Car Throttle

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

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

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

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

I'm sure this has been said during every era of automotive history at one point or another. Perhaps not during the mid-seventies, but otherwise technology continues to march on, and everything continues to get better.  And the way it is now, and the way it's going to be soon, is easily as good as it's ever been.  Even though the news seems to be overwhelmingly negative these days with regards to the automotive industry, (anyone know any companies with increased sales and healthy numbers lately?) this only really has a little to do with the products themselves and more with the overall condition of the economy as it stands. The products themselves are easily the best they've ever been.  Competition seems to grow stronger and stronger by

The McLaren news has been coming fast recently, with the announcement of U.S sales and a new website detailing the car. The MP4-12C is McLaren's attempt at producing a competitor to the Ferrari 458 Italia. A full-line exotic car manufacturer wouldn't be complete without a Spyder variant, and that could be next for McLaren.It wouldn't just be your typical Spyder supercar though. The story centers around McLaren's new manufacturing facility. McLaren is constructing one that will build the  MP4-12C and other new models next to it's current plant, the McLaren Technology Center in Woking, England. Part of the layout in plans for the facility included a section dedicated to "RHT Sub Assembly." RHT would stand for Retractable Hard Top, setting the MP4-12C apart from the 458

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