A month or so ago I fortunate enough to be taken out in an MP4-12C Spider by a generous guy I've met on a couple of occasions over the years -



During that epic drive, I was offered the opportunity to go to the Mclaren Technology Centre, Mclaren Production Centre and Mclaren Special Operations sometime in the near-future for a look around.

Today was that day. Today is a day that for me will forever be remembered, amongst other things, as a day of acronyms - namely MTC, MPC and MSO.

I started the day at the Mclaren Technology Centre - MTC - and was shown around the Boulevard along with Mclarens Social Media Community Manager, past the iconic Formula 1 cars with the names of Senna, Prost et al on them, past F1 GTR's #20R and #01R [which I sat in ] and XP1LM. We carried on along the Trophy Corridor (that is fuller than last time I was there 4 years ago :thumbsup. We then moved on to have a great chat with one of the men who worked on the 'lost weekend' in the run up to Christmas Day, 1992, when XP1 finally moved under its own power. This was a great part of the day for me - hearing the history, the story's, the enthusiasm, the dedication, the work ethic all told by one of the actual people who worked on XP1 was easily a highlight, in a day full of highlights.......

We then walked to the Mclaren Production Centre - MPC - it really is as clinically clean and quiet as others have said. The production line was full of 12C Spiders in various states of build and approximately 6 x 12C's per day roll off the production line, with Mclaren having made over 1500 to date.

We then drove to Sheerwater where I was fortunate to get a quick look inside 'Unit 2' and was provilged enough to check out 56XPGT and more iconic and historic Formula 1 cars before moving on to Unit 1, Mclaren Special Operations - MSO.

I was fortunate to have a guided walk round, saw 3 F1's and a variety of Press 12C's being fettled with, from Spiders to an HS to a PP workhorse that's racked up the miles as a test bed for many upgrades / customer enhancement requests. This, although it was covered by Simon Kidston on his Facebook page [remember Simon owns #007] and as mentioned earlier in CAR magazine as they recently did a segment on MSO [see below, and George Williams a member on here took some great shots to complement the great write up :thumbsup:] was extremely exciting for me. This is the 'skunk works' of Mclaren, a place ever-so secret where owners who wish their car to be more individual than what you get in the 'standard' Mclaren catalogue


Mclaren have hosted my day on their Facebook page.

To say today was a fantastic experience is an understatement; Epic is an over-used word in motor journalism circles, but quite apt for my day today.

A BIG thank you goes to the Mclaren guys who were hospitable, accommodating and professional to the end.

 

This may be one of the best days that I can possibly fathom. Congrats man, that's a hell of a friend to have!

 

Congrats on the VIP tour. My head is spinning from all the acronyms, sounded like some consultant was going rampant with that. Lol

 

It was a day of highlight after highlight after highlight. For me, being an F1 fan like Erik, to not just see some F1's that I hadn't seen before but to hear the history, the stories, the little snippets of info and see areas previously off limits humbled me greatly. A day to remember

 

Huge congratulations on the tour man, I'd like to visit the MTC one faithful day! I'm also impressed that you guys managed to see the 12C SINGAPORE EDITION, so far 1 has been sold, other 2 hasn't been spoken for!

 

awesome experience, thanks for sharing

 

Click the picture of me to see some pictures

 

Here are some more picures, some not on the facebook page, that I can share [not sure WHAT was going on in picture 5.... ]