Writing the caption for the yellow McLaren 12C Spyder photo in the Pebble Beach segment of the Monterey Week thread, I remembered taking a number of shots of an MP4 - 12C, exhibited by the then newly appointed McLaren distributor for Northern California at the 2011 Marin County Concours. The reason I so distinctly remember the moment, is almost slapping my forehead and thinking " that's it, why has it taken so long to figure out how to construct a modern sports car ? " is the startlingly logical, orderly and sound manner in which this car is designed and assembled ( Photos 6-13 ).
The reason I view the MP4 as a significant step forward in the development & evolution of the modern high-performance sports car ( I will do anything and go to any length reasonably imaginable to avoid the use of the silly, inaccurate and non-descriptive term supercar) is that even though McLaren may not have been the very first to utilize such a multi-materials, modular chassis design, I believe they were the first to recognize the tremendous advantages, technical and economical, of adopting this methodology officially for their future models and to build a purpose-designed factory for the exclusive production of this model to maximize production effieciency well beyond what is practiced nowadays to individually hand-fabricate other, more exotic and even higher priced limited production sports cars.
Studying the rolling display chassis, it's easy to see how each major chassis part can be designed initially to the optimum configuration of strength, lightness and safety, how necessary maintenance work can be readily performed, how the modular assembly method would facilitate repair / replacement of damaged components, all of it by any trained dealership anywhere in the world. Conversly, from an internal marketing / development & production standpoint of potential models based on the MP4 design, it's equally easy to see how an appropriate localized re-design to any one of the three major chassis components ( front metal frame, central tub, rear metal frame section ) could effectively accommodate a multitude of changes, from the possibility of a possible 2+2 body configuration, to adapting the rear frame section to accept a V-10, a V-6, KERS, who knows what, or perhaps incorporating all-wheel drive, all without necessitating a completely new chassis. The headroom for continued development and refinement of the basic chassis seems virtually limitless. It also seems pretty obvious to me that this method of building premium high-performance sports cars will likely become the the wave of the future, once all the contenders make the necessary investments in the respective technologies to remain competitive.
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