McLaren Automotive begins...

Updated



Today McLaren Automotive officially launched the first in a new breed of British-built sports cars at its Woking HQ in Surrey. The new MP4-12C will go into production at an all-new factory in 2011 and will be lighter, greener, more efficient and more powerful than all its key rivals, according to the firm.

Having developed a formidable reputation in grand prix racing - winning a quarter of all races entered since 1966 - McLaren is turning to road cars as a "logical next step", according to CEO Ron Dennis, because continuing exclusively as a formula one brand would "surely be a path to extinction".

The 12C is entering its final stages of development and, when it arrives in showrooms next year, will be one of the most extensively tested supercars ever built, logging over 1 million miles worth of data from test teams working F1-style 24/7 shifts in locations around the world.

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