DCAWD.com

Autoblog wrote:It takes a lot to stand out during Monterey Car Week, yet one vehicle that came up in nearly every conversation was the McLaren MP4-12C. Making its first appearance since debuting at the Goodwood Festival of Speed earlier this year, the MP4-12C was trotted out for prospective buyers and champagne-slurping journalists adjacent to Pebble Beach's photogenic 18th hole so those of us in the States could finally see what the fuss is about.

If you're not already up on the stats, here's the pertinent information: The MP4-12C packs a twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V8 mounted amidships, with 600 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque delivered to the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. And this isn't an off-the-shelf drivetrain from another automaker – the entire car, from the engine to the window controls has been developed in-house. The result is a 2,800-pound exotic that – on paper – has the potential to rule the segment.

We spent nearly two hours poking and prodding the 12C, all while interviewing McLaren's Managing Director, Antony Sheriff. He answered our questions, laughed at our stupid jokes and came equipped with an encyclopedic knowledge of nearly every facet of McLaren's new baby.

Mr Kleen wrote:If I were in the market for a $250,000 car I'd drive right past the Ferrari dealership. From the frame to the wheels to the suspension and on and on, it's just a magnificent commitment to the final product.
Bravo McLaren!

Already, we can see something interesting. The McLaren MP4-12C is not a unibody machine: the car gets all the strength it needs from what lies beneath the skin. The body itself adds a bit of rollover crash structure, aerodynamic scuplting and, of course, a heaping helping of bad-assedness, but you could drive one that looks like this with little trouble.

But the MP4-12C isn't a body-on-frame vehicle either, not really. That's because the heart of the "frame" is a single-piece carbon-fiber monocoque (yellow) that weighs just 80 pounds. I guess we can call this body-on-monocoque construction. Whatever the term, it's put together very much like a prototype racecar you might see at Le Mans or Daytona.

The engine, transmission and rear suspension are carried by an aluminum trusswork (orange) that's bolted behind. This sort of trusswork isn't found in racing applications where the engine block itself is a so-called "stressed member" that doubles as the rear half on the frame. Here the engine is "unstressed", so the trusswork is needed to do exactly what it looks like it's doing.

complacent wrote:dammit! i knew i remembered reading something about this damn car somewhere here... my bad. i'll join the two.

"the most complete supercar the world has ever seen."