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McLaren has an electrochromic glass roof to fix the 570GT's solar issue

The McLaren 570GT has a huge glass roof. It looks cool, but it can let a lot of light in, which is not so cool. To solve this (and to show off the latest in custom pieces and paint), McLaren Special Operations has gone to work on the car, in the process making it a little more special. In traditional MSO fashion, the 570GT by MSO Concept isn't an all-new car, but more of a makeover for the road-friendly sports car. McLaren released details on its latest concept ahead of the car's official debut at Pebble Beach. While the majority of the bespoke touches amount to special paint and badging, the niftiest feature is an electrochromic roof that's being developed for production. McLaren added an electrochromic interlayer within the 570GT's standard glass roof that uses electric current to adjust the amount of light coming in through the roof, with five different settings that range from clear to dark. The roof should be a welcome touch for drivers in warmer, sunnier climates, and it should help reduce the occurrence of reflections on the car's display screens, an issue we found on our first drive. This isn't the first time an electrochromic glass roof has made its way to a high-end vehicle, as Mercedes-Benz offers similar tech, dubbed Magic Sky Control, on its roadsters and the Maybach. The touch-sensitive headliner used to control it, though, is new technology. Plus it just sounds cool. Besides the roof, the 570GT by MSO Concept is fitted with a richer-sounding titanium exhaust system that is lighter than the standard stainless steel system and features heat shields that are finished in a golden titanium nitride tint, a nod to the McLaren F1's gold-lined engine bay. The system also acts as a built-in rainbow, changing colors from blue to purple and back as it gets hot and cools down. Other unique touches include a pearl white paint job with gloss-lacquered carbon-fiber sill panels and gloss black on the side skirts, wheels, and door inserts. The "By McLaren" interior has saddle tan leather and more bits of carbon fiber. Those items aren't the most exciting, even by MSO standards, but we can totally get behind the trick roof and gold-tinted exhaust. Related Video: Featured Gallery McLaren 570GT by MSO Concept View 9 Photos News Source: McLarenImage Credit: McLaren McLaren Coupe Luxury Performance Pebble Beach mclaren special operations mclaren 570gt

'Trouble-free day! No joke': Honda-powered Toro Rosso F1 car debuts

LONDON — Honda's Formula One partnership with the Toro Rosso team got off to a positive start on Wednesday with a seemingly smooth track debut of their new car on a limited mileage filming day in Italy. "Trouble-free day!! No joke," commented French driver Pierre Gasly on Twitter. New Zealander Brendon Hartley, who was at the wheel of the TR13 car at the wet Misano circuit, reported on Instagram that "the new girl ran super smooth." This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Honda is starting over with the Red Bull-owned team this season after three seasons of failure with former champions McLaren left the Japanese engine manufacturer's reputation in tatters. A behind-the-scenes documentary, "Grand Prix Driver," released on Amazon recently shone a spotlight on the tension between McLaren and Honda that eventually led to the relationship tearing apart. It also revealed how the troubles had started before the launch of the car and were fully exposed once testing in Barcelona started when the car broke down repeatedly due to engine failures. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. McLaren, who finished ninth out of the 10 teams last season, is now using Renault engines and hoping to be far more competitive. How Toro Rosso, and McLaren, fare this season will be among the intriguing sub-plots to the 21-race season that starts in Australia on March 25, with Mercedes and Ferrari again expected to be the frontrunners. Italy-based Toro Rosso, one of the smaller outfits on the starting grid, has taken the cynicism and gloom-mongering about its prospects in good heart. It put out a tongue-in-cheek Q&A at the time of the first engine fire-up that included the questions: "Did it take like six attempts to fire up?", "Did the engine blow up?" and "Did your factory catch fire after the engine started?" The respective answers were "Nope, the engine fired up on the first attempt," "Quite the opposite, it started just as planned" and "Our factory is perfectly fine, thanks for the concern." The final 'question' was simply, "Good luck, you'll need it." Reporting by Alan BaldwinRelated Video: Motorsports Honda McLaren Racing Vehicles F1 toro rosso

McLaren and Red Bull refused to accept elimination qualifying compromise

Formula 1's failure to change its under-fire elimination qualifying format was sealed when McLaren and Red Bull refused to accept anything other than ditching the shoot-out idea completely, Motorsport.com has learned. In another dramatic twist to the saga surrounding F1's qualifying system, sources have confirmed that the two outfits were unwilling to play ball with an alternative solution that had been put on the table by the FIA this week. And without their support - and the need for unanimous backing for any change to go through - the idea to tweak elimination qualifying was left dead in the water, with no time left to do anything other than keep the system that proved so unpopular in Australia. FIA plan After the shambolic end to Q3 in Australia, teams had unanimously agreed in Melbourne to ditch elimination qualifying and go back to last year's system for the next race in Bahrain. However, a decision was made by the FIA to not go that far and abandon the positive aspects of the change. Instead it wanted to give the shoot-out system another try, albeit in an improved format. This week therefore, teams on the Strategy Group and F1 Commission found themselves only able to vote on a revised format to elimination qualifying proposed by the FIA, where the new-style Q1 and Q2 would be extended, and Q3 would revert to how it was last year. One theory as to why teams were only given this option to vote on was that it would effectively force their hands to accept it, as they would be highly unlikely to reject it and keep the Australian system that was so universally criticised. However, if that was a motivation for not giving teams the option of going back to last year's system, then it failed entirely because McLaren and Red Bull refused to support it and did not vote in favour. Without their support, the vote did not go through, meaning that F1 is heading to Bahrain with the same under-fire elimination qualifying format that was run in Australia – and little prospect of it delivering a better show in Q3 this time. F1 criticism In a week when the GPDA spoke out about F1's 'obsolete' rules structure, and the sport making a bold move away from free-to-air TV in Britain, the inability of F1 to get rid of a hated qualifying format has left it facing further criticism.