The McLaren MP4-12C will go on sale in the UK with a base price of £168,500, narrowly undercutting the Ferrari 458 Italia by £1,045. But due to new UK tax laws, the McLaren’s “on the road” price, including taxes and registration, will actually be £5 more than the 458 Italia.

A price increase is expected for the 458 Italia to account for the new taxes, but the car features ceramic brakes as standard, while they remain optional on the McLaren. The MP4-12C will be sold through three retail stores in the UK, in London, Manchester and Birmingham. McLaren’s last supercar, the F1, sold for £635,000 when released in 1994.

[Source: AutoExpress]

Fifteen years old is a rough age for a car. Most cars are just about bottomed out in terms of value around this age, even such “normal” supercars as the Ferrari F50, First-gen Zonda, and Lamborghini Diablo, all of which can be had for around half of their original asking prices. But what about the McLaren F1? The former record-holder for the fastest production car in the world doesn’t go down in value without a fight. In fact, it doesn’t go down in value at all. This particular example, #62, was purchased new in California by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, for the paltry sum of $1.4 million. Fifteen years later, when Gooding and Co. puts the F1 on the auction block at Pebble Beach (that’s 2 weeks, people), this F1 is expected to draw between $2.5 and $3.5 Million.

This doesn’t surprise us at all, since the F1 is pretty much right at the top of every car guy’s list of dream cars. But with only 74 roadgoing examples ever produced, the odds of seeing one in person, let along driving or owning one, are hovering between “snowball’s chance in hell” and “peace in the middle east.” Demand will forever outweigh supply for a car like this, and they change hands so rarely, it almost always makes news when an F1 finds a new home. Hit the jump to check out the official press release and some high-resolution images of Larry Ellison’s McLaren F1.

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Having already announced it’s new MP4-12C exotic and setting up a worldwide dealer network, McLaren is now planning a successor to its F1 supercar, reports AutoCar. When the McLaren F1 debuted back in 1992 it created a new standard for performance vehicles and set a top speed record that stood for over a decade until the launch of the Bugatti Veyron in 2006.

McLaren has already announced plans to build additional models, with rumors of a more entry-level vehicle competing with the Porsche 911. This is the first serious report that a true successor to the F1 is in the works.

According to reports, an inside source at McLaren has said the new car will be “revolutionary” and will also look the part. Apparently McLaren designers have taken note of the fact that while the MP4-12C is regarded as an incredible machine, it’s styling isn’t nearly as captivating as the F1.

Other than the fact that it will use a carbon fiber monocoque chassis and feature a mid-engine layout, there are no confirmed details on the car and it’s not known if like it’s predecessor it will use a central driving position.

[Source: AutoCar]

After designing the legendary McLaren F1, Gordon Murray decided to try his hand at something completely different. Murray revealed his latest creation, the T.25 City Car, at an event in Oxford, England, and to say that it’s a 180 from the McLaren F1 is an understatement.

The T.25 weighs in at a truly featherweight 1,212 pounds and is less than eight feet long. Power comes from a 51-horsepower inline 3-cylinder engine, and 0-60mph can be measured in geological epochs (the official number is 16.2 seconds). Of course, the T.25 really has nothing to do with performance, as its focus is on city driving. The T.25 will get 61.9 mpg in the city, while being small enough to park perpendicular to the curb, fitting three T.25s into a single space.

Since this is a Murray design, the T.25 will share a design cue with the F1. The cockpit is laid out similar to the F1, with the driving sitting in the center, flanked by two passengers. To facilitate easy entry, the front of the car swings open like a clamshell.

Hit the jump for the official press release

Gallery: T.25 City Car

[Source: Gordon Murray Design]

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Once a fixture of only the most expensive Formula 1 race cars, carbon fiber monocoques have now filtered down into the slightly more accesible world of supercars, and McLaren  is leading the charge, after announcing plans to build two more carbon-monocoque supercars after the MP4-12C.

McLaren will be partnering with Carbo Tech, whose factory in Salzburg, Austria can supply up to 4,000 of the light weight structures per year. Carbon Fiber has the potential to be a wonder-material for the auto industry, due to its strength, malleability and light weight (which can in turn increase performance and reduce weight). However the material has traditionally been extremely expensive, and only within the realm of exclusive racing teams.

Toyota and BMW are currently investing heavily in new production facilities and development techniques relating to carbon fiber, in preparation for future products like the Lexus LFA and BMW’s Megacity urban car. The increased investment and upcoming mass production of vehicles with carbon fiber content should help amortize the costs and enable car makers to use carbon fiber on their entire range of products, allowing the benefits to be passed on to the rest of the vehicle range.

At McLaren’s price range, the cost prohibitive qualities of carbon fiber are much less of an issue, and the sports car firm claims that 1,600 orders have been placed for the MP4-12C already, a significant amount for such a niche, low volume sports car.

[Source: Inside Line]

At 38 years old, Elon Musk has already lived a life filled with more adventures and pitfalls than most of us can fathom. The founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX was also a one time owner of a McLaren F1, the holy grail of car collecting, and served as the inspiration for Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, in the latest films inspired by the Marvel Comic franchise.

Unlike the real Tony Stark, Musk is currently mired in a messy divorce, and the latest court filings show that he is pretty much flat broke, relying on “emergency loans” from friends, which we presume is the wealthy billionaire version of asking “Dude, can I crash on your couch?”

While various gossip blogs are injecting their own analysis into the mix (it doesn’t help that Musk left his wife for 24-year-old actress Talullah Riley), The Truth About Cars’ Bertel Schmitt managed to extrapolate just how the divorce problems will affect Tesla Motors (emphasis added by Autoguide).

If Tesla’s IPO is successful, his finances would look brighter. But there are two problems. The court has slapped a protective order on Musk’s holdings, says Venturebeat. He won’t be able to liquidate significant holdings without first getting permission from his ex-wife. That’ll cost him. Then, there is the matter of how Musk’s precarious finances will affect the IPO.

Should the IPO fail, then no money from Toyota – it’s contingent on the successful IPO. We, the U.S. taxpayer likely won’t see any of the money the Department of Energy loaned Tesla. Should the IPO succeed and the Tesla stock sink afterwards, then you won’t have to wait long for an onslaught of lawyers. The dirty laundry most likely will feature prominently.

If you think that’s bad, wait till you see what Musk’s ex-wife is asking for in the divorce settlement.

[Source: The Truth About Cars]

The Bugatti Veyron might be faster, the Pagani Zonda more eye-catching and the Ferrari Enzo more extravagant. Nevertheless, the McLaren F1 is still regarded by most enthusiasts as the greatest car ever made, bar none. The F1 was the physical manifestation of the dreams of Gordon Murray, a savant engineer whose personal quirks ingrained in the car’s design. There’s no radio, because Murray hated listening to the radio, but there’ is a top-notch hi-fi for your own music. The engine was a BMW V12 that had more in common with an F1 engine than the opulent 12-cylinders that powered the 750iL and 850i luxo-barges. The driver sat in the middle of the car, and the engine was lined with gold, for better heat dissipation.

With the 20th anniversary of this monumental car approaching, McLaren decided to honor the F1′s owners with a dinner at the company’s headquarters in Woking, England. 21 McLaren F1s made an appearance, and with less than 100 cars in existence (and roughly 70 of those registered for road use), it was possibly the largest ever gathering of McLaren F1s.

Hit the jump to read the McLaren press release.

[Source: Autoblog]

Gallery: McLaren F1 Gathering

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After a bit of a hiatus Ron Dennis, the man responsible for the legendary McLaren F1 and less spectacular McLaren SLR, is back at it. Today he introduced the world to his latest creation, the MP4-12C.

While not quite the full-blown supercar that the F1 was, the MP4 is a serious exotic, aimed squarely a the Ferrari 458 Italia. The powerplant is a twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 engine that makes 600hp and 433 ft-lbs of torque. McLaren says the engine offers the highest horsepower to CO2 ratio of any engine on the market – including hybrids. No performance specs have yet been released but we expect a 0-60 mph time of around 3.5 seconds with a top speed in the 200 mph range.

The V8 engine is mated to a new 7-speed dual-clutch transmission that promises even faster gear changes than conventional systems thanks to the ability to let the driver pre-load a gear by half pressing the shift paddle, which will ready the transmission for the next gear.

What really separates the MP4 from cars like the 458 however is the use of a full-cabon monocoque chassis, rather than a weaker and heavier structure made of welded aluminum, steel, magnesium or other materials. This main chassis component weights just 176 lbs so we should expect the vehicle’s curb weight to be impressively low. 

“It is a long-held dream of mine to launch high performance sports cars that set new standards in the industry,” said Dennis. 

“We began designing and building cars for aficionados of thoroughbred sports cars almost 20 years ago. Incorporating the leading edge technologies that the McLaren Group has built up within its various companies, I believe we are now perfectly placed to open up this new chapter in McLaren’s history as well as play a part in the regeneration of high-tech manufacturing in the UK and global automotive environment,” he concluded.

The MP4 will go on sale in 2011 with roughly 1000 units being made ensuring the new car is highly exclusive. The car is expected to cost  £160,000 ($265k).

GALLERY: McLaren MP4-12C

Official release after the jump:

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Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 9th, McLaren will unveil its next exotic, the MP4-12C. The name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it has an historical significance, namely, that it has the name MP4 name as all of the McLaren race cars.

In an interview with the Times of London ahead of the vehicle’s debut creator Ron Dennis revealed that he intends to not only build the MP4-12C, but two other sports cars, one to compete with the Porsche 911 and another along the lines of the Porsche Carrera GT.

As for the MP4, Dennis says it will have a timeless design, with a high-revving V8 engine, a seven-speed gearbox and a light-weight carbon fiber chassis. Oh, and scissor doors will also be a part of the package. Other features include a variable rate suspension that stiffens up with speed, as well as a wireless connection that will allow you to download MP3s from your driveway.

While it’s not expected to be at the same level as the F1 supercar, this exotic, says Dennis will, “on all performance parameters and price… be better than our competition.” Dennis also said he intends to produce racing versions of the car to compete in motorsports.

McLaren Automotive, which recently emerged when Dennis left the McLaren Group F1 team, is funded by Dennis, the Swiss engineering company TAG and Mumtalakat, a private equity firm of the Bahrain government. The group has already spent £100,000,000 on the project and will announce shortly that it will quadruple that number of the coming years. “We’re building more than a car,” said Dennis. “We’re building a brand.”

[Source: Times Online]