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THE world’s newest sports car company McLaren Automotive, partly-owned by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, has launched its production centre in the United Kingdom.
The facility will be the home of the MP4-12C and a future range of high performance sports cars.
Its official opening ceremony was attended by British Prime Minister David Cameron, McLaren Group CEO and McLaren Automotive executive chairman, Ron Dennis, as well as Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, and the 2011 cycling road world champion, Mark Cavendish, representing McLaren Applied Technologies.
For McLaren the opening was the latest in a series of recent major achievements, many of which took place in the Gulf region. Last month saw the official launch of McLaren Automotive’s Middle East retail network. This was followed by the regional show debut of the MP4-12C at the Dubai International Motor Show and then Hamilton’s victory in the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Mr Cameron was given a full tour of the new McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in Woking, Surrey, which will house the manufacturing operations for the new MP4-12C which is on sale through a retailer network of 35 dealers worldwide. The Middle East is a key market and the regional network includes Bahrain’s Al Ghassan Motors in Sitra.
McLaren’s flagship London dealership will be based at One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge and is strategically located between Harvey Nichols and Harrods. Jardine Motors Group, McLaren Automotive’s London dealer, has secured the largest ground floor retail unit for a high-profile showroom.
Since the launch of McLaren Automotive in March 2010, thousands of potential customers have shown interest in the company’s first sport car, which is likely to cost under BD100,000.
Outlining his vision for the future of the McLaren Group and British engineering, Ron Dennis said: “We’re a relentlessly competitive entity, bred on high-performance and determined to bring to market ground-breaking products and solutions that are set apart by their top quality and dependence on totally unique and highly innovative steps in performance. Everything that McLaren is, has been built on the founding principles of good design and solid, seamlessly efficient engineering and manufacturing.”
The 32,000sq/m, high-tech manufacturing facility supports up to 800 jobs and will manufacture around 4,000 cars by the middle of the decade. The marque says it will promote new standards of quality being introduced into the sports car market, as well as innovative new technologies unique to McLaren Automotive.
The first in the range of high performance cars, the MP4-12C it says ‘raises the bar’ to new heights in the sports car sector. The innovative one-piece moulded carbon-fibre chassis (the MonoCell) is the key to the 12C’s performance, forming the structural heart of the car, and an ideal occupant cell that delivers exceptional safety and a unique driving environment. Not only is the 12C incredibly light and fast, it also features a range of new technologies, many inspired by Formula One, and all unique to McLaren.
More information about the McLaren Production Centre can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialMcLarenVids
