2025 Mclaren Artura Spider on 2040-cars

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Santander sticks with McLaren amid sponsorship exodus

Sponsors have been leaving McLaren one after the other as the team's performance has dropped off drastically over the past few seasons. But Santander is sticking with it for another few years. The banking group first teamed with McLaren in 2007. It started sponsoring Ferrari in 2009 and originally planned to drop McLaren, but ended up sticking with – and continues sponsoring – both teams today. Under the renewed contract, Santander will continue supporting both the British team and its driver Jenson Button for another five years, through the end of 2020. The news was undoubtedly welcomed in Woking amid the exodus of several other sponsors. Former title sponsor Vodafone left before the start of last season. Longtime sponsor TAG Heuer is leaving for Red Bull. After more than three decades with McLaren, Hugo Boss switched to Mercedes earlier this year. And Johnnie Walker is expected to leave as well to join Aston Martin over at Force India. McLaren did pick up sponsorship from CNN, which previously backed Caterham prior to the team folding. It also recently signed the Chandon champagne brand and extended its deal with Hilton hotels. Other partners include oil giant ExxonMobil, business technology leader SAP, multinational accounting firm KPMG, and Segafredo coffee. Once a championship frontrunner with eight constructors' championships, 12 drivers' titles, and 182 grand prix victories to its name, McLaren has dropped off drastically in its performance over the past few seasons. It finished the 2011 season in second place, 2012 in third, 2013 and '14 in fifth, and this past season in ninth. Much of that drop in performance can be attributed to teething problems with the new Honda engine package. But without a title sponsor for two seasons now and with many others leaving, McLaren might find itself without the resources it needs to rediscover its former winning form. McLaren-Honda and Jenson Button renew partnership with Santander McLaren-Honda is pleased to announce the extension of its partnership with leading bank Santander UK plc. The agreement is set to continue the partnership for a further five years until the end of 2020, with British driver and 2009 F1™ World Champion, Jenson Button, continuing to feature prominently in Santander campaigns. Having first partnered together in 2007, McLaren-Honda and Santander have enjoyed a long and successful relationship.

McLaren, Koenigsegg, Toyota, Ford, Dodge and Corvette Lego kits announced for 2021

Lego has announced a slew of car-themed sets for 2021. The six kits comprise nine vehicles and fall under the brick pusher's Speed Champion line of official OEM-licensed kits. News of their arrival comes from German toy retailer JB Spielwaren's pre-order listings, which show three single-car sets and three dual-car sets of matched marques. Starting with the McLaren Elva roadster, the kit consists of 263 pieces and is finished in blue. It seems to have a difficult time capturing the curves of the real-life Elva, but there's only so much you can do with a bunch of plastic blocks. Lego has made several other McLaren kits before, including the Senna, 720S, and a more advanced Senna GTR for the Technics line. Next up is the Koenigsegg Jesko, made up of 280 pieces and finished in white. Though the real-life Jesko is still curvy, this kit does a better job of replicating its aggressive maw, vents and cantilevered rear wing. Rounding out the single-car sets is the 299-piece Toyota GR Supra in yellow. This marks the first time Toyota has lent their license to Lego. Again, it struggles a bit to represent the curvy Supra, relying on printed details like logos and headlights to identify. On the other hand, the Chevrolet two-car does a stupendous job with the 1968 Corvette. The C3 is instantly recognizable as such. The C8-R race car it's paired with suffers from the same issues as some of the previous cars, though. The set contains 512 pieces, and funnily enough the C8 driver has short hair while the C3 driver sports a period-correct wavy mane. The next set is a 627-piece Mopar-themed pair, including a purple (Plum Crazy?) 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A and an SRT top fuel dragster. The race car is spot on, but the Challenger was probably tough to make given the width restrictions. It looks a couple of pegs too narrow compared to the wide proportions of the real deal. Last but not least, the Ford set contains a Bronco R and Ford GT Heritage Edition. Consisting of 660 pieces, the set does an excellent job of representing both cars. The GT looks faithful in its Gulf livery, and the Bronco R looks more like a real Bronco than the actual Bronco R race truck. All in all, it's always fun to see more Lego sets with real cars, and we're glad to see more manufacturers added to the roster. The single-car sets are recommended for ages 7 and up, while the double-car sets have an 8 years and up rating. Price in U.S.

McLaren planning P13 GT with unconventional trunk

It was just a couple of months ago that we last brought you word on P13, the project being undertaken by McLaren to slot in a new entry-level model below the above-pictured 650S. Speaking with McLaren personnel at the launch of the latter, we said that the P13 would come in multiple bodystyles – which is to say, more than just a coupe and convertible. Now Car and Driver says it knows what that third bodystyle will be. According to an unnamed inside source in Woking, C/D reports that, in addition to a two-seat coupe and Spider, the P13 (or whatever it's ultimately called for public consumption) will be offered as a GT model. And just what will the difference be between the coupe and GT, you ask? Not necessarily the addition of extra seats in the back: according to Car and Driver, that will be a luggage compartment aft of the engine and passenger compartment. The resulting form, we understand, will resemble a Jaguar E-Type coupe, which could be what we were actually hearing about a couple of years ago when rumors surfaced of a 12C shooting brake in the works. One way or another, it would be an interesting development, potentially as novel as the Ferrari FF but at the opposite end of the spectrum and with its 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 – albeit slightly detuned – still located amidships and still driving the rear wheels through a seven-speed DCT. We'll just have to wait and see how it turns out, but with Frank Stephenson working on the design, we bet it'll be a stunner, if a slightly unconventional one.