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McLaren won't offer 540C in United States

McLaren launched its new entry-level Sports Series in New York with the 570S, and followed up in Shanghai with the more affordable 540C. However we can now confirm that the 540C won't be offered in the United States. In correspondence with Autoblog (and following rampant speculation circulating the Internet), McLaren spokesman Wayne Bruce confirmed: "Following a series of previews in which interest from American customers has been exclusively in the 570S, we will now concentrate on only this model for the launch of Sports Series in the US to satisfy demand." That means the 570S will remain (for the time being at least) the most affordable model – if a term has ever been more relative – McLaren will offer in the US, priced at $184,900. We can also expect additional versions of the Sports Series to follow, including a roadster and a third bodystyle as well. The cheaper 540C won't be kept out of North America altogether, though: it will be offered in Canada. North of the Border, the 540C is priced at $196,500 Canadian (equivalent to about $158k at current exchange rates), with the 570S going for $219,750 Canadian (~$177k). Related Video:

2015 Monaco F1 Grand Prix race recap [spoilers]

Lewis Hamilton came to Monaco with a new three-year deal with Mercedes-AMG Petronas and a vow to not let anything, including any "mistakes" by teammate Nico Rosberg, stand in the way of his best qualifying effort. Mercedes reportedly made it rain with a 100-million-pound deal, and Hamilton made it rain right back with his first pole position at Monaco. Rosberg did make a mistake but this time it was behind Hamilton, which meant he stuffed-up the qualifying attempts of rival drivers like Sebastian Vettel. So Rosberg starts second, 0.342 behind Hamilton but 0.449 ahead of Vettel in the Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo thinks he should have been third, but a communication error with his engineers left him in the wrong engine setting for his final hot lap, so by the very first corner he'd lost the time he would have needed to get higher than fourth on the grid. The second Infiniti Red Bull Racing of Daniil Kvyat slots in behind him, ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi "Not A Very Happy Day" Raikkonen, who just can't get it going lately. Sergio Perez did for the Sahara Force India what the car can't do on its own, which is grab a top-ten qualifying spot. Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz had qualified eighth but missed a call to the weigh bridge, so he's been slapped into the pit lane. Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus inherits his eighth place, ahead of rookie Max Verstappen in the second Toro Rosso, and Jenson Button in the McLaren. Button only got up there because of two penalties: for Sainz, and Romain Grosjean who had qualified 11th but took a penalty for a gearbox change. Want to know how hard it is to do better on race day than in qualifying at Monaco? Even the never-say-die Fernando Alonso said, "Monte Carlo is a train of cars on Sunday, the race finishes on Saturday afternoon." Well obviously, he didn't take Max Verstappen's seek-and-destroy tactics into account. The young Dutchman had made passing look like a real option in Monaco, getting past Maldonado at St. Devote on Lap 7 after a bit of argy-bargy on Lap 6, then taking advantage of blue flags to slink past teammate Carlos Sainz and Williams driver Valtteri Bottas while hiding in Sebastian Vettel's slipstream. He tried the same move on Romain Grosjean on Lap 65, but Grosjean locked him out. Verstappen lined up the Lotus driver over the following laps, then looked like he slipped to the inside at St.

Audi, McLaren to bring winning cars back to Le Mans

Now gearing up for its 83rd running, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is as much about history as it is about racing forward. So this year, two key outfits in the event's history are celebrating by bringing back the cars with which they dominated in years past. Audi has been a force to be reckoned with and the team to beat at Le Mans in the modern era. It still may not have topped its sister brand and chief rival Porsche's record 16 wins, but Audi's 13 have all come in the past fifteen years since the turn of the millennium. That's one heck of a winning streak, which the German outfit will highlight by bringing every single one of its winning prototypes back to La Sarthe this year. From the R8 that kicked it all off in 2000 through the diesel R10 TDI to the R18 E-Tron Quattro that won last year. Ingolstadt won't be alone in racing down memory lane. McLaren announced it will be bringing back all five F1 GTRs that dominated the race in 1995. The quintet that finished first, third, fourth and thirteenth overall will lead a parade lap around the French circuit, joined by the new P1 GTR that will be making its dynamic debut as well as the customer examples of the special edition 650S Le Mans. What's more, winning drivers from '95 – Yannick Dalmas, Masanori Sekiya and JJ Lehto – will be on hand to participate in the parade lap as well, further highlighting the occasion. Related Video: UNITED FOR THE FIRST TIME: AUDI'S 13 LE MANS WINNERS - Efficiency technologies since 2001 in the Audi R8 - Pioneering achievements with the TDI diesel engine - R18 e-tron quattro with hybrid technology unbeaten at Le Mans Ingolstadt, May 15, 2015 – 29 days to go until the Le Mans 24 Hours: Audi is intensively preparing to battle for its 14th victory in the world's toughest endurance race. Since 2000, the brand has won the race 13 times. This year, Audi has assembled all of its Le Mans winning models for a group photo for the first time. Every single one of them represents 'Vorsprung durch Technik.' The string of victories began with the Audi R8 in 2000. "Following a year of learning and gathering experience at Le Mans, we started the 2000 season with a completely new design," says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich.

2015 Spanish F1 Grand Prix makes its Deutsche mark

The first race of the European Formula One season inaugurates the second phase of the Championship. Teams overhaul their cars with the big updates they've been working on since Australia, and at the end of The Battle of Spain we find out how the positions on the field have changed. Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Nico Rosberg brought a big update to his psychology, straight-up beating teammate Lewis Hamilton to take his first pole position of the season. Mercedes owns the front row and Ferrari maintains its status as primary challenger, Sebastian Vettel lining up in third. Williams proved it's been hitting the books to do better in class, though, Valtteri Bottas slotting into fourth. And Toro Rosso's visit to a track that rewards strong aero rewarded them with the best team grid position since the Italian Grand Prix in 2008: Carlos Sainz secured fifth, ahead of Max Verstappen in sixth. Kimi Raikkonen's bout of Saturday woes – it seems the Finn is always handicapped by lots of tiny issues – continued in Barcelona with one of his sets of prime tires getting cooked by malfunctioning tire warmers. He recovered well enough to take seventh on the grid, but he's got some strong competition ahead of him. He led three other drivers in the Continuous Issues department, Daniil Kvyat unable to wrestle his Infiniti Red Bull Racing higher than eighth, Williams driver Felipe Massa getting it wrong in Turn 3 to fall five places behind his teammate Bottas, and Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull enduring another engine change and sloppy car behavior to get tenth. And while it turned out to be a steady race a little rough around the edges, the positions on the battlefield just might have changed. A little. Of the 66 laps in the race we might have seen Rosberg for three of them – maybe. The German got a smashing start, had a clear lead into Turn 1, and after that we checked in occasionally during his two pit stops and again at the checkered flag. He owned the entire weekend the way we're used to seeing his teammate do, and the cameras left him alone to run his race. No one got within seven seconds of him during the first third, and as the pit stop strategies played out that cushion grew. He finished seventeen seconds ahead of Hamilton, and 45 seconds ahead of third-placed Vettel. Hamilton, on the back foot all three days, stumbled out of the gate.

Weekly Recap: Autonomous driving goes commercial in Nevada

Nevada granted Daimler Trucks North America the first license to run an autonomous commercial vehicle on public roads in the United States Tuesday, marking another milestone in the technology's rapid advancement. Gov. Brian Sandoval and Daimler truck chief Wolfgang Bernhard promptly used the license to lap Highway 15 near Las Vegas in a newly revealed Freightliner Inspiration Truck. It was a clear signal that autonomous driving is big-rig reality, though it's still a long way from widespread use. Nevada certified two of Daimler's Freightliner Inspiration Trucks, which use the company's Highway Pilot system with a stereo camera, radar, and lane-keeping collision-prevention features to regulate the brakes and steering. The radar component has a long-range sensor that can cover 820 feet at an 18-degree angle and a shorter-range unit that stretches 230 feet at a 130-degree angle. The Inspiration trucks are based on the existing Freightliner Cascadia Evolution model used on US roads. In addition to the autonomous technologies, it also has futuristic design cues, including blue lighting in the front and a new hood and grille. While there are only two Freightliner Inspiration trucks in existence, Daimler expects to bring the Highway Pilot system into mass-produced big rigs by 2025, in time to capitalize on the market's predicted growth. The German truckmaker predicts the global hauling market will triple by 2050, and the United States will be a key part of that growth. Trucks carry 69.1 percent the nation's domestic freight tonnage and hauled 9.7 billion tons of freight in 2013, according to the American Trucking Association. Daimler expects autonomous driving to augment this growth, and perhaps evolve the role of the truck driver. Still, the company points out autonomous tech is not meant to replace drivers, but to assist them and relieve fatigue and monotony on long hauls. The driver has to stay in control for passing, in city traffic, and when hooking up the trailer. The company said autonomous driving also offers the potential for improved fuel economy – tests showed a five-percent gain – and lower maintenance costs. Daimler also said the technology could reduce congestion on the road. Much of this is attributable to the constant flow of traffic, which is aided by autonomous driving. While the benefits are becoming increasingly apparent, autonomous technology is still met with skepticism.

McLaren 675LT is already sold out

You wouldn't associate McLaren with doing things slowly, but we didn't anticipate how fast it would sell out of the 675LT. The British racing team turned exotic automaker revealed the 675LT as a longer, more hardcore version of the 650S at the Geneva Motor Show this past March. At the time it announced that only 500 examples would be made. Now just two months later, McLaren spokesman Wayne Bruce confirmed to Autoblog that the entire production run has already sold out. "Around half the buyers" who placed their orders for the 675LT, Bruce tells us, "are new to the brand." The other half, by extension, are existing McLaren customers who already own (or have owned) a 12C, 650S or P1. The 675LT sits in the company's new Super Series alongside the aforementioned 650S and the more accessible Asian-market 625C. With 666 horsepower on tap from McLaren's signature 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8, the Longtail will rocket to 62 in under three seconds en route to a top speed of 205 miles per hour. It comes exclusively in fixed-roof-coupe form and retails for GBP259,500. That's equivalent to about $400,000 at current exchange rates, and comes out to about the same (in either currency) as what Lamborghini charges for an Aventador. Related Video:

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-Honda drops the bling for stealth F1 livery

Watch a Formula One grand prix and you can instantly tell which are the McLarens, visible as they are from a mile away with their reflective chrome livery. But that's all about to change as the British team has dropped the chrome in favor of the more subdued livery you see here. Unveiled in time for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, the new McLaren livery replaces the bling with a gray so dark that it borders on black. The red accents remain, albeit in a revised pattern. The new livery promises to be less reflective at sunset and flood-lit night races especially, while providing more of a visual break from the Mercedes era now that the team is powered once again by Honda. McLaren first adopted the silver and black livery in 1997 after Marlboro (with its white and red livery) left for Ferrari and the West tobacco brand was brought in instead. The team parted company with West after the ban on tobacco advertising in sports was instituted in Europe in 2005, inserted some red into the livery and replaced the flat silver with chrome. This weekend's race will mark the first time in a decade, then, that McLaren will be racing without the chrome. Featured Gallery 2015 McLaren-Honda MP4-30: Gray Livery News Source: McLaren via Facebook Motorsports Honda McLaren Racing Vehicles F1 livery mclaren-honda

Fernando Alonso drives Senna's McLaren in latest promo clip

McLaren has put a lot of great drivers in the cockpit over the years. Several multiple World Champions in fact, from Ayrton Senna to Fernando Alonso. It may seem only fitting then that the latter should get a chance to sample the former's ride, and that's just what the team has done for this latest promo video. It's actually the trailer for a new clip called Don't Crack Under Pressure, celebrating 30 years of partnership between McLaren and TAG Heuer, filmed at Catalunya (Spain). Which is all well and fine, but the point is: Alonso, in Senna's car, the MP4/4 in which Senna won his first World Championship in 1988. And he's playing cat and mouse, no less, with Jenson Button in the new MP4-30, which is powered once again by Honda. Just like in the Senna days.

McLaren will fight to stay independent

Only one major manufacturer in the competitive set for McLaren cars is independent. The rest - Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche - are owned by mass-market conglomerates. The sole exception is Aston Martin, a small company constantly overcoming the challenges of its independence, now partly with the help of Daimler. McLaren vows to stay solo, though. Its executive director of sales and marketing said that having no one else to answer to helps keep it "very quick to move," with "product development life cycles [that] are very efficient." The company wants to sell 4,000 cars per year by 2017, and it's more than a third of the way there before it's 'volume' model, the 570S, hits dealerships. Last year the company sold 1,648 cars around the world and pegs annual production of the 570S at 2,500 units. The automaking side has done surprisingly well, surprisingly quickly. It only started making cars in 2011 and it turned a profit in 2013. That first car, the MP4-12C, has already morphed into the even better 650S, and McLaren offered 12C buyers a free upgrade. Since then we've been introduced to the P1, the P1 GTR, the 670S, the 675LT, and the 570S, while markets like China get the 650S and the 540C. That's seven vehicles on sale right now, not including race-only options like the 650S GT3, on top of an expanding global dealer network, all done in four years. Having done so well this far, independence would indeed seem to be the only option. Related Video: