DEVELOPMENT
During its development a McLaren road car is subjected to extremes of climate, road surface and manoeuvre.
It spends many hours at maximum speed, and thousands of kilometres at racetracks to push the car to its limits.
Every single area and component of the vehicle is tested in all conditions all over the world to ensure the vehicle meets the exacting durability standards that a McLaren road car is renowned for.
This testing starts at the beginning of the development process before any prototype vehicle exists, using the same simulation and virtual processes as the Team McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 team.
With targets achieved virtually, prototype vehicles are carefully assembled by highly skilled technicians, drawing upon their previous McLaren Formula 1 and GT race car experience. The cars are then ready for a rigorous development program taking in the most demanding and challenging locations around the world.
DEATH VALLEY , USA
One of the fiercest locations in the world, where it reaches over 50 ºC. Here, surrounded by a vast flat shimmering expanse of dust, and high rock faces in the distance, black McLaren prototypes are pushed to their limits.
With the body panels reaching over 100 ºC this is an extreme test of the vehicle’s cooling system, with the fans and air-conditioning systems made to work incredibly hard.
Taking the long climb out of the valley the prototypes are deliberately driven at very low speeds to starve the vehicle of airflow and cause the fluid temperatures to rise.
At the end of the climb, with ambient temperature at around 40 ºC, the cars are immediately parked and left to bake under the sun. All this time, hundreds of sensors are measuring the temperatures of air, fluids, surfaces and components to ensure the vehicle meets McLaren’s stringent engineering requirements.
ARJEPLOG, SWEDEN
At the other end of the scale, and surrounded by a fine powder of snow, McLaren prototypes are subject to temperatures of -20 ºC.
Cars are left to stand in the freezing cold for 15 hours before all of the functions of the car are assessed, from the force required to open a door, to the time taken for the engine to start.
On the road the cars are subject to arduously long road-trips. The car undergoes many hours of dynamic performance development using test-tracks ground into frozen lakes.
NARDO, ITALY
With the stunning vista of the Mediterranean Sea, olive groves and vineyards this is one of the few places in the world you can press the McLaren’s accelerator pedal to the floor and leave it there, for a whole tank of fuel.
This test track is a perfect circle, over 12km per lap, and banked so that the car could continue around the circuit at 240km/h with no hands on the wheel. Here McLaren prototypes are subject to extreme engine and brake testing, undergoing a series of aggressive accelerations from standstill to top speed, before being braked hard to a halt.
NÜRBURGRING NORDSCHLEIFE, GERMANY
This legendary circuit is the toughest and most demanding racetrack in the world. At over 20km per lap, including a huge straight, series of fast sweeping curves, tight corners, jumps, crests, compressions, bumps and kerbs, McLaren Automotive’s team of top professional racing drivers push the prototypes to their limits.
The Nürburgring represents a massive overall test of a car’s durability and dynamics, and one very relevant for a McLaren road car, as the purest driving experience. The engine is never far from the limit, the throttle is rarely off the floor, and the tyres scream in submission.
