xpensive wrote:There is this engineering expression, which I think is fitting for the MP4-12C, "Form follows function".
My god, your "E" key works? All this time I've been under the assumption you'd spilled something on it.
As far as the car goes, it seems to me this one is intended to be the one McClaren goes racing with. If that's true, it seems likely they've made at least a few compromises in that direction. That would also nicely explain most of the "soulless" comments.
As far as calling Ron Dennis a wannabe Enzo, I think that is horribly unfair. Enzo sold cars for the sole purpose of making money to race with, and he hated doing it. He aparently also hated the people who bought them.
That's a massive difference to Ron Dennis, who you should all remember was facing the real possibility of having to hand out 1,000 pink slips. Go back a few years, to when F1 was in turmoil, the manufacturers were threatening to pull out, and the FIA president was making it his personal mission in life to destroy McClaren. Spygate? Sure, only in Mosley's fantasyland could Honda be called innocent and McClaren guilty.
Several of you have noted how potentially risky this diversification could be, but none of you have mentioned that when you're being chased by canibals jumping off the cliff isn't so risky after all.
Given the world situation Ron Dennis faces a few years ago, he clearly made the decision to spend the rest of his career in an attempt to make certain that McClaren would never again be held hostage by any single entity. Diversification was mandatory, the only question was in what direction to head.
They chose cars, one would assume because of their experience. I would not be surprised if in another few years they moved into aviation, particularly UAV's.
Of course it's risky, anything worth doing is. Many of you are Brits, have you forgotten "Who dares wins."?
AG, your doom and gloom pronouncements concerning bankers are fine, but I think someone should warn you people have been making them since before the invention of the automobile. As for your doom and gloom pronouncements concerning IC automobiles, well all cars are stupid wastes of resource. Let me say that again, ALL cars are stupid wastes. There's an old saying that no new car is as green as the old car you don't have to make.
Cars are dumb, and probably doomed. They're simply unsustainable in the long term, given the massive resources and valuable real estate needed for roads. All cities in hot climates are discovering just how much roads add to ambient heat.
Cars are dumb, and they'll clearly be forced to give way to some combination of mass transit and bicycles. That's a given. And I'll start holding my breath waiting for that day in just a minute. Honest.
There's not one single effing possibility the internal combustion engine won't outlast this car by decades.
