The design and development process of any car is typically secretive, all the more so when talking about a cutting-edge supercar like the McLaren MP4-12C. But once it's finished and headed to retail sale, there isn't much reason left to hide--in fact, quite the opposite. McLaren has taken that attitude to heart with their new site for the supercar, literally exploding the car into its component pieces.
Showing the car all but disassembled with the carbon fiber tub, crash structures and most of the suspension and powertrain components floating and fully exposed, the site offers a truly inside look at the construction and layout of the car.
It's fascinating to see the car laid bare, but clicking on any of the individual topic areas dims components not related to, say, driving dynamics or areas where weight savings were especially important.
After the still imagery and video of the car from an engineering and design perspective, the interactive nature of the site gives a much better feeling for what exactly went into the design and construction of the MP4, and it's well worth a visit for anyone interested in buying the car, or just a fan of supercar engineering.
"It is vitally important that potential customers of McLaren Automotive across the globe are able to see the unique properties of the MP4-12C and gain an understanding of why we are claiming that this car will set new performance and efficiency standards in the core sports car market," said McLaren Automotive head of marketing Lianne Daly. "Until the car is physically presented in showrooms in early 2011, this website will be the only publicly-available source of official information relating to our range of high performance sports cars."
[McLaren]
