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Showing posts with label McLaren. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McLaren. Show all posts

Saturday, April 16, 2011

McLaren Design Car | F1 McLaren | Formula 1 Design | McLaren Design F1

Formula 1 McLaren Design
F1 McLaren View Side
Car F1 : McLaren Design View Side
McLaren Design for Formula 1
McLaren Design for Formula 1

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011






























sources: automobile-sportive.org, jtuned.com, wirednewyork.com, world.honda.com,
jdmsh!t.com, jonsibal.com, symscape.com, solejam.com, speedhunters.com, 
mlmwinteam.com, gtrblog.com, autoviva.com

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Since we've been talking about incredibly rare Porsches and old episodes of Top Gear, I thought I'd combine the two topics.  Conveniently, this brings us to the most recent limited edition uber-car from Stuttgart, the Carrera GT.  It just so happens to be, in my opinion, with its unique V10 whoooop whhhooooooop, the best sounding car... in the world.



I know we all dream about driving this car or one of its contemporaries, the Mclaren Mercedes SLR and Ferrari Enzo.  Still more people dream of owning an exotic like this V2 rocket.  However, very few understand what it takes to maintain a hyper car.  Well I'm here to do my civic duty as a blogger and reblog the images of Jason Tang and words of Rowan Horncastle.  Click here to see the complete list as well as more pics.





Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Look down at your center console (now at me, now back to your console...damn Old Spice commercials).  I bet there's at least 3 things that you notice right away.  There's the shifter, a cup holder probably, and the hand brake.  This last item goes by many names.  There's hand brake, parking brake, and emergency brake, or e-brake for short.  I've decided that e-brake will from now on mean "enthusiast brake."  Let me explain after the jump.

My Mazdaspeed 3

This is a picture of the three most important hand controls in a car.  The steering wheel...er... steers.  The shifter transmits power from the motor to the wheels.  For normal people, the e-brake prevents the car from aimlessly wandering into some negative circumstance.  However, the e-brake is an enthusiast's Leatherman multi-tool.

Now, I don't condone anything that I'm about to tell you.  I'm just saying that certain people do, in fact, use the e-brake for these reasons.  These might include e-brake drifts, j-turns, and front-wheel drive burnouts.

As enthusiasts, we are proud that we can make a car dance around corners and control its every movement.  The e-brake simply aids in the festivities.  Soon, these stop sticks will be replaced by something like this:
Audi parking brake
This parking brake is from an Audi A6, I believe (correct me if it's an A8).  Notice the "P" does not denote e-brake.  This is a parking brake.  This was not made for hoonage or rally techniques, contrary to Audi heritage.

As I stated in part 1, the art of driving is becoming less and less intimate.  Knowing the proper clutch and shift action for a car no longer matters.  Shifting is becoming automated with dual clutch, flappy paddle tomfoolery.  Add in the new EPA CAFE standards for increased fuel mileage and we have a perfect storm situation that can wash away all traces of analog car controls.
Mercedes E-Class
I know it's like beating a dead horse in this column but bear with me on transmissions for a bit.  

Automated manual transmissions use clutches instead of torque converters like in a normal automatic transmission.  Lexus and Mercedes use wet clutches in their automatics but that's a story for another time.  These automated manuals are getting to be more efficient than automatics because those liquid filled torque converters sap a lot of power just to get moving.  These transmissions can be moved around a lot more than a manual transmission due to solenoids controlling the driver/transmission interface instead of a mechanical linkage.  This means that the center console can be made smaller which in the case of the McLaren MP4-12C narrows the car to decrease weight and increase fuel efficiency.
MP4-12C worldcarfans.com
Where does this leave the e-brake?  We might as well call it Bon Jovi 'cause it's living on a prayer now.  Cable linkages are becoming good buddies with the Dodo bird and e-brakes are turning into p-brakes, which sounds more like a panic stop during a road trip.  In which case, I don't want to be using that on a daily basis.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

2011 McLaren MP4-12C Photos
2011 McLaren MP4-12C Front Pics

2011 McLaren MP4-12C Dash Interior Photos
2011 McLaren MP4-12C Door open Photos
It takes a lot to angle out during Monterey Car Week, yet one agent that came up in about every chat was the McLaren MP4-12C. Making its aboriginal actualization aback debuting at the Goodwood Festival of Speed beforehand this year, the MP4-12C was trotted out for -to-be buyers and champagne-slurping journalists adjoining to Pebble Beach's photogenic 18th aperture so those of us in the States could assuredly 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 army amidships, with 600 application and 443 pound-feet of torque delivered to the rear auto through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. And this isn't an off-the-shelf drivetrain from addition automaker – the absolute car, from the agent to the window controls has been developed in-house. The aftereffect is a 2,800-pound alien that – on cardboard – has the abeyant to aphorism the segment.

We spent about two hours dabbling and prodding the 12C, all while interviewing McLaren's Managing Director, Antony Sheriff. He answered our questions, laughed at our brainless jokes and came able with an all-embracing ability of about every angle of McLaren's new baby.

But added than the ability and the looks, it's the 12C's all-embracing abstraction and beheading that ashore with us. Rather than go with an aluminum spaceframe, McLaren autonomous for a carbon cilia monocoque belief a bald 176 pounds. An aluminum anatomy is army ahead and aft, and the anatomy assignment is artlessly draped over the anatomy to aid aerodynamics. Nobody does this. (And we now appetite a bald anatomy to arise on our wall).

Get central and it's accessible that the act of active is the sole focus. The seats are molded to the alone buyer's body, the council caster is always adjustable, the tachometer sits advanced and centermost with two configurable displays crabbed it. The paddle shifters assignment like a camera bang switch: authority the downshift paddle halfway, the gearbox recognizes you're about to baddest the abutting gear, dials it up and as anon as you cull aback accomplished the detent, it engages. And the headroom. We wouldn't be afraid if the McLaren had added of the actuality than a Rolls-Royce Ghost.

Other absorbing tidbits: You can advantage the 12C with a three-camera video recording arrangement to certificate your on-track antics. Carbon blended brakes are optional, but unless you're branch to the clue every weekend, the animate units are said to stop the 12C in the aforementioned ambit (and don't squeal). Three caster options are accessible – forged, failing artificial or ultra-lightweight – the closing of which came into actuality afterwards McLaren advisers told the engineering aggregation to aloof architecture the lightest caster accessible – they didn't affliction what it looked like. We saw them on the abstraction car backyard at Pebble and the ten-spoke architecture looks fantastic.

There's abundant more, but we'll let our account with Sheriff booty it from here. And if you're interested, McLaren affairs to accomplish a absolute of 1,000 MP4-12Cs abutting year, with sales in the U.S. alpha in August. McLaren hasn't appear pricing, but we apprehend article in the $250,000 range.

2011 McLaren MP4-12C Photos
2011 McLaren MP4-12C Front Pics

2011 McLaren MP4-12C Dash Interior Photos
2011 McLaren MP4-12C Door open Photos
It takes a lot to angle out during Monterey Car Week, yet one agent that came up in about every chat was the McLaren MP4-12C. Making its aboriginal actualization aback debuting at the Goodwood Festival of Speed beforehand this year, the MP4-12C was trotted out for -to-be buyers and champagne-slurping journalists adjoining to Pebble Beach's photogenic 18th aperture so those of us in the States could assuredly 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 army amidships, with 600 application and 443 pound-feet of torque delivered to the rear auto through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. And this isn't an off-the-shelf drivetrain from addition automaker – the absolute car, from the agent to the window controls has been developed in-house. The aftereffect is a 2,800-pound alien that – on cardboard – has the abeyant to aphorism the segment.

We spent about two hours dabbling and prodding the 12C, all while interviewing McLaren's Managing Director, Antony Sheriff. He answered our questions, laughed at our brainless jokes and came able with an all-embracing ability of about every angle of McLaren's new baby.

But added than the ability and the looks, it's the 12C's all-embracing abstraction and beheading that ashore with us. Rather than go with an aluminum spaceframe, McLaren autonomous for a carbon cilia monocoque belief a bald 176 pounds. An aluminum anatomy is army ahead and aft, and the anatomy assignment is artlessly draped over the anatomy to aid aerodynamics. Nobody does this. (And we now appetite a bald anatomy to arise on our wall).

Get central and it's accessible that the act of active is the sole focus. The seats are molded to the alone buyer's body, the council caster is always adjustable, the tachometer sits advanced and centermost with two configurable displays crabbed it. The paddle shifters assignment like a camera bang switch: authority the downshift paddle halfway, the gearbox recognizes you're about to baddest the abutting gear, dials it up and as anon as you cull aback accomplished the detent, it engages. And the headroom. We wouldn't be afraid if the McLaren had added of the actuality than a Rolls-Royce Ghost.

Other absorbing tidbits: You can advantage the 12C with a three-camera video recording arrangement to certificate your on-track antics. Carbon blended brakes are optional, but unless you're branch to the clue every weekend, the animate units are said to stop the 12C in the aforementioned ambit (and don't squeal). Three caster options are accessible – forged, failing artificial or ultra-lightweight – the closing of which came into actuality afterwards McLaren advisers told the engineering aggregation to aloof architecture the lightest caster accessible – they didn't affliction what it looked like. We saw them on the abstraction car backyard at Pebble and the ten-spoke architecture looks fantastic.

There's abundant more, but we'll let our account with Sheriff booty it from here. And if you're interested, McLaren affairs to accomplish a absolute of 1,000 MP4-12Cs abutting year, with sales in the U.S. alpha in August. McLaren hasn't appear pricing, but we apprehend article in the $250,000 range.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

... almost always look like a naked woman lying on her stomach about to get up." -unknown
I would have gladly taken credit for this quote, but let's face it, we all know it was said by someone much more brilliant. If any of you know of its origin, feel free to leave a helpful comment.

Every once in a while, your favorite car magazines will do a cover on what they've nominated as the most beautiful cars in the world. 90% of the time, they've somehow managed to let you down by either not including one of your favorite cars or by putting in a car that you just don't care for. Unfortunately, this may happen here too. If you really want a list that meets your expectations, it'd be easier if you just created your own.

Anyway, back to me. I imagine that industrial design may be one of the most creativity prohibiting fields within design. Oftentimes, designs are dictated by the boring philosophies of practicality and functionality. You've all heard the phrase "form follows function," yes?

Even so, the humble automobile that started out as a tool for transportation, has become something that has transcended to lifestyle, culture, and won the affections of many.

Affection is wonderful. Affection has given upright utility a sprinkling of the irrational. But with a little extra addition of passion (Italian or otherwise), the flood gates opened and we witness the evolution of modern car design.

Through the decades, specifically starting in Europe and the United States during the late 1930's, one shape overcame the test of time and became the shape we have all universally agreed upon as beauty.

A common misconception has been that the most important part of a car is its engine.


Take this picture of an 1918 Peugeot for instance. It suggests to me that it is as powerful as a locomotive, dramatically displays the immensity of its engine. All else is an afterthought.

Later, a new philosophy stated that, in fact, the most important part of the car is its contact points to the road-- the wheels and tires. Car design paid close attention, and eventually devoted attention, to incorporating fenders that cover the wheels and suspension for better protection, aerodynamic fluidity and, of course, aesthetics.

1935 Duesenberg SJ Speedster


1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900


Italian "Pontoon"



1949 Mercury Coupe


American "Character Line"

This design pursuit gave fruit to two key design cornerstones. The "pontoon fender" and the "character line." The majority of later design exercises have always been a combination of the two in varying degrees.

1955 Porsche 550 Spyder


1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa


1963 Ferrari 250 GTO


1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe


1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback

Approaching the late 1960s, we enter the golden age of Italian car design and engineering.
Advances in fiberglass and metallurgy allowed for even more complex surfaces. In order to convey athleticism, designers offered the illusion of tension and bottled energy. No longer is it simply an attractive steel shell covering the mechanical bits. Inspiration created taut, firm skin, appeared to have stretched itself to its limit of tension across the car. What's the result?

Yes you guessed it, the result is a car that looks like a naked woman lying on her stomach.

Through it all, the philosophy from the 1930s remained true in the 1960s-- wheel fender arches are even more aggressively exaggerated, the engine still bulges through the bonnet.

Another notable event happened in the 1960s. A small Italian automaker was founded in the once quiet town of Sant'Agata Bolognese. You may recognize the name from their more recent efforts; Diablo, Murcielago, Gallardo. But in 1966, Lamborghini created their genesis, the very first mid-engined V12 Lamborghini. The Miura.

A sword has two edges, however. In the 1960s, car manufacturers were still in the experimental phase of aerodynamics and many were yet to master wind tunnel techniques. What does this mean? The rule of thumb for designers became, "if it looks slippery, then it is slippery."
1967 Lamborghini Miura
1968 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale
1968 Ferrari Dino
Porsche 917

Ferrari 330 P4
Ford GT40

1990s Britain's decade of Magnificence. The wind tunnel's path of enlightenment.

Jaguar XJ 220


McLaren F1

Aston Martin DB7


2000s
Porsche Carrera GT

Ferrari F430
Aston Martin DB9
Alfa Romeo 8C Competitzione


Porsche Cayman S

Like many things, design can come back in full circle. For numerous reasons, whether it may be heritage, intellectual recycling, or what not, I do feel that the modern cars, while still thoroughly modern and innovative, borrow a lot from its predecessors.

Nonetheless, I am very amazed at how far and how successful the original Italian Pontoon and the American Character line have developed and evolved while still staying very true to its original intention.

Thank you all for reading this incredibly long post. In a century, there have been millions of cars that have been created so naturally there are numerous cars that have captured our hearts and inspired us.

To the Lotus race car fans, and Lancia Stratos fanatics, Acura NSX tuners, Rolls Royce connoisseurs and yes, even you BMW playboys, I have not forgotten about the contributions your cars have provided but I just couldn't have possibly done them all.

 

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