Founded in August 2011, the Department of McLaren Special Operations (MSO), of course, is named so on purpose. Yet the performance of the order to the full, "dressing up" supercar MP4-12 ° C, this was a special operation, even for MSO. Proposal from one of the fans of the brand, it was the type of stuff that are not discarded.
Special operation to create the X-1 began almost three years ago, before launching into a series of "donor", the MP4-12 ° C, with a conversation between Ron Dennis, CEO of McLaren, and the customer, whose name was not disclosed, and the financial capacity to infinity. Conciseness request "timeless, classically elegant design" did not do his performance easier. The original "cloud images" formed after the three-hour meeting the customer with Paul McKenzie, head of the MSO, and Frank Stephenson, Design Director McLaren, included hundreds of items from the world of cars, fashion, architecture, music and cinema. And after careful screening is set uzhalos not to the point, but only up to the dots. Automotive component represents Mercedes-Benz 540K 1939, Chrysler D'Elegance Ghia 1953, Buick Electra 1959, Facel Vega 1961, Citroen SM 1971 and charismatic trailer Airstream. Architectural - building the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Bilbao. "Fashion" - Jaeger LeCoultre watches in the art deco style. "Music and Design" - a piano. "Cinematic" - black-and-white photos of Audrey Hepburn. And the most natural eggplant - the customer really liked shiny surface. Car and small truck in hard currency bank notes that this "Captain Nemo" was ready to roll out for the realization of his dreams, maklarenovtsev convinced that the requirement of the competition with third-party designers, is not offensive, but quite reasonable. Yet in the end won the project represents McLaren Korean Hong Yeo. According to him, the challenge is giving the classic elegance of the car with a mid-engine layout. Moreover, the customer received one prescription to use this stylistic element is the "rails", reaching the upper edge of the front fenders and cutting a rear window. Other equally categorical requirement was to manufacture a full-size layout of the X-1. No 3D-models! With such a hard-line approach to the hoisting of cast carbon chassis MP4-12 ° C body panels could be, of course, also only carbon and metal items (including logo and wing air brakes) are turned from billet aluminum. Timeless accent in the form of cover up the rear wheels lift from carbon fiber called for creation of a system of hinges unthinkable. The double cockpit MP4-12 ° C, which was not subjected to a radical redesign, though there were unique features, such as titanium sheath imparting carbon fiber 3D-effect. That in the "source code" are satisfied customer - so it returns a 3.8-liter biturbo-V8 at 625 liters. with. However, in the MSO were ready pokoldovat and over "iron." This is not much would increase the cost of setting up McLaren X-1 and its personal homologation ...
