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McLaren displays six bespoke 570S models with historic themes

McLaren Beverly Hills has commissioned a special collection of 570S models, both in Coupe and Spider configuration, to commemorate McLaren's racing history. The collection, named Racing Through the Ages, features six cars done up in three themes: Muriwai, Papaya Spark and Sarthe Grey, all neatly tying in with specific periods in McLaren racing, and all with the GT4 racing stripe decorating the exteriors. The first of the car themes, Muriwai, stands for Muriwai Beach in New Zealand, the place where Bruce McLaren first took part in a race at the age of 15. McLaren also built a house with the same name in Woking, and the color theme is similarly bluish white, with the car wearing MSO Defined Muriwai White paint and a McLaren orange "Speedy Kiwi" logo. The second, Papaya Spark, is done in a color reminiscent of McLaren's 1960s-1970s racing livery, from the time McLaren claimed Can-Am, Indy 500 and Formula One wins. The car's fixed rear wing is painted Burton Blue, in the style of the original racers. As for the third one, Sarthe Grey, it's easy to guess the Le Mans reference: these cars commemorate McLaren's 1995 win with F1 GTR cars claiming first, third, fourth, fifth and thirteenth place. The hue of the two Sarthe Grey cars here imitates the paint color on the winning F1 GTR, and the rear wing reads "24 HEURES DU MANS – WINNERS 1995". Each of the six cars wears a numbered plate with the text "1 of 6 – Racing Through the Ages", and the interiors – right down to ignition keys – are matched to the respective theme. "It's exciting for us at MSO any time we are able to merge McLaren's racing heritage with current McLaren Automotive road cars," said Ansar Ali, the Managing Director of McLaren Special Operations. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

McLaren EV supercar: Here's the math that says it's 5-10 years off

It emerged last December that McLaren had built an all-electric testbed for a future EV supercar, to go along with the English automaker's $1.4 billion investment in electrified powertrains. But as we told you a few weeks ago, McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt said that such a car was, as a practical matter, years away from production. Now COO Jens Ludmann has put some numbers to the carmaker's quest, saying, "[The] Senna has 800 PS [Pferdestarke] on 1,200 kg, that's about the power to weight that we're looking for." He's talking about 789 horsepower in a package lighter than a base Honda Civic Coupe. The issue isn't energy capacity, it's energy density. Said Ludmann, "[The] battery technology should achieve 500 watt-hours per kilogram. That is a level where it really makes sense. Today we are around 180 watt-hours per kilogram." McLaren Engineering provides batteries for Formula E rated at 216 Wh/kg, but those packs aren't suitable for a consumer road car. According to what the company's learned from the battery industry, we're 5 to 10 years away from 500 watt-hours per kilogram for a roadworthy vehicle. In 2015 Rimac unveiled a battery it made for the Koenigsegg Regera. Said to be the most energy-dense car battery at the time, it boasted a power-to-weigh ratio of 60 Wh/kg. Figure that the battery industry's adding 40 Wh/kg per year — which gets us from 2015 to Ludmann's 180 Wh/kg current state of affairs. Using that measure, we're 8-10 years away from 500 Wh. McLaren wants its theoretical EV owner to be able to do 30 minutes or 10 hard laps at the track, be "as exciting as a 675LT," and recharge in 30 minutes for another half-hour track session. That battery would need exceptionally high energy density, and the cells and electronics would need to stand up to constant high power output and extreme discharge cycles. To enable that with today's battery tech, you'd end up with a vehicle that could do 500 miles in everyday road use, be far too heavy for McLaren's aims, and take far too long to charge. Ludmann told Wheels magazine everything else about the EV supercar is "all resolved — easy." While we dig in for what could be a lengthy wait, we'll have to be satisfied with the McLaren hybrids that should start showing up in a couple of years. Related Video:

Here are this year's top 5 automaker April Fools’ jokes

April 1 is the wonderful day when PR departments really push themselves to top the zany jokes they came up with the previous year. And it's not just fast-food chains competing with each other, or breweries announcing they have released stuff like a fermented herring flavored beer: carmakers' media teams rarely miss out on the opportunity to play a little joke on their audience. Here are a few of our favorites from this year:1) Porsche Porsche announced that it's launching a Mission E tractor, styled to resemble its 1950s tractor models. "With a power output in excess of 700hp, the Mission E Tractor will be the fastest accelerating agricultural vehicle in the world, enabling farmers to harvest crops in record time with the added environmental benefits of zero emissions at source and significantly reduced operating noise."2) Lexus Lexus actually jumped the gun, telling us on March 28 that it's combining cars and drivers using DNA matching. The kicker was that with DNA-matched cars, owners would be able to start their Lexuses by licking the steering wheel.3) McLaren Automotive McLaren said it's boosting efficiency by quite eccentric measures, such as measuring the technology center's lake and floor tiles daily, and by synchronizing the staff's tea breaks.4) BMW Motorrad BMW's motorcycle arm is solving parts availability issues in remote locations by offering a 3D printer mounted permanently on the bike's rack: If you need to replace a broken-off gear lever, you can just print one. "The new system will mean that even very rarely required parts not generally stocked by BMW Motorrad sales partners can be supplied on a just-in-time basis." BMW even went to the lengths of announcing that the "BMW Motorrad iPart 3D Mobile Printer" was tested on the Antarctic, by erecting a tent whose poles were produced onsite.5) Honda Last but not least, Honda UK purportedly cut the roof off a new CR-V, calling it the CR-V Roadster. Tellingly, no convertible top was even offered for the concept, "making it a no-top rather than a drop-top. This innovative design makes it a vehicle purely for sunnier climates and therefore completely useless for the two-day British summer which traditionally occurs in May."Related Video: Featured Gallery Top 5 April Fools 2018 Image Credit: Porsche Green Humor Weird Car News BMW Honda Lexus McLaren Porsche bmw motorrad mclaren automotive