My friend Mike finally received his McLaren! Below is his experience prior getting the car until now:biggrin: I thought it was well written as he is a car nut like many of us can relate prior getting the NSX.
Waiting on Wheels
Michael Glore, Braxton, MS
A while back, a friend of mine (Mike Martin) asked me to write an article covering the events surrounding ordering an English car and the saga it has become. Like most people reading this, I am a car nut. Over the years and more recently after joining a few car clubs here in Jackson I have learned I am not alone in this affliction. In most comparisons, I am a real small player. Okay, Bob J. no comments on my height.
To begin with, I have experience in ordering and then waiting on cars. In both cases, longer time than promised. So what I have learned is to get on the list as soon as possible. The car, I committed to purchasing is the McLaren MP4-12C. Rumors that McLaren was working on a street car was first noticed in 2009. McLaren isn’t exactly front and center of well known or little know manufacturers. That is unless you follow International Formula One; which, in all honesty even I stopped watching. In the past, McLaren has only produced two cars. The F1 was produced from 1992-1998 a total of 106 cars were produced. At that time, it was the world’s fastest road car with a top speed of 231 mph. Their second road car was a joint development with Mercedes-Benz called the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. McLaren produced a little over 1,100 in a few different variations from 2004-2010. Both of these cars carried many technical highlights; however, central to both of them was their carbon structure.
McLaren was the first manufacturer to use carbon fiber in their race cars and continued its use in their road cars. I had a chance to study a F1 McLaren road car in Kenner, LA at a friends shop. At that time, the car was 14 years old and the only thing that gave its age away was the tall aspect ratio tires. I was offered the chance to sit in the car but I did not try it. The F1 features central seating, 3 seats across and I can’t see how I could crawl over the outboard seat gracefully. Anyway, I was blown away by its shape. The fit and finish was excellent and the sublime shape something to see. Later, I learned it took 4,000 man hours to produce the carbon fiber monocoque chassis. I understood what the cars capabilities were although standing next to it the shape did not shout at you. It had a supple shape most like Honda’s NSX. Nothing mean looking about it.
Anyway, enough about the 12C predecessors, I was stung with the need to get in line. I bookmarked the forums and all sites I could find and finally in January, 2010, the McLaren website had a place to register your interest intent or commitment to buy. I committed to purchase and instantly they (computer generated) fired back a questionnaire. They questioned year of birth, car magazines I subscribe too and cars owned or previously owned. Now, I figure things are getting serious. My age (64 at that time) shouldn’t be a problem, car magazines I should be okay there also. The biggie was I didn’t want to mention multiple questionable cars I have and used to have. If your readers want to get a laugh, look up Berkeley cars (British circa 1951-1960). I had the much more popular 4 wheel model also an Austin Mini Moke, this one I keep hidden in Braxton. So I kept the car list short to a couple of Lotus’s and a Jaguar and peppered the magazine subscription with a couple of euro car magazines.
I continued to read everything I could find on the 12C and finally the factory announced the first public showing of the car was to be in England at the Goodwood Festival of Speed early July, 2010. With very little planning, I got my wife to book flights and hotels to make it to the show. This car event was evened out with a side trip to Paris for my wife.
About the Goodwood Festival of Speed…..I could write a book, but I will only talk about the car. We found the McLaren display within a short time after arrival. On their stand was the car complete and a naked chassis and the LeMans winning F1 car. And one hell of a lot of people most of which had camera’s on sticks to peer over into roped off cars. At this time not much was know about the car – price – performance – dealers – deliveries. Just a beautiful car and bar chassis, maybe the only one on the planet. It is hard to explain the social system which exist over there. I got the feeling they would prefer all questions in writing so they could decide which they wish to answer tomorrow.
In all fairness, I am sure they were schooled in the many areas that were off limits to discussion. At one point, I inquired about the manufacture of the dual clutch 7 speed gear box and was told he could not say; however, he pointed to the logo, which I spotted as ‘GRAZINO’. Quite James Bond – you know.
We left the show after 2 full days and I passed my cards to any McLaren guy that would accept it. During the show, I figured out that supply would never keep up with demand and that if I was to get one, I would have to step up my game. I was told there would only be 30 dealers world wide with 9 or 10 in the U.S. and that I would be contacted after one was assigned to me. There was no time frame on the above. However, 3 days later, while I was bored to death in Paris, I received an email stating that I was assigned to the Dallas dealer, Park Place.
Now, I had an urgency to get back to the U.S. and make contact with the Dallas dealer. I managed to have a letter drafted and forwarded to the dealer advising that I was out of the country and would contact him shortly upon arrival. A couple of days later, I took off from Braxton on the 460 mile drive to meet the sales manager. I got to the dealership at 10:00am and got out 2 hours later with very little new information. However, he knew I was serious and knew I wasn’t a flipper. A flipper is one who speculates on making a profit on early delivered cars. I find this concept of making money on cars quite foreign from all of my car dealings. Two months go by and I get and email from the factory official first showing of car, Pebble Beach during the 2nd week of August, I get a buddy to go with me and we get a private showing with 50+ other people. Anyway, I see several faces from England and more cards are given out.
There was also a Houston showing that I attended and by now I started to recognize several people. Speed forward several months to the present (December) and I received an email stating the VIN# of the car and that the car was to be flown to the U.S. Now it’s getting hard to sleep. I will add pictures and another write up if this saga ends.
Waiting on Wheels
Michael Glore, Braxton, MS
A while back, a friend of mine (Mike Martin) asked me to write an article covering the events surrounding ordering an English car and the saga it has become. Like most people reading this, I am a car nut. Over the years and more recently after joining a few car clubs here in Jackson I have learned I am not alone in this affliction. In most comparisons, I am a real small player. Okay, Bob J. no comments on my height.
To begin with, I have experience in ordering and then waiting on cars. In both cases, longer time than promised. So what I have learned is to get on the list as soon as possible. The car, I committed to purchasing is the McLaren MP4-12C. Rumors that McLaren was working on a street car was first noticed in 2009. McLaren isn’t exactly front and center of well known or little know manufacturers. That is unless you follow International Formula One; which, in all honesty even I stopped watching. In the past, McLaren has only produced two cars. The F1 was produced from 1992-1998 a total of 106 cars were produced. At that time, it was the world’s fastest road car with a top speed of 231 mph. Their second road car was a joint development with Mercedes-Benz called the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. McLaren produced a little over 1,100 in a few different variations from 2004-2010. Both of these cars carried many technical highlights; however, central to both of them was their carbon structure.
McLaren was the first manufacturer to use carbon fiber in their race cars and continued its use in their road cars. I had a chance to study a F1 McLaren road car in Kenner, LA at a friends shop. At that time, the car was 14 years old and the only thing that gave its age away was the tall aspect ratio tires. I was offered the chance to sit in the car but I did not try it. The F1 features central seating, 3 seats across and I can’t see how I could crawl over the outboard seat gracefully. Anyway, I was blown away by its shape. The fit and finish was excellent and the sublime shape something to see. Later, I learned it took 4,000 man hours to produce the carbon fiber monocoque chassis. I understood what the cars capabilities were although standing next to it the shape did not shout at you. It had a supple shape most like Honda’s NSX. Nothing mean looking about it.
Anyway, enough about the 12C predecessors, I was stung with the need to get in line. I bookmarked the forums and all sites I could find and finally in January, 2010, the McLaren website had a place to register your interest intent or commitment to buy. I committed to purchase and instantly they (computer generated) fired back a questionnaire. They questioned year of birth, car magazines I subscribe too and cars owned or previously owned. Now, I figure things are getting serious. My age (64 at that time) shouldn’t be a problem, car magazines I should be okay there also. The biggie was I didn’t want to mention multiple questionable cars I have and used to have. If your readers want to get a laugh, look up Berkeley cars (British circa 1951-1960). I had the much more popular 4 wheel model also an Austin Mini Moke, this one I keep hidden in Braxton. So I kept the car list short to a couple of Lotus’s and a Jaguar and peppered the magazine subscription with a couple of euro car magazines.
I continued to read everything I could find on the 12C and finally the factory announced the first public showing of the car was to be in England at the Goodwood Festival of Speed early July, 2010. With very little planning, I got my wife to book flights and hotels to make it to the show. This car event was evened out with a side trip to Paris for my wife.
About the Goodwood Festival of Speed…..I could write a book, but I will only talk about the car. We found the McLaren display within a short time after arrival. On their stand was the car complete and a naked chassis and the LeMans winning F1 car. And one hell of a lot of people most of which had camera’s on sticks to peer over into roped off cars. At this time not much was know about the car – price – performance – dealers – deliveries. Just a beautiful car and bar chassis, maybe the only one on the planet. It is hard to explain the social system which exist over there. I got the feeling they would prefer all questions in writing so they could decide which they wish to answer tomorrow.
In all fairness, I am sure they were schooled in the many areas that were off limits to discussion. At one point, I inquired about the manufacture of the dual clutch 7 speed gear box and was told he could not say; however, he pointed to the logo, which I spotted as ‘GRAZINO’. Quite James Bond – you know.
We left the show after 2 full days and I passed my cards to any McLaren guy that would accept it. During the show, I figured out that supply would never keep up with demand and that if I was to get one, I would have to step up my game. I was told there would only be 30 dealers world wide with 9 or 10 in the U.S. and that I would be contacted after one was assigned to me. There was no time frame on the above. However, 3 days later, while I was bored to death in Paris, I received an email stating that I was assigned to the Dallas dealer, Park Place.
Now, I had an urgency to get back to the U.S. and make contact with the Dallas dealer. I managed to have a letter drafted and forwarded to the dealer advising that I was out of the country and would contact him shortly upon arrival. A couple of days later, I took off from Braxton on the 460 mile drive to meet the sales manager. I got to the dealership at 10:00am and got out 2 hours later with very little new information. However, he knew I was serious and knew I wasn’t a flipper. A flipper is one who speculates on making a profit on early delivered cars. I find this concept of making money on cars quite foreign from all of my car dealings. Two months go by and I get and email from the factory official first showing of car, Pebble Beach during the 2nd week of August, I get a buddy to go with me and we get a private showing with 50+ other people. Anyway, I see several faces from England and more cards are given out.
There was also a Houston showing that I attended and by now I started to recognize several people. Speed forward several months to the present (December) and I received an email stating the VIN# of the car and that the car was to be flown to the U.S. Now it’s getting hard to sleep. I will add pictures and another write up if this saga ends.
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:biggrin:
