Car Throttle

Hard-parking - Noun.  When one owns a high-performance vehicle which he only drives to and from the garage to the car show. Used in a sentence: "Stop hard parking your car, take it out to the tracks." Hard parking is that guy you know with the sweet M3 with the sweet BBS wheels and the sweet carbon-fibre everything and the sweet AP Racing big brake kit and Tein coilovers and carbon-bucket Recaros and oh my god it's a Grouppe M carbon intake, and all he does it park it up, sparkling clean with the hood up at Euro-snob car shows.  Boo on you, pansies.  Fast cars are meant to be driven heard.  Allow me to explain.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m9Yomop92Y

A Lamborghini Countach was not equipped

The world's filled with boring, mundane, unremarkable automobiles. For every SVO Mustang, there are 10,000 Camry LE's.  For every Alfa Romeo Guilia Super sedan, there are an untold bazillion Honda Fits.  That's just how it is: mainstream sells.  As it turns out, very few people actually want the diesel, all wheel drive, manual-transmission station wagon that internet car enthusiasts say would sell like hotcakes. Sometimes, though, some of the most interesting cars out there are born out of some of the most dishwater-dull transportation appliances.  Here's my top ten - as always, feel free to leave a comment telling me what I left out at the bottom!  On we go. 10) Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 Mitsubishi's Galant sedan is... hold on, let me go to Wikipedia, I can't

Over the past few years we have been witnessing the birth of a new volume manufacturer in the super car industry - McLaren. When we met with McLaren executives at an event in San Jose last year, it was clear there was a real excitement about the company and a view that was taking place was something big. The company has undertaken an extensive and meticulous five-year development process of the MP4-12C. That process has finally culminated with the MP4-12C's official start of production, which took place yesterday. Chassis 01 has yet to be completed but it is winding it's way through the production process at McLaren's Technical Center (MTC) in Woking, England. The site where most MP4-12Cs will be built is a site adjacent to the

McLaren has been readying its MP4-12C supercar for quite some time - we've been hearing about the car for years but the official unveiling took place in late 2009. Since then there have been a few delays, but the car is on track for global sale this year. The length of time is part of a painstaking development process that results in the impressive vehicle we hear about today. In San Jose last year, CarThrottle attended an unveiling and launch of McLaren San Francisco by Price Family Dealers. We came away impressed - its a car that pictures just don't do justice to. One thing we haven't known about the car is its pricetag - various figures have been bandied about, with them mostly being pegged

The McLaren MP4-12C is a supercar that has been in the works for quite some time. McLaren Automotive has put a staggering amount of attention to detail in to the car, obsessing over the final product. That has resulted in a bit of time before announcement last year and delivery of the production model next year. CarThrottle attended a preview of the vehicle last month and was quite impressed with what we saw. One of the few things about the car that hasn't been known for certain - pricing information, has now been revealed for global markets. Until now pricing for the MP4-12C has been pegged in the $250,000-range. While the United States has yet to see pricing officially released, that looks to have been

McLaren Automotive is moving full-speed ahead with its efforts in launching the MP4-12C. The supercar was designed to take the brand into the world of volume exotics, and no expense was spared in the effort. In May of this year, McLaren announced locations for 35 dealers. While McLaren has a rich automotive history known to us enthusiasts, they are starting from scratch in creating this dealer network. It will be separate from the network that serviced the F1 supercar. As McLaren works to get that network ready for launch next year, CarThrottle attended a preview of the MP4-12C for the Palo Alto, California location. It will be referred to as McLaren San Francisco. Over 600 businesses applied to become McLaren dealers - a very high number that was

The world has known about it for quite sometime, but the McLaren MP4-12C supercar is still a year away. Launch is set for Spring 2011, but McLaren is keeping busy until then getting the retail network ready. While McLaren is a well-known brand name around the world, producing race cars and roadcars by itself in the 1990s and in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz in the 2000s. In all of that though, the brand is still without a dealership network. They are basically starting from scratch. As part of the MP4-12C's global launch, the company today announced 35 dealership locations. Demand both to buy the MP4-12C and sell it appears to be high - the company has received 2,500 expressions of interest and over 600 automotive business have requested consideration.

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

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

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