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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 could make 675LT Spider after all

When McLaren came out with the 675LT, it initially said it'd only be offered as a coupe. That decision has now apparently been reversed, however, with news that the hardcore flagship of the company's Super Series may yet breed a convertible version after all. According to Autovisie out of the Netherlands, customer demand has compelled Woking to make an additional run of 675LT Spiders. Just how many it would make, we don't know. The company built just 500 examples of the coupe – all of which sold out in short order – so we wouldn't be surprised to see a similar number of convertibles made. Reached for comment, McLaren spokesman Wayne Bruce would only confirm that it is under consideration: "The 675LT was conceived as a Coupe," said Bruce, "but we are receiving many enquiries about a Spider derivative which we are considering." The 675LT debuted at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year, based on the 650S but with extended bodywork to give it more downforce, inspired by the Longtail version of the McLaren F1 GTR. It also featured more power and less weight to make it even faster. The output of the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 was upped to 666 horsepower, and the curb weight cut down to 2,712 pounds, giving it a 0-62 time of 2.9 seconds. It also came with a price tag of about $400k, elevating the Super Series, in relative terms, from Lamborghini Huracan territory to Aventador rival. Expect the Spider to bear a negligible performance penalty for the open bodystyle, but a slightly higher price than the coupe version. Don't expect it, however, to sit around unsold for long.

McLaren P1 program director gives an aero walkaround

Evo magazine recently got McLaren P1 program director Paul Mackenzie to reveal some of the aerodynamic and materials details that help make his new hybrid supercar so stupendous. The walkaround makes sense of the numerous intersecting lines and angles on the P1, like the main intakes placed inside the doors, the vents just ahead of the front wheels that were added later in road testing to get more cooling to the radiators, the vents on the rear to cool the clutches and the titanium-mesh chimney behind the roof intake. Mackenzie also talks about the Race setting that lowers the whole car 50 millimeters – below the minimum height of road legality in the UK, in fact – and how the raised rear wing automatically changes pitch to reduce drag when you take the coupe above 160 mph. This is what you get when you sit aerodynamicists, engineers and designers in the same room to shrink-wrap a street-legal body around a 900-horsepower chassis. You can find out more about it in the video below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Related Gallery McLaren P1: Geneva 2013 View 19 Photos News Source: EVOTV via YouTubeImage Credit: Gallery images copyright 2014 Drew Phillips / AOL McLaren Technology Coupe Luxury Performance Videos mclaren p1 aerodynamics evo