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Touring the Boulevard at the McLaren Technology Centre

Ask anyone where the supercar capital of the world is and they'll likely point you towards Italy. But that's not the only place where supercars are born. Nor is it – despite the best efforts of Ferrari – home to the bulk of grand prix victories and world championships. Those bragging rights belong to a section of England we call Carbon Fiber Valley. It's where you'll find the majority of Formula One teams and suppliers, and at its heart lies the sleepy town of Woking. With a little over 60,000 inhabitants, Woking wouldn't register on most radars. But it blips big on ours thanks to the McLaren Technology Centre, home to one of the most successful teams in F1 history and a supercar manufacturer to rival Italy's best. It's one of the great gearhead meccas of the world. So on our last visit to the UK we took a stroll along the boulevard of McLaren history. Hidden on more than a hundred green acres at the outskirts of Woking lies a space-age complex designed by Norman Foster, one of Britain's preeminent architects. Both inside and out, it could double as a super-villain's lair in most any fantastical action movie. The McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) opened in 2003. The campus grew with the addition of the McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in 2011, and other facilities that are in the works. MTC hugs one of four artificial lakes that help cool the building and the adjoining wind tunnel. The entire building is pristine, everything above ground in glass and metal, everything below well-lit and lined with white panels. It's an embodiment of the McLaren ethos and the manifestation of chairman Ron Dennis' notorious obsession with detail. The cafeteria, for example, has lower air pressure than the rest of the building, so that smells don't escape into the hallway. Walking around, you get the feeling the entire structure could at any moment rise from the ground and rocket off into space. The story is just as impressive at the adjacent MPC where technicians assemble the 650S, P1, and the forthcoming Sports Series. If things were any cleaner, less cluttered, or more spotlessly sterile, you'd think you were in an operating room. Unfortunately, photography of the assembly facility is prohibited, but that's just as well, because what we really came to see was the Boulevard. While most F1 teams sell or scrap their used cars, McLaren keeps the vast majority of its own.

McLaren and Honda rekindle a winning combination

With the 2014 Formula One World Championship now drawn to a close, all eyes are fixed on next season. And for both McLaren and Honda, that means the dawn of a new era – or hopefully, the return to one bygone. After twenty years running Mercedes engines, McLaren is switching back to Honda next season, rekindling the most successful partnership the once-dominant team has ever had. Immediately after swapping to Honda power in 1988 – and with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost behind the wheel – McLaren entered its winningest era, racking up four consecutive world championships. In the two decades it's spent under Mercedes power since, it won three drivers' titles and one constructors', leaving the relatively brief Honda era as its most successful. It was also the most successful for Honda, which had enjoyed success with Williams and some with Lotus, but far more with McLaren – the likes of which it was never able to recreate. The Japanese automaker that was the first to break into the Euro-centric series left grand prix racing when it left McLaren, and despite returning to fund its own team for the better part of a decade, claimed but one checkered flag before calling it quits again. Whether the new collaboration will return both outfits to the winner's circle remains to be seen, but we're looking forward to finding out. In the meantime, after releasing a couple of images from the video shoot last week, McLaren has put out this minute-and-a-half video clip showing the MP4-29H running a few laps around Silverstone, marking the official start of what could be the second reign of the McLaren-Honda dynasty. News Source: McLaren Motorsports Honda McLaren Racing Vehicles Videos F1 mclaren-honda

McLaren confirms Alonso's return for Malaysia

Formula One will have one more multiple world champion on the grid in Malaysia as McLaren has confirmed that Fernando Alonso will indeed be returning to the cockpit this weekend. The former two-time champ suffered a major crash during pre-season testing in Barcelona a month ago, and subsequently sat out the season opener in Australia earlier this month. The team refuted rampant rumors that there had been some sort of electrical glitch related to the hybrid Energy Recovery System that caused Alonso to pass out behind the wheel, insisting that nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Since the crash, McLaren reports that its star driver "has followed a rigorous, specialised training programme, designed and closely monitored by leading sports scientists, to ensure his safe and timely return to racing." He visited the team's headquarters in Woking, England, where he met with his engineers and spent some virtual time behind the wheel of the team's state-of-the-art simulator. That means this weekend will mark Fernando's first time racing for McLaren since the end of 2007 when he spent one season with the team, before returning to Renault, with which he had won his two world titles. After two more seasons, he switched to Ferrari, but after failing to emerge from Red Bull's shadow in the seasons that followed, Alonso returned to McLaren. It's a difficult time to be driving for the British team, though: after dismal pre-season testing mired by Alonso's crash and mechanical difficulties related to the new Honda engine, his substitute Kevin Magnussen failed to make it to the starting grid in Melbourne while team-mate Jenson Button managed to finish, but no better than dead last. News Source: McLaren Motorsports McLaren F1 malaysian grand prix