The history of McLaren
The British car brand McLaren has a long and beautiful history. The holding company McLaren Techno-logy Group consists, on the one hand, of the McLaren racing team in Formula One and, on the other, of the car manufacturer McLaren Cars, formerly McLaren Automotive. Although these are two different groups within the holding company, McLaren Cars uses the latest technologies derived from Formula 1 in the production of supercars. In this blog, we tell you more about the origins of the British car brand McLaren.
The history of McLaren
Both the McLaren racing team and the British car manufacturer have been major players in the racing and automotive world for years. Everyone knows team McLaren with famous former drivers such as Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton.
The founding
McLaren’s Formula One racing team was founded in 1963 and first competed in the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. New Zealander Bruce McLaren had been an active driver in F1 for many years and decided to set up his own team after several seasons of dissatisfaction with the car. The new racing team was named Bruce McLaren Motor Racing and Bruce McLaren took the first victory for the team in 1968 at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. In the American Can-Am championships, the team had even more success and the drivers reigned supreme, earning many more victories and podium finishes.
Following the death of Bruce McLaren
Bruce McLaren dies in 1970 during a Can-Am test. After his death, performance becomes much less in all racing competitions, so McLaren decides to focus more on F1 in late 1972. This is successful, as McLaren becomes world champion for the first time in 1974 with driver Emerson Fittipaldi, and James Hunt does the same trick again in 1976.
McLaren ft. Ron Dennis: the dominant 1980s
After its first F1 successes, the team subsides again, until McLaren merges in the early 1980s with Project Four, the Formula 2 team of the young Ron Dennis. This young man is behind the success that follows in the 1980s. He brings in Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and, later, Ayrton Senna, and strictures Porsche as supplier for the engines.
From 1984 to 1991, with the exception of 1987, McLaren drivers won the F1 championship every year. McLaren as a team also wins no less than seven constructors’ titles during this period. After this most successful period, Mika Häkkinen won the world title in 1998 and 1999, and in 2008, the up-and-coming talent Lewis Hamilton won the last world title for McLaren. In recent years, McLaren has been less dominant in F1, but the British carmaker has managed to bring some very rare supercars to the car market.
British supercars of top speed with latest F1 technologies
In 1989, McLaren Automotive was founded. Today, the name is changed to McLaren Cars and is headed by Ron Dennis, the man who was at the root of McLaren’s success years in F1. Over the years, McLaren Automotive and later McLaren Cars become the specialist in producing super-fast cars based on the latest Formula 1 technology.
The first and most famous supercar made by McLaren is the McLaren F1. In 1992, McLaren stunned the market with this three-seat coupe version in which the driver sits in the middle of the car. The McLaren F1 was the fastest production car in the world with a top speed of 386.5 mph.
In 1999, McLaren decided to partner with DaimlerChrysler and the supercar Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren was designed and built. This version is seen by many people as the best of both: the sharpness of McLaren and the comfort of Mercedes-Benz.
In the years that followed, several more supercars from McLaren hit the market, including the McLaren MP4-12C and the hybrid hypercar McLaren P1.
Novitec McLaren 720S
Introduced in 2017, the Novitec McLaren 720S can rightfully be called a racing monster due to its power and top speed. With an output of 806 hp, the Novitec McLaren 720S gets you to 100 km/h in just 2.7 seconds and 200 km/h in just 7.5 seconds. The sensational appearance and the terrifying sound from the exhaust ensure that you cannot cross the road unnoticed with this version of McLaren.
With its twin-turbo 4.0 V8 with 806 horsepower, new state-of-the-art design and technology derived from Formula 1, the Novitec McLaren 720S is a true masterpiece from McLaren. Can it get any better? Yes, because even the exterior has been modified by Novitec, including significantly larger rims, lowering and many carbon fiber parts. All this makes the Novitec McLaren 720S a very rare appearance.
Renting a McLaren?
Do you want to rent a McLaren? At PassionWithoutLimits we have the very rare McLaren supercar for rent, namely the McLaren 720S which has been further developed by Novitec. With this version of McLaren as a wedding car you will certainly steal the show during the wedding. Check out the supercar on our website and ask us about the possibilities.