Mercedes, McLaren Split Due to MP4-12C

Over the last decade, McLaren and Mercedes-Benz have been closely intertwined. A little over 10 years ago, the company that was then DaimlerChrysler purchased a 40% stake in McLaren. Mercedes officially announced the “end of a great era” with the final "crowning glory" model being the SLR McLaren Stirling Moss. Long before this though, developmental plans had to be put in place. Mercedes begun to divest itself of McLaren had its new SLS supercar developed by its performance subsidiary AMG. Then, McLaren announced its intention to compete head-to-head Ferrari and Lamborghini again by way of the MP4-12C. But what caused the divergent paths? Before, it seemed as bit puzzling, but it is less so now. The head of Mercedes Formula One, Norbert Haug, said the split was due to McLaren's

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McLaren MP4-12C Announcement Coming Tomorrow

The automotive world has known most of the details on the McLaren MP4-12C for a long time. McLaren has given details about the car through videos as well that have documented the car's development process. However, McLaren apparently has a lot more to reveal. The company has scheduled a press conference starting tomorrow in England at 10:30am GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). There will be a live stream of the event that takes place at 6:30am for those in the Eastern Standard Time Zone and at 3:30am for those on the West Coast in the Pacific time zone. For this writer (on the West Coast) that is a just a bit early to wake up for a product we've already seen before. There has been some rumors that Formula One

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VIDEO: McLaren MP4-12C Test Vehicles In Spain

McLaren Automotive is coming back, with the MP4-12C. It may be taking a bit longer than expected, but McLaren is hard at work on it as we speak. In the age of YouTube and in-depth videos, McLaren has made some behind-the-scenes videos documenting the cars development process and showing some footage of test vehicles. The latest one in the series shows the car testing in Spain at the Applus IDIADA facility. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR33WNVbGBo

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McLaren MP4-12C GTR Rendered

Race cars and vehicle renderings - we've covered both with the latest being the new Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid and a proposed new VW Corrado rendering. McLaren is a supercar manufacturer that is making a comeback to the road car automotive scene, after collaborating with Mercedes-Benz on vehicles like the SLR McLaren. Mercedes has gone off on its own with the SLS AMG and McLaren has other plans, introducing the like the MP4-12C, a car aimed right at Ferrari. McLaren has primarily been a motorsports company as well, which would mean there is a possibility that a special racing version of the production road car could be put on the track, much in the way Porsche does with the GT3 R. However, we haven't got an

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VIDEO: Inside Development of the MP4-12C

McLaren's MP4-12C has caused a stir in the news lately. First of all, it is a McLaren - but also word of new models like a potential Spyder and a recent pushback of its U.S launch from the Los Angeles International Auto Show to the New York show or later. Throughout the process, McLaren's approach has done some things differently - like a neat website that details various components of the car. Now a new video has been released from McLaren that highlights the car's development process. The best part is some track footage of prototype MP4-12Cs. Check it out! httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leIa2wI4YPM

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U.S Launch for McLaren MP4-12C Delayed

McLaren's entry into the world of volume supercar manufacturing has been going pretty smoothly until now. The first vehicle, the MP4-12C was shown and a global launch planned. That included announcement of a regional director for North American operations earlier in the month. In addition, rumors about a Spyder model have already been swirling. The regional director job entails setting up the retail network here in the United States to sell the supercar. Apparently, that job has been a bit more difficult than expected. McLaren was planning a U.S debut for the MP4-12C at the upcoming Los Angeles International Auto Show in December, according to Edmunds Inside Line. Given the fact that the dealer recruiting process is going a bit slow, that debut is

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Explore the MP4-12C on McLaren’s Website

Things at McLaren Automotive are moving forward for the launch of the MP4-12C. McLaren intends for the car to do head-to-head battle with the Ferrari 458 Italia. McLaren is planning a presence in the North American market to do that.

"It is vitally important that potential customers of McLaren Automotive across the globe are able to see the unique properties of the MP4-12C and gain an understanding of why we are claiming that this car will set new performance and efficiency standards in the core sports car market," said McLaren Automotive head of marketing Lianne Daly.

"Until the car is physically presented in showrooms in early 2011, this website will be the only publicly-available source of official information relating to our range of high performance."

The website is definitely

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McLaren Automotive Coming to the U.S

There has been a lot of discussion about McLaren’s big return to the automotive scene. They never really were gone, as the company struck deals with Mercedes Benz to collaborate on an unique line of vehicles. Now those days are behind them though and McLaren is setting ambitious goals as it stakes out a future for it's own. I never was a big fan of the SLR McLaren anyway, so I'm glad to see them making their own cars again. The new McLaren will be a lot different than the days of the record-busting F1. Pitched as a true British competitor for Ferrari and Lamborghini, it will have a full model lineup. The first result of the McLaren's efforts is the recently introduced MP4-12C. The company is going full speed with it's plans (economic situation supposedly hasn't changed any of them

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McLaren MP4-12C Images Surface

The return of McLaren is here! For quite some time now we've known about a reborn McLaren that was spunoff from the main motorsports operations. A direct full-line British sportscar competitor for Ferrari and Lamborghini, if you will. The cars went under internal names P8 and P11 - now the first has surfaced, wearing an entirely different name. The name - MP4-12C is about as memorable as the car. Color be underwhelmed. Of course the McLaren MP4-12C has the ingredients to be a supercar: mid-engined design, twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 engine making around 600 horsepower and 433 lb-ft of torque. McLaren says has the highest horsepower to CO2 ratio of any internal combustion engine on the market. Interesting, but I have a feeling that isn't going to exactly

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