MP4-12C starts a 50-venue global promotional tour

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McLaren Supercar Buoyed by Europe as Austerity Fades
By Steven Rothwell

June 15 (Bloomberg) -- McLaren Group said Europe will provide at least half the buyers for its 200-mile-per-hour, Ferrari-rivaling MP4-12C supercar as demand for luxury autos rebounds from last year’s recession.

The 12C, which will cost about 150,000 pounds ($227,000), starts a 50-venue global promotional tour in Germany on June 17. About 2,500 expressions of interest have been received for the 1,000 cars to be produced next year, McLaren Automotive Managing Director Antony Sheriff said yesterday in an interview at the company’s base in Woking, near London.

“For many people it didn’t seem like the right time to be seen driving this type of a car, but from the interest that’s out there it appears that they’re growing a bit sick of self- imposed austerity,” Sheriff said. “The waiting list will be pushing on towards a year almost immediately.”

Britain and Germany will lead European sales, while a further one-third of orders will come from the U.S. and the rest from Asia and the Middle East, the executive said. McLaren, best-known for the most successful Formula One racing team after Ferrari, has selected 35 global dealerships to open in 2011, increasing to at least 70 by 2015 as the model range expands.

Sheriff predicts that luxury and sports-car sales will jump about 35 percent this year after slumping during the recession.

Private Viewing

The 12C will be shown in a private viewing to dealers and registered potential clients in Dusseldorf this week, Zurich and Brussels next week and U.K. buyers in Woking later this month. The car, a rival to Ferrari’s 458 and the Lamborghini Gallardo, will make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, held at a racing circuit in southern England in July.

Jardine Motors Group will run McLaren’s London dealership, while Moll Sportwagen in Dusseldorf and Kamps Gruppe in Hamburg -- trading as Merkur Hanseatische Beteiligungs AG -- will sell the cars in Germany. Neubauer will act as distributer in Paris, Fassina Group in Milan, Schmohl AG in Zurich and Monaco Luxury Group in Monaco.

“We feel we’re in a very comfortable position already, especially considering we haven’t started to market the car yet,” Sheriff said in the interview a day after McLaren F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button finished first and second in the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, said he wouldn’t have expected Europe to lead sales of the new McLaren.

‘Belt Tightening’

“I cannot quite conceive how Europe, at the moment, can add considerable momentum here,” he said. “The region seems captured by a pronounced sense of belt tightening. It’s more the rich Chinese, mad American business people or impetuous sheiks that would opt for this kind of car.”

In the U.S., the biggest supercar market, sales of autos costing more than $100,000 may jump 42 percent after falling 30 percent in 2009, industry researcher IHS Global Insight says.

McLaren will initially have nine U.S. dealers at locations including San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Miami, New York and Dallas, with one sales outlet in Toronto.

While performance figures haven’t been released, the 12C is likely to have a faster top speed and swifter acceleration than the 458, Sheriff said from an office overlooking two Ferraris and a Porsche 911 used in comparison tests.

The McLaren model takes its name from the MP4 designation given to all of the company’s race cars since 1981 -- the latest being the MP4-25 driven by Hamilton and Button. The “C” indicates the road car’s carbon construction and the “12” is a reflection of “internal performance criteria” including weight, aerodynamics, power and down force, Sheriff said.

Price Range

The price of the successor to the McLaren F1, the world’s costliest car in the 1990s and the fastest at 240 mph (386 kilometers per hour), has yet to be finalized, but will be in the range of 125,000 pounds to 175,000 pounds, Sheriff said.

McLaren intends to differentiate its dealerships from those of competitors by having all spare parts on site to ensure servicing can be carried out with the shortest possible delay.

“The single thing that drives the satisfaction of the customer the most is the after-sales service,” Sheriff said. “We’ve worked with our dealers to create a system where just about every part of the car is in every dealership.”

McLaren Automotive still plans to sell a stake to investors to raise funds, Sheriff said.

Chairman Ron Dennis said in March he was looking for a buyer prepared to take a 48 percent holding and had hired Credit Suisse and HSBC Holdings in the Middle East.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Rothwell in Woking, England, at [email protected]

Source

Video:

June 15 (Bloomberg) -- McLaren Group Operations Director Alan Foster gives Bloomberg's Steven Rothwell a tour of the Ferrari-rivaling MP4-12C supercar during a tour of the factory in Woking, England. The 12C will be shown in a private viewing to dealers and registered potential clients in Dusseldorf this week, Zurich and Brussels next week and U.K. buyers in Woking later this month. The car, a rival to Ferrari’s 458 and the Lamborghini Gallardo, will make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, held at a racing circuit in southern England in July.

McLaren 12C Tour

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[Peloton25]

Article (in German) and photos on the click-through.



More here with hi-res photos:

http://www.auto-medienportal.net/artikel/detail/4531/

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[Peloton25]

More great photos from the Dusseldorf showing here:

http://www.carpassion.com/magazin/43...dpremiere.html

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[PatrickT82]

amazing!

when is the opening in Brussels?

[Peloton25]

Seems like they have an exhibition planned for this coming week based on the details from that article. Unfortunately that is all that I know. Based on the description, these aren't really public events - more for potential owners and the local press it would seem. Still if you have the right connections I would bet that it isn't impossible to attend. You might even try contacting the local dealership with the info provided here and see if they can accommodate your request to attend.

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[Peloton25]

Here's a video with Anthony Sheriff speaking at the Dusseldorf event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UACOTzQgV08

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[Peloton25]

Photos from the Zurich event - click to see more:



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[Peloton25]

Here's a video from the Zurich event. It appears he is saying good things, but I have no idea what they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEm12eRSlVA

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[Peloton25]

Here's an excellent gallery of shots taken during one of the customer previews held at the McLaren Technology Centre - click the pic to see the rest:



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[Peloton25]

Not sure this qualifies as a stop on the tour, but there was an MP4-12C on display during this past weekend's Farnborough Air Show.







There are a few more and larger versions of that trio available in this Flickr Gallery.

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[Peloton25]

MP4-12C unveiling at Pebble Beach:



HiRes image gallery:

Monterey 2010: McLaren MP4-12C makes North American debut, ushers in new McLaren order - Autoblog

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[Peloton25]

On the green outside the lodge at Pebble Beach:



More here: http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1...2c-live-images

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[Peloton25]

Beauty shots from Pebble Beach:



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[Peloton25]

LINK: Just a Tease: New McLaren Dealership Previews MP4-12C, US Spec-Sheet Shown



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[notsofast]

The car looks very nice in silver.