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McLaren's 10,000th car shows how close it is to catching up with Ferrari and Lamborghini

The move from Formula One to road-worthy production cars isn't an easy one. Just over five years since production on the MP4-12C began, McLaren completed production of its 10,000th car. Even more noteworthy, it took 42 months to build the first 5,000 cars but only 22 months to make it to 10,000. The automaker, which until 2011 had only built a single line of road-going cars, appears to be on a roll with more volume and more models hitting the streets every year. McLaren is set to nearly double its year-over year sales in 2016. The automaker sold 1,654 cars in 2015 and expects to hit 3,000 sales in 2016. While those are good sales number for a relatively new full-line supercar manufacturer, they're still short of the competition. Lamborghini had its best year ever in 2015 with 3,245 cars sold. Ferrari plans to expand production to 9,000 cars annually by 2019. McLaren may be able to compete with the big boys on the track, but it still has a ways to go before it can match their sales. The 10,000th car to roll off the line was a 570S wrapped in Ceramic Grey, a color from McLaren Special Operations. MSO is the division behind awesome cars like the 679-horsepower McLaren MSO HS. The car will be held by the company for its Heritage Collection. The McLaren Sport Series (540C, 570S, and 570GT) were a big boon toward boosting the company's output. An additional production line was built, doubling output from 10 to 20 cars per day. We hope McLaren can continue this growth, and we're looking forward to more new products like the upcoming three-seat F1 successor. We just wish they could come up with some better names. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

McLaren debuts track-only production Senna GTR after all 75 have been purchased

McLaren designed the Senna to be a track car that was just barely legal enough to drive on public streets. Hinderances such as safety restrictions keep it from being the full-out ballistic projectile it was born to be. So McLaren asked the question, "What if we took the Senna out of that box?" and the approximately $1.4M track-only Senna GTR was born. The Senna GTR Concept car debuted at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, and McLaren has returned a year later to show off the final production model. The Senna GTR follows in the historic footsteps of the F1 GTR and the P1 GTR and sits in McLaren's throne room with other Ultimate Series cars, the base Senna and the Speedtail. The most in-your-face change between the production model and the concept is the rear wing. Somehow, it managed to get even bigger, with new side planks that extend from the left and right tips down to the rear diffuser, creating a rectangular box of aerodynamic super strength. It also has a redesigned front splitter, a downsized rear diffuser, new dive planes on the front corners, and vortex generators on both sides of the car. Slipping through the air is what the Senna is all about, as McLaren says it is "the most effective aero performance for track driving of any McLaren Automotive product." According to McLaren, the Senna GTR's downforce exceeds an astounding 2,205 pounds, compared to the road-going Senna that topped out at 1,763 pounds at 155 mph. The GTR can reach the same 1,763 pounds at about 15 percent slower speed, or at about 132 mph. The GTR is lower, wider, and slimmer than the Senna, as well. At 2,619 pounds dry, the GTR is 22 pounds lighter (the track-only version deletes the infotainment and audio system but keeps the air conditioning). It's 1.3 inches lower than the Senna, the front track is three inches wider, and the rear track is 2.7 inches wider. Further expanding the GTR's girth, fender flares were added to cover up the 19-inch centerlock wheels that are wrapped in 285/650 front and 325/705 rear Pirelli slicks. Behind the wheels are forged aluminum monoblock calipers, six-piston up front and four-piston in the back. These work with 15.4-inch carbo-ceramic discs for extreme stopping power. McLaren says, despite the design change, the rear wing air brake functions the same and can get a 20 percent greater maximum deceleration because of the slick tires. One of the most significant changes to the car can only be felt, not seen.

F1 Race recap: 2016 Russian Grand Prix same as it ever was

The three-year-old Sochi Autodrom that hosts the Russian Grand Prix combines beautiful scenery with a hallmark turn 3, a tricky turn 13, and two long DRS zones. So far, however, those haven't added up to exciting races after the first lap. Despite an in-race issue with his car's MGU-K, Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg aced the weekend with his first career grand slam: pole position, fastest lap of the race, leading every lap, and victory. Behind him, not much happened on the leaderboard after an incident-filled opening lap. The drama started at turns 2 and 3. Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel lined up in seventh on the grid because of a five-place gearbox penalty, Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat sat next to him in eighth. Kvyat hit the back of Vettel's Ferrari in the braking zone for Turn 2, shoving Vettel into Daniel Ricciardo – Kvyat's teammate. Kyvat then clobbered the back of Vettel's car at the entry to Turn 3, spinning the German into the wall and out of the race. Kvyat probably regrets saying before the race that he would show Vettel "no mercy" on the first lap. At the back of the grid at Turn 2, Haas F1's Esteban Gutierrez hit Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Manor's Rio Haryanto. Gutierrez continued, both the Force India and the Manor retired. A brief Virtual Safety Car period ensued, then the actual Safety Car emerged for three laps while marshals cleaned up the track. Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg nailed the restart and took off for the rest of the race. Teammate Lewis Hamilton battled his own gremlins all weekend but still finished second, 25 seconds behind Rosberg. During the final qualifying session on Saturday Hamilton's car suffered the same MGU-H failure as in China two weeks ago. The problem relegated him to tenth on the grid. In the race, Hamilton fought his way to second place by Lap 19 out of 53 laps and began closing the 13-second gap to Rosberg. On Lap 37, the gap now under eight seconds, Mercedes told Hamilton his car had a water pressure issue. The malfunction forced the Briton to manage his race and settle for second. Afterward, Hamilton said he was certain he could have won if not for the malfunction. The rest of the top ten barely changed throughout the contest. The first five positions on Lap 21 crossed the finish line in that order 32 laps later. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen took the final podium position ahead of the Williams duo of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.