A fun evening out

[Woodie]

So by hook or by crook (actually via a friend) I managed to get myself on the invitation list for the launch of the McLaren MP4-12C supercar in Johannesburg this past Monday evening. As many of you may know, McLaren have decided to launch a full road car brand, and the Daytona Group (local agents for Rolls Royce and Aston Martin) have secured the local dealership rights.

The car itself is the world's worst kept secret with videos and images of it freely available on the net. To see it in the flesh was still a special treat though, and it is one serious machine. I spent some time chatting to one of the McLaren Automotive representatives who was in the country to provide technical support and assistance with the launch. He was also one of the lucky ones to have driven the car in anger. Obviously his comment was that seeing the car is special, but driving it reveals its true nature and he said that every time he drives it he gets out with a huge grin on his face.

It is powered by a 3.8L Twin Turbo V8 pushing out 441kw and developing 600Nm of torque. The acceleration is immense and linear with 95% of the torque available from 1900rpm. Combined with a dry weight of 1300kg it makes for a pretty quick car. Although no official figures are available, the prototype has regularly broken 10 seconds in a 0-200kph dash.

The McLaren team have a Ferrari 458 Italia and a Porsche 911 Turbo at their HQ for comparative testing and in the hands of their official test drivers around their private test track, the MP4-12C is 1s per lap quicker than the Ferrari and 2s per lap quicker than the Porsche.

Pricing hasn't been finalised but is expected to be between R3.1 and R3.3 million.

Enough babbling - some pics

First the spiritual predecessor





The "veiled" car



Then unveiled



Some random pics























I liked the running lights in the shape of the McLaren logo



The paint was in pretty good nick to compared to the way I've seen some of these cars presented.







And finally - me trying to figure out how to get those 6 elusive lottery numbers to speed my plan along