For decades now, McLaren has secretly stored all of its Formula One race cars and same production models at a warehouse simply called ‘Unit 2’ out in England. But now, the British automaker is sending out almost half of the cars held there for display at its dealerships around the world.

Early speculation had the McLaren MP4-12C Spider set to make its debut this year, and now it’s been all but confirmed by the British automaker.

The McLaren MP4-12C arrived in America earlier this year as one of Englands finest supercars packing a twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 engine with 592-hp and a base price of $229,000.

We know that McLaren is working on a successor to its F1 supercar, but now we’re getting word that McLaren is tooling away on another vehicle behind the scenes. 

It was a miracle that no one died at the Nurburgring Grand Prix of 1976. On lap two of the race, Niki Lauda, who drove for Ferrari F1 had a terrible crash that sent his car bouncing between the barriers and bursting into flames.

The Gulf Team Davidoff McLaren F1 GTR Longtail will be sold at the upcoming Pebble Beach Auction from August 16 through 17 at Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley, Calif.

Earlier this month we caught a glimpse into the new GT3 MP4-12C race car from McLaren and the British automaker has finally announced its 2012 race plans.

In total, 25 MP4-12C GT3 race cars in total will be campaigned throughout Europe and in the 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship. The McLaren MP4-12C race car was also selected to be the safety car for FIA GT1 World Championship race at Nogaro on April 8 and 9.

After an intensive development program in 2011, prototype models of the MP4-12C race car covered more than 35,000 miles on real world and simulated test tracks last year. All that effort went into building a reliable and hopefully rewarding race car for the 2012 season.

There will be 10 MP4-12C GT3s entering the Blancpain Endurance Series while Gemballa Racing and Doerr Motorsport will be competing in the German VLN series, which includes the infamous 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Gemballa Racing will also be competing in ADAC GT Masters with Molitor Racing, while Hexis Racing will take part in the FIA GT1 World Championships.

Apex Motorsport will enter an MP4-12C GT3 in select rounds of this year’s British GT Championship, and Lapidus Racing Team will participate in the International GT Open series and the 24-hour races at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.

The MP4-12C GT3 race car shares the same V8 twin-turbo engine and carbon “MonoCell” chassis found in the road car counterpart.

Check out a video on the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 after the break.

McLaren is hard at work on its next supercar and Ron Dennis, the British automaker’s current boss has revealed several details of the spiritual successor to the F1.

It certainly deserves a spot on the list of Top 10 Geneva Motor Show cars. Many would also agree it also deserves the last possible spot. And so here it is, the Bentley EXP 9 F concept.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then we’d probably run out the dictionary on the extensive galleries below, showcasing the latest models from German luxury tuner Mansory. And if that’s not entirely true, we’d at least run out of adjectives trying to describe them.

It’s the first, but it most certainly won’t be the last. Known for its wild aero kits, Swiss-tuner Fab Design has unveiled an excessively-styled version of the new McLaren MP4-12C supercar.

In January, a very special and previously unknown McLaren MP4-12C was found inside a luxury car dealership in Miami without details or fanfare.

If Ron Dennis were dead, he’d probably be rolling over in his grave. But he’s not, so we imagine he just had a rough sleep last night.

Weeks ago, we mentioned Ayrton Senna’s original 1991 Championship season racing suit and racing helmet were placed for auction at the Race Retro Sale of the Silverstone Auction held in the UK.

While automakers around the world are readying for the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, McLaren is biding its time for what might be a very special unveiling at the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix held in May.

World famous tuner Gemballa will be heading to this year’s Geneva Motor Show with three world premieres, one of which is a custom McLaren MP4-12C. Alongside the McLaren will be four Porsche projects, two of which are world premieres.

Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard is currently working on Rush, a movie depicting the fierce Formula 1 rivalry between racing driver James Hunt and Niki Lauda for the 1976 Driver’s Championship title. Starring Chris Hemsworth (Thor, The Avengers) as Hunt and Daniel Bruhl (Bourne Ultimatum, Inglourious Basterds) as Lauda, the film is currently being shot in Europe and is expected to reach theaters in 2013.

While a year is a long wait, thankfully Ron Howard has been sharing Rush‘s production progress via his Twitter account. Pictures tweeted include prep work on the set, Olivia Wilde in vintage Gucci, hospital sets, pit garage sets, shots of the Nürburgring, as well as the cars that will be used in the film. Among the movie cars is a gorgeous McLaren M23 replica.

Clearly enthusiastic about his new project, Ron Howard does not claim to be a Formula 1 fan. In fact, Howard only discovered its appeal from Peter Morgan’s script. “These are fascinating characters– ballsy, masculine guys. It was a very dangerous era in racing, and here are two absolute individuals at the height of their powers. It makes for great drama and very exciting action. I wasn’t a die-hard Formula 1 fan before I read Peter’s script, but I’ve been immersing myself in this world. I think the excitement I feel as a fresh convert may be infectious.”

Check out the many pictures Ron Howard has shared after the jump. Also, click on the video for an interview with Howard on Rush.

The McLaren MP4-12C already feels like it’s been around for a few years, but only recently did customers across North America begin taking delivery of their British supercars.

To help celebrate the occasion, McLaren has produced a video, documenting the arrival of dozens of the exotics arriving at port in Baltimore, MD, and being delivered to key markets, and owners, across the U.S.

Powered by a twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 engine, the MP4-12C makes 592 hp and thanks to a light weight carbon fiber “MonoCell” chassis is capable of hitting 60 mph in just 3.2 seconds.

“This film is exciting as it represents the arrival of McLaren Automotive in North America,” said Tony Joseph, McLaren Automotive North America Regional Director. “We are thrilled to be launching with the 12C, which is such a tremendously innovative car, and we look forward to building a long term future.”

McLaren current has 10 dealerships in North America in cities such as Beverly Hills, Greenwish, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Newport Beach, San Francisco and Toronto. The base price for the 12C is listed at $229,000.

Watch the video below:

Thanks to Asif Kapadia’s successful documentary that revived Ayrton Senna awareness, and even mania, there’s a growing market for Senna related racing memorabilia. Up for auction at the Race Retro Sale of the Silverstone Auction in the UK are Ayrton Senna’s original 1991 Championship season Shoei full face helmet and racing suit.

When tuning company Hennessey Performance out of Sealy, Texas makes an announcement, it’s usually something fantastic. In this case, they posted details on their site about a new McLaren MP4-12C concept that wrings an extra 208 horsepower out of the car’s 3.8-liter V8.

When the McLaren MP4-12C debuted, it was seen as a disappointment by many. Certainly the car’s performance was amazing, but not the Bugatti-beating numbers some had expected. That’s because it was never built as a Veyron rival but rather a Ferrari 458 killer. A proper successor to the McLaren F1 would come, however, and according to a new report by CAR Magazine, it will launch some time this year.

A bit of a surprise has appeared on the Internet, with a McLaren MP4-12C High Sport model making an appearance at The Collection in Miami, Florida. The McLaren MP4-12C HS features improved aerodynamics inspired by their GT3 racecar which allows the MP4-12C to benefit from extra boost safely, increasing horsepower by 75 from the factory’s 592-hp.

The aero package includes a new front bumper, rear bumper, enlarged vents, bigger diffuser and a modified rear wing to go along with its new wheels. As a result, the intercoolers get plenty more cool air allowing McLaren the ability to safely turn up the boost for the extra horsepower. Only five HS models will be built according to McLaren and two have already been spoken for: one to the crown prince of Bahrain and one to McLaren chairman Ron Dennis.

We wish we knew what the MP4-12C HS retails for, but we’re guessing if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. With its extremely limited availability and the fact that it’s even more radically tuned than the standard MP4-12C, they’ll be hard to come across and will be a true collector’s item. Hopefully we’ll see one end up on the track to see just how it fares compared to the standard model.

Check out the video after the break.

[Source: Autoblog]

McLaren is set to have their 2013 MP4-12C Spider debut sometime later this year and reports are coming in that the exotic convertible will get a fully-retractable hard top constructed from carbon fiber.

We may know McLaren for their exotic sports cars and race cars, but company founder and CEO Ron Dennis recently told the Wall Street Journal that McLaren is looking to expand its $1.5 billion company into other fields – including drugs (the legal kind of course).

To the race fans and cinema buffs that missed Senna‘s limited release this summer, Christmas came early.

Officially available as a digital download, the award-winning documentary of the most celebrated modern Formula 1 Driver can now be watched on Netflix Instant Streaming and on iTunes.

Unfortunately, Ayrton Senna fans that would like to have a copy on their shelf will have to wait. While the European region 2 release of the Senna DVD and BluRay have been available on amazon.com for months, the North America Region-1 NTSC DVD won’t be available until March 6, 2012 while no official release date has been announced for BluRay yet.

Check out the Senna trailer after the jump:

Over the last 16-years, McLaren has found much success by giving their driver’s Mercedes-Benz power. However, for the last two-years, Mercedes-Benz has been running its own F1 team and rumors started circulating that this will lead to an end to their relationship with McLaren, especially since Mercedes-Benz sold all its shares in McLaren back to the parent company.

McLaren recently celebrated the opening of its new production centre in Woking, England where even British Prime Minister David Cameron was invited to take a tour. The state-of-the-art production facility is the first step in McLaren Automotive’s goal of producing several models of vehicles in the coming years.

Horst von Saurma, editor-in-chief of Sport Auto magazine, took McLaren’s MP4-12C out to Nurburgring for a single lap to see what the machine could do. Obviously we should all take the 7 minute and 28 second lap time with a grain of salt, considering the driver only had a single lap despite being very experienced at the ‘Ring.

McLaren did confirm that the MP4-12C was completely stock, including the factory Pirelli P-Zero Corsa rubber. It’s worth noting that the video doesn’t feature von Saurma’s MP4-12C that he lapped on the Nurburgring, but rather another car that was used on a separate lap day earlier in the year. Unfortunately that vehicle wasn’t able to complete a lap due to rain.

For comparison’s sake, the current production car record holder is the Viper ACR with a 7:12 while the MP4’s closest rival, the Ferrari 458, has a recorded best of 7:32.

Nonetheless, the video is entertaining to watch and McLaren has no plans of recording an official lap this year with their MP4-12C. (It’s a bit nippy in Germany this time of year).

Check out the video after the jump:

With sales of the MC4-12C now well underway in Europe, McLaren has reportedly begun testing on its new hypercar and successor to the F1.

Contrary to several erroneous reports, McLaren has not halted production of its MP4-12C says Tony Joseph director for McLaren North America.

As part of this program, you can have your new supercar painted in any hue you want, and garnish it with add-ons like a gloss black roof, diamond cut wheels, MP4-12C branded carbon door sills, carbon steering wheel and plenty of other carbon bits to have your car stand out from the crowd.

McLaren is planning to build a full model range of super car and sports cars for consumers. Currently, there are at least four more models in the design and development pipeline. The new cars include the current MP4-12C, a hypercar (codename P12), built to take on the new Lamborghini Aventador, and a successor to the famous McLaren F1. The P12 model is expected to produce around 800-hp and its weight will be similar to the MP4-12C. The British automaker will also be building a cheaper sports car (codename P13) to take on the non-turbo Porsche 911.

McLaren unveiled a customized MP4-12C at Pebble Beach, indicating the British automaker will offer a long line of individual options for customers. This particular McLaren features a host of new upgrades and modifications put together by the British automaker, most notable of which are the Satin Orange paint and aggressive new fenders. There are also carbon fiber bits all over the car including a windshield cowl, engine cover gilles along the outside of the glass, and a new carbon rear exhaust cover. The rims have a polished face with black painted centers and the roof panel has also been painted black. Standard options of the 12C include carbon mirrors, a carbon lower front spoiler and rear valence as well as a stealth package which blacks out the exhaust tips and wing supports.

Amid all the historic autos on display at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the Concept Lawn is a look at modern works of vehicular art – not all of them concepts either.

Vehicles on display at this year’s event included the the Infiniti Etheria concept, the SSC Tuatara concept and the Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Concept. The SSC car represents the next generation of the Ultimate Aero and will look to take back the title of the world’s fastest production car from Bugatti. As for the Lotus, it’s essentially a look at a possible street-legal track machine, merging the Evora road car and the GTE Le Mans race car together. Yet another concept was the Lexus LF-Gh – a design study that lead to the Pebble Beach reveal of the new 2013 Lexus GS350.

Other highlights included a rolling chassis of the new Lamborghini Aventador, as well as the Jaguar C-X75 concept. See all these, and even more in the video after the jump:

German investment banker and millionaire, Stephen Korbach has started a new Gemballa racing team, which will be competing in the 2012 motor sport season with two McLaren MP4-12C GT3s. Korbach has asked Sascha Bert to act as team manager for the motor sport involvement.

Singapore billionaire Peter Lim has made a “significant investment” in British sports car maker McLaren, the company said. With his contribution, Lim has joined McLaren Automotive’s board with immediat effect. Forbes ranked him the eighth richest person in Singapore, with an estimated fortune of 1.8 billion.

Not that long ago, actor Rowan Atkinson made news with his appearance on Top Gear, even setting a lap record on the famous show. Now the famous Mr. Bean is making headlines again, but this time it’s not so good.

The sculpture has some serious provenance behind it, as the MP4/6 was formerly raced by Formula 1 great Ayrton Senna.

If you’re like us then you can’t get enough of the McLaren MP4-12C GT3. While a bit too tame a design in production trim, the race car pops – thanks in part to the bright orange paint.

Auto enthusiasts who enjoy gaming will be happy to know that Top Gears Jeremy Clarkson will be spicing up Forza Motorsport 4, as he will be featured in the XBOX 360 game. Top Gear UK and Microsoft have been working to create a partnership between the witty British motoring show and Forza Motorsport.

McLaren hasn’t competed in endurance sports car racing since the F1 GTR ran at Le Mans back in 1995. That, however, will all change on July 30th with the storied British marque announcing a three car team of MP4-12C GT3 race cars will attempt to endure the 24 Hours of Spa.

Since it was launched, the McLaren MP4-12C has been criticized for lacking the emotional appeal of rivals such as the Ferrari 458, particularly when it comes to such aspects like exhaust note and the ‘thrill’ of acceleration.

Rule, Britannia, rule the waves! Britons never will be slaves! The boys of Top Gear recorded an impressive laptime around their famous test track with the McLaren MP4-12C, and if you haven’t seen the episode yet, you might want to skip ahead.

The homegrown MP4-12C beat out foreign contenders such as the Ferrari 458 Italia, the Bugatti Veyron, and the Gumpert Apollo, with a time of 1:16.2 around Dunsfold—the second fastest record on the power board.

Then again, the Top Gear folks have a thing for patriotic bias that makes Sean Hannity look like a Communist—even if Ferrari built a 10,000-horsepower Italia that shot cans of London Pride out the exhaust pipes, Jeremy And Company would still find a way to handicap it. Maybe if they stuffed the interior with gnocchetti filling, then dropped a piano on it.

If only the rest of the British car industry followed through on such spirit. We shall fight them on the beaches! We shall fight them on the test tracks!

Click the jump to see the full comparison.

The  McLaren MP4-12C GT3 will make its first official public appearance at the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed, taking place from June 30th to July 3rd.

McLaren is setting its sight on Ferrari and Lamborghini, and is set to spend $1 billion to develop 13 new models and variants, according to a Bloomberg report.

You know you’re doing something right as an automaker when demand is greater than supply, especially when the car you’re selling has a starting price of $231,400.

On Tuesday, June 21, McLaren Automotive will officially launch it’s new world wide retailer network, with the opening of it’s flagship store in London’s posh Hyde Park district.

Car enthusiasts from around the world are marking their calendars off with big red Xs as BBC’s Top Gear returns. The first episode of season 17 will air in just eleven days with the trio will back in the drivers seat and up to their usual shenanigans driving exotic cars in exotic locations.

Top Gear has just released this montage commercial showing little segments of what will happen in the series. We know for sure that Jeremy Clarkson will be driving the all-new McLaren MP4-12C, James May will be riding shotgun in the MINI WRC car paired against a luge racer and Richard Hammond is driving some massive dump truck on top of passenger cars through a city street.

It looks like we are all in for a treat! Check out the video after the jump:

With the Gumball 3000 already underway (it started May 26), the folks in charge of the international parade of shenanigans has released a video showing the rally’s start in Covent Garden, London. The 19 minute video shows over 100 of the most magnificent and rare supercars in the world. Even the rain couldn’t stop the massive crowd that gathered to watch the beginning of the world’s most fun and most glamorous rally.

The 3000 mile rally will start in London and end in Istanbul over a seven day period across 10 countries, via Paris, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Milan, Venice, Zagreb, Belgrade and Sofia. It was also revealed that the 2011 rally would cost £25,000 to take part in.

Participants include the “who’s who” of the international social scene, Sheikhs, entrepreneurs, oil tycoons, and dot com billionaires.

The incredible line up includes Pagani Zondas, Bugatti Veyrons, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Aston Martins, Jaguars, Porsches, Morgans and several Lotus’, and this year, over 20 eco and concept electric cars are taking part as Gumball enters a new decade of green motoring!

Check out the video after the jump!

A McLaren MP4-12C was involved in a severe crash at the Nurburgring race track in Germany, prompting speculation that the car was attempting to record a lap time on the famed circuit before the first cars were delivered to customers.

Everyone’s favourite car show will return to television on June 12. The hit BBC show Top Gear has been on break since the 16th season ended on February 27 with only 6 episodes. Some of the highlights of last season included Hammond driving the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40, May driving around in NASA’s new lunar rover and Clarkson racing the sun in a Jaguar XJ.

At a recent press conference, McLaren announced pricing on the 20 MP4-12C GT3 race cars it will build for privateer teams to race in 2012 at a significant £310,000 excluding taxes (roughly $495,000 U.S.).

Andrew Kirkaldy, head of CRS Racing, who was also project manager on the GT3 program said that, “having been a customer of GT car manufacturers for many years I’m delighted we are now able to offer a carbon chassis based GT3 car for £310,000. There will be no hidden costs and we will work as hard as we can to support as many races as we can.”

McLaren Group CEO Martin Whitmarsh, added, “we have a unique mix of experience in the McLaren GT team and I expect the 12C GT3 to be the start of our GT racing plans. We have had great success outside of Formula 1, from the US, to France, to Japan and there is no reason why we can’t repeat that success in sports cars after 2012.”

Watch the press conference below:

Most car enthusiasts would probably agree, that the McLaren F1 was and still is one of the most desirable supercars of all time. It stormed onto the scene with a three-seater passenger layout, a 627-hp V12, a 0-60 mph time of 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 241 mph. It had not only beaten its competition, it had annihilated them. The records it set were so impressive, it took over a decade to beat them, by cars sporting much more power. However, since the top speed crown has been taken from McLaren, many have been waiting to see what this Woking, U.K. based car company will do next.

Ralph Lauren’s prestigious sports car collection is on show for the first time at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Lauren is normally reluctant to publicly display his vehicles, although he last let publications such as Road & Track and Vanity Fair get a glimpse of various vehicles in his stable. Cars from manufacturers like Bentley, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Porsche and Ferrari will be on display. The show is on from April 28 to August 28.

There’s some irony in a racing version of a street-legal car getting its own street-legal version—but there’s never anything wrong with welcoming an even faster supercar into the world. And now the McLaren MP4-12C GT3, a car with a name seemingly handpicked from a bag of Scrabble pieces, will be getting its own license-plated edition.

McLaren is going back to sports car racing in a big way. It’s assembled a new division, dubbed McLaren GT, which includes McLaren Automotive and McLaren Racing. Along with CRS Racing, the group launched the MP4-12C GT3 and has announced plans for a full racing development program in 2011.

The new GT3 will be homologated for the FIA GT3 Sports Car series and its return to the track will mark the first time McLaren has competed since 1997. It features much of the same engineering and technology as its street going counterpart, but the engine has been tuned specifically for racing (said to develop around 500 metric horsepower) and the GT3 will feature a specific bespoke race gearbox and suspension tuning.

The car is set to make its competition debut this year at the Blancpain Endurance Series race at the Circuito de Navarra in Northern Spain, followed by events at Magny-Cours (France) and Silverstone (Great Britain) and will be driven by CRS Principal Andrew Kirkaldy, along with 2010 McLaren Mercedes test driver Oliver Turvey and Portuguese wheelman Alvaro Parente.

The car has already undergone extensive testing and McLaren hopes to have some 20 examples ready for privateer teams to run in 2012. For more information on the company’s new GT3 program, hit the jump to see the official video.

Despite a 13 year hiatus from producing road-cars, McLaren is now planning on launching a new road-going vehicle every year, starting with the introduction of the new MP4-12C supercar.

When you’ve got luxury and exotic cars filling up your garage and your driveway, sometimes you have to get creative to store your most prized possessions. This collector of fine automobiles got really creative, finding a way to house two of his Lamborghinis since his other two were, well you know, taking up the driveway.

To some it might be awesome enough to have a McLaren stored in your garage, alongside two Lamborghinis in your driveway. But for this avid enthusiast that needed a way to store two more Lamborghinis, he built an underground garage that simply lifts the driveway to reveal his collection. So at any point in time when he wants to show off, the driveway is lifted and magically another two Lamborghinis are revealed.

Jealous? We sure are. Imagine the other things you could store in an underground garage.

Check out the video after the break.

[Source: 0-60 Mag]

Ron Dennis, chairman of McLaren, was given a 6-month license suspension after running a red light near his home in Surrey, England. Having already racked up 9 demerit points on his license through previous speeding fines, Dennis was hit with another 3 for his exploits, resulting in an automatic ban.