The last time we visited McLaren GT in Woking there were plans afoot to launch their new car, the 650S GT3.
This time production of the new car, available as a new build, or as a comprehensive upgrade on an existing McLaren MP4/12 C GT3 base, was in full swing.
We’ve seen the new car of course, but here was the opportunity to drill into the package: the changes, and the plans for 2015 for McLaren GT and some of their customers too.
Before the catch-up with McLaren GT boss Andrew Kirkaldy though there was an opportunity for time with Ian Morgan, McLaren GT’s Chief Engineer, the man responsible for ensuring that the final package produced for customers matches up to the performance promises.
Ian came up through the single seater engineering ranks from F3 to F3000 looking after the likes of JJ Lehto, Eddie Irvine, Rubens Barrichello, and Oliver Gavin.
After that there was a spell with Tickford on road vehicle development before a call from McLaren brought him back to F3000 to serve as Race Engineer for Nick Heidfeld and then onto the F1 team.
Then came another switch back to road cars, still with McLaren though this time on the McLaren Mercedes SLR development programme.
A call from Red Bull tempted him back to racing and after an initial spell as Chief Test Engineer he joined the race team and “won a few Championships” with Sebastien Vettel.
A call from Chris Goodwin brought him back to McLaren though, a potential Le Mans programme looming (more of that later) and, of course, the GT3 customer programme and other vehicle development.
After top line single seaters though a GT3 programme represents a major shift?
“It does, accommodating the range of adjustment inherent in a performance balanced class is hugely important, but more important still for these cars, designed as they are as customer vehicles, is driveability.
“The balance we need to strike is getting the best possible performance from the cars when in the hands of the professional drivers without affecting the potential for the gentleman drivers, remember very often the car owners, to get performance out of the car within their own abilities and comfort zones. The key is to narrow the gap between the two!
“I think I’d express the results we’ve achieved like this. We’ve looked at the earlier car and have listened to feedback from the teams, and from both the professional and gentleman drivers.
“The 650S GT3 addresses all of the issues we had feedback on and gives a more capable car without affecting the driveability. The car is a BIG step forward.
“We have made some simple mechanical changes, we changed the geometry of the car and, as you have seen, there’s new aero.
“Throughout the development process, and as soon as we had the development car available, we’ve put customer drivers in it as well as the pros.”
It’s been far from a ‘money no object’ programme though?
“Absolutely not, the GT3 market is very competitive indeed and whilst having the brand that we do helps enormously the market is very cost conscious. Purchase price is one aspect of course, the new car has to be priced both realistically and sensibly, but the running costs too have been looked at carefully.
“It’s an area where there has, in part, been some fair criticism of the earlier car and there are big changes here. The new car is more easily serviceable and user friendly for the teams as well as the drivers.
“We have looked very carefully at the powertrain, have made some key changes (the new car moves from a Ricardo to an X-Trac gearbox) and put in more controls here, and we’re looking to make major improvements in the mileage of several key components.
“As one example of several, the new gearbox will see a mileage life of close to double the item it has replaced. That clearly has a very significant positive impact on running costs.”
The McLaren is unusual, but not unique, in having a turbocharged engine which has, in certain conditions, sometimes proved tricky for some gentleman drivers.
“Again its an area we’ve been working to find real improvements and the feedback from testing is that we’ve made significant strides. Turbo engines have some real advantages too of course so it’s a matter of finding the best balance we can whilst still presenting a car for Balance of Performance that retains the improvements we’ve built in across a range of potential adjustments.”
the new car has a bigger front tyre than the MP4/12C GT3 (The year one MP4/12 had a 650 sized front moving to 660 in year 2, the 650S has a 680) and there have been changes too in the weight distribution and balance of the car, key areas for that all important driveability.
Despite the challenges (and opportunities) of the very open GT3 ruleset Morgan is very positive about the formula.
“It allows us quite a lot of freedom, but the commercial realities keep our feet on the ground. We have though been testing and developing the car from the moment we had a test car available. That original car has now completed 9500 testing kilometres with a second car now also available to the test team.
“It’s big mileage but the reality is that compared to the other players in this market we have a VERY strong base package. That pays off in several ways. There is very, very little drop off in performance as a car ages compared to the performance degradation you can see from our major competitors, the (Carbon fibre monocell) chassis is very stiff and very, very strong so it retains its rigidity fantastically well, and it’s crashworthiness is exceptional too. The test drivers tell us that they can really feel even very minor changes in development, a sure sign that the basic chassis is a very stable component.
“As a marker to that we have test cars here from the original car that have completed more than 50,000km but have still been competitive when they have been raced for customers recently.
“We’ve also lost very few cars to accident damage, again in no small part due to the strength of the chassis (just two cars have been full write-offs in the MP4/12C’s competition history, the K-Pax car damaged in Alex Figge’s huge Road America shunt and the Clearwater Racing car damaged in practice last month.).
“There is a new rollcage for the 650SGT3 too and we have tested the car extensively on Pirellis, Michelins and Avons to cover all the bases for the major Championships that the car will likely be seen in next year.
“Again that’s all about making sure that the car works well and stays driveable with improved aero across a range of other variables.
It was at this point that Andrew Kirkaldy joined us, and he confirmed Ian Morgan’s point about the intensity of the test programme.
“We’re out doing 2-3 days testing every week at the moment but the response from customers has been fantastic. We have 15 confirmed sales of new cars with enough further interest to say that I would be confident of 18 sales very soon. That’s for entirely new 650S GT3 cars but in addition there will be 10-12 current cars updated to the new spec too.
“Our current production plan for the first 10 customer cars to be delivered before Christmas and, as you already know we will debut the car at the Gulf 12 Hours with two cars on the entry.”
The cars for Abu Dhabi will race in the form which the car is being presented for homologation.
“We expect to have full FIA homologation by 1 January.”
Down to the workshop and production was in full swing, with a fair proportion of McLaren GT’s 108 strong workforce in evidence:
Five new 650S GT3s were in the build bays (plus a further four new chassis in prep) plus a single 650S Sprint, the Clubmans level racer (think 458 Challenge) that debuted earlier this year, three completed Sprint cars were lined up i the workshop too.
Kirkaldy meanwhile wasn’t in his now usual shirt and tie but instead in full workshop garb.
“We’re building up to Abu Dhabi and it’s been a long time since we operated as a race team, back to Spa in 2012 in fact!
“We’re all re-acquainting ourselves with the kit and it’s all hands to the pumps.”
Then we were shown over a pair of carbon monocell chassis, the first a brand new item destined to be the next onto the production line and the other the chassis from the Von Ryan MP4/12C GT3 that suffered a tyre failure at the Spa 24 Hours pitching Tim Mullen into the barriers head on at Blanchimont:
“From an accident that we were all worried about Tim, it was a huge hit, whilst the car was badly damaged the chassis is repairable, it’s just waiting here for space in the workshop, it just goes to show how tough the basic structure of the car is, most other cars would be scrap after a hit like that.
When received in the McLaren GT facility the tubs are prepped, with major work required to facilitate the key racing components, fuel tank, ballast tray, and, in particular the FIA compliant full roll cage, a major installation operation with the bare tub requiring much fettling for the myriad of mounting points and drilled holes for the racing systems to be accommodated.
From the race shop to the sub assembly areas, the new Xtrac gearboxes were being attended to, probably the single largest change under the skin for the new car:
“The change here goes far wider than just the box itself, the alternator is now directly attached to the box and the oil pump drive has been change for serviceability too with the new set-up causing less strain on the pump than previously, again helping the life of the components.
“The key tasks in hand now are production of the first customer cars, this is happening in batches of four at a time (with a single upgrade alongside the all new cars) at a rate of 4 per month for the next three months, the first two due off the line in the days following our visit (pre WEC Shanghai).
“We have scheduled build for cars going to Asia, where demand is healthy, the UK (watch this space for a British GT announcement), Australia, and North America. As for mainland Europe, there is strong demand from current customers for the upgrade, that in itself shows that they have confidence in the basic structure of the earlier car.
There is at least one (un-named) customer for a full GT3 car who intends to use it solely for track days!
With the new GT3 car’s race debut just 5 weeks away what’s next on the job list for the design and development team?
“Realistically we track and follow McLaren’s model cycle so we’ll be looking forward to the next change on roadgoing model in three years or so.”
And GTE?
“We’d love to but whilst the largest numbers of manufacturers was in support of GT rules convergence, some of the biggest players killed it. We were a way down the road towards putting a real car on track, the engine was ready for the dyno and we’d done some chassis and aero work too.
“Realistically now it won’t happen until the new ruleset is defined in 2017 and that’s a shame. For the moment though we have plenty to keep us busy!”
GG
