Lamborghini-University of Washington Composite Materials Lab opened back in 2009 in Seattle, Washington, US and gets to take advantage of the city's experience with composites gained by also being Boeing's primary R&D location.

It does make for fun, though. I live about 2km from the local Lamborghini dealer and occasionally some prototype from the lab needs mechanical work so I get to see something unknown and swoopy driving on the local streets to the dealer's repair shop.

[FeelingLucky]

MikeGalos said:

And they'll have some catching up to do since the Lamborghini-University of Washington Composite Materials Lab opened back in 2009 in Seattle, Washington, US and gets to take advantage of the city's experience with composites gained by also being Boeing's primary R&D location.

It does make for fun, though. I live about 2km from the local Lamborghini dealer and occasionally some prototype from the lab needs mechanical work so I get to see something unknown and swoopy driving on the local streets to the dealer's repair shop.

Catching up?

All McLaren vehicles already have advanced carbon tubs, how about Lamborghini/Audi?

[Buzz84]

MikeGalos said:

And they'll have some catching up to do since the Lamborghini-University of Washington Composite Materials Lab opened back in 2009 in Seattle, Washington, US and gets to take advantage of the city's experience with composites gained by also being Boeing's primary R&D location.

It does make for fun, though. I live about 2km from the local Lamborghini dealer and occasionally some prototype from the lab needs mechanical work so I get to see something unknown and swoopy driving on the local streets to the dealer's repair shop.

Catch up? The Carbon fibre McLaren F1 was being made 16 years before Lamborghini opened their facility.
And the MP4-12c with its carbon fibre chassis started full production in 2011

Edited by Buzz84 on Friday 16th November 15:59

[NickCQ]

Does this mean PH can stop referring to ‘Woking’ in all McLaren articles?

[b0rk]

FeelingLucky said:

Catching up?

All McLaren vehicles already have advanced carbon tubs, how about Lamborghini/Audi?

The two facilities serve very different purposes, the Lamborghini lab is a pure R&D centre focused on carbon composite development. Whilst the McLaren facility is a large scale production hall.

Inevitably the McLaren facility will produce more output as that is what it has been constructed to do, whilst the Lamborghini lab may well end up developing the next major generation of composite technology for mass production.

In particular the Lamborghini lab is focused on development of "forged composites", where a composite component can be manufactured with a process more similar to injection moulding and ideal for volume automated manufacture rather than manual (or semi manual) traditional layup. The strength is I understand not as good but production volumes are an order of magnitude higher.

[Zad]

MikeGalos said:

And they'll have some catching up to do since the Lamborghini-University of Washington Composite Materials Lab opened back in 2009 in Seattle, Washington, US and gets to take advantage of the city's experience with composites gained by also being Boeing's primary R&D location.

What, you mean like Sheffield University's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (ironically) with Boeing? Also based at the AMRC. And Rolls-Royce (aero, not cars) who have been there 10 years?

[zb]

Zad said:

MikeGalos said:

And they'll have some catching up to do since the Lamborghini-University of Washington Composite Materials Lab opened back in 2009 in Seattle, Washington, US and gets to take advantage of the city's experience with composites gained by also being Boeing's primary R&D location.

What, you mean like Sheffield University's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (ironically) with Boeing? Also based at the AMRC. And Rolls-Royce (aero, not cars) who have been there 10 years?

There is also the AFRC (Advanced Forming Research Centre) in Scotland (University of Strathclyde), who are implementing a lightweight manufacturing centre (the building is allocated, literally waiting on kit being installed), and the National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland. Note: Boeing and RR are already Tier 1 members of AFRC.

[HarryW]

I'm assuming you are all aware that McLaren Composits made over 2000 SLR's but back then the facility was in Portsmouth. That shut down in 2009........
I'm presuming the grants are better in Sheffield this time around.

[zb]

HarryW said:

I'm assuming you are all aware that McLaren Composits made over 2000 SLR's but back then the facility was in Portsmouth. That shut down in 2009........
I'm presuming the grants are better in Sheffield this time around.

Yes, and in Scotland. Things have moved on, considerably, since then.

[RichGault]

....the initial panels for the SLR were produced in house by Mclaren at Access Point,layed up on Tooling produced by Lola Composites...after the initial run was completed Lola took over the rest of the production run from approx Apr 2004.

Not sure how many people know that all the panels for the SLR were manufactured using the Preform/Resin Infusion method.

The chassis was manufactured in a similar way as the 'pressure forged' method described in the article....this would have been from about late 2002-3.

It seemed to be quite a good way of mass producing carbon panels/components but wasn't without its faults.....