McLaren MP4-12C

[autogyro]

Gyro,

The Mclaren tackles the environment issue head on. It delivers the highest horsepower-to-CO2 ratio of any car on the market today with an internal combustion engine ... and that includes petrol and diesel hybrids.

So maybe you can re evaluate your gloomy outlook?

I have seen the cobbled up figures JET.
I await test methods that are not angled to suit the car makers.
However I will conceed that McLaren has obviously created a vehicle far superior to anything Ferrari and some others can produce.
Carting two people about as an indulgence does not match up to proper transport needs though.

[autogyro]

tbh I feel Alias or what have you in terms of styling programme does lead itself to different shapes than taking a brush and paint .You add the feel to it solely
from visual perception on the screen whereas drawing by hand will really show your physical flow and feeling in the lines you are generating .
But we are of cause living in a world of visual excitement anyways and you will
not be able to draw up a line nobody else has already done .But using the translation or interface of a computerprogramme will inevitably put a filter in your work ...and it shows in the products ..because you will find the algorithsms
of the the programm on a Aston Martin ,Porsche and the Mclaren.
It might be a bit sad but such is life you cannot turn back time.

+1 marcush
In the past there was a wide variety of shapes and colours.
Today designs are getting ever closer to a one shape etc fits all.
Will this be the end result and did many of the old designs have no use as workable vehicles? Is there an alternative other than pure blandness?
...

[Pup]

I think you'll find that in any era of any field there was a design vocabulary which dominated. Such is the nature of design influence and evolution. There's also a lot more variety out there at the moment than I think you are admitting. A Porsche, a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a Veyron - none of these are similar.

Indeed, certain design applications steer a designer in certain ways; sometime subtly, sometimes not. A good designer, or design team, however, uses multiple tools and methods to explore, create, and refine their designs. This is why you'll still find full scale clay models, sketches, hand drafting, rendering, etc. in the studio despite the ability of even the simplest 3d software to supplant all of that.

It's a bigger problem with younger designers who have been allowed to rely solely on software through school and their early career.

Anyway, I think the MP4 looks like the 458 because they wanted it to.

[Just_a_fan]

It is just a pity that the style and art today being displayed in modern car design is limited by computer generation and ends up in most cases bland and boring.
IMO the publics opinion is changing. Ignore it at your peril.

The styling, particularly at the front, is driven by ever stricter safety regulations. Developing "pedestrian friendly" front ends of cars is likley to lead to a number of similar designs. Likewise the drive for low-drag (and hence high-economy) designs.

The irony is that public opinon (toward safer and "greener" cars) is actually driving much of the design towards "sameness" in market.

[Just_a_fan]

...

People still care, but they care about different things. Sports cars are bought by the wealthy and the single (of both sexes). Everything else is bought by people with limited incomes and a long list of requirements for their car - an attractive exterior comes way below decent rear leg room or clever folding seats that maximise boot space etc. The exterior is now being driven by the interior. And we spend a lot of time looking at, and using, the interior of a car and very liitle looking at the exterior. We're back to "form follows function".

[autogyro]

It is an interesting subject and it remains to be seen how the McLaren will sell.
It is a huge risk, so I wish them luck.

[Richard]

These cars are like jewellery, they serve no practical function and are purely for show/ego. I don't have a problem with that, it just means they can't be judged on normal rational ways.

I saw a Porche Carrera GT on sale for £350k at Malton Specialist Cars big breakfast event at Easter. My friend was drooling over it then turned to me to say "you can't fit a bay of hay in that". On the bale of hay test, the car is absolutely crap. It will probably struggle to get over a speed hump, or through a multi storey car park, yet for some reason people want to buy them.

I'll leave you with a quote from John Ruskin...

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless: peacocks and lilies, for instance.

[autogyro]

I dont remember lilies being useless.
Mind you I was not the only one.

Good point though and it brings in my misgivings about the modern bland direction that styling is going.

[Pup]

Hmm. I don't agree at all with the premise that current car design is stale. And I prefer irises.

[andrew]

Modern car design is generally bland and repetitive. Bit like architecture - most of the aesthetically pleasing buildings were built before the 1920s.

I'm not too keen on flowers but I like trees.

[Pup]

Bland because it's bland? Begging the question much?

I dare you to provide examples from any era which had a greater variety of car design available than we have today.

As for architecture, they built a lot of crap before 1920. The good stuff tends to stick around.

[andrew]

Basically anything before straight lines became the in thing and the art of subtle was lost. The McLaren MP4-12C is just plain vulgar and a generic copy of what has gone before.

I would say that a Rover SD1 or a Ford Capri have a better design as the shape of these cars is instantly recognisable. This McLaren just blends in with most other cars of this type. Take off the badge and it could be a Ferrari or a Lamborghini.

[Sean H]

In person the car is obviously very nice, but very unimpressive. There isn't much awe factor up close to it. In fact, most people there didn't give it a second look except when they were doing some engine revving (near redline). The car does have a nice exhaust note though.

[autogyro]

Unless McLaren fully embrace the alternate energy and electric vehicle revolution going on under their nose, IMO this car and any other exotic sports car will have a very short shelf life. Ferrari will end up with the last vestiges of this obsolete indulgence.
It is just a last ditch attempt by Ron Dennis to be remembered as a motor head genius.
He never was and never will be.

Gordon Murray achieved it and he was very wise moving to city car and economy vehicles after the Mc F1. Unlike Dennis he will be remembered.

[andrew]

Unless McLaren fully embrace the alternate energy and electric vehicle revolution going on under their nose

What revolution? I cannot think of a single reason why anyone would buy one of those plastic electric snot boxes which will go for 5 miles then spend the next 10 hours charging, then drive anotehr 5 miles and charge for anotehr 10 etc etc.

Oil based fuels are currently the only reasonable solution to power vehicles until such time that hydrogen fuel cells become more wide spread and de rigeur.

There is no revolution other than in the Guardian newspaper, read by all hairy, unwashed, cabbage eating (and farting) bicyle riding doom and gloom fear monger lefties.