McLaren Automotive to build a range of sports cars using F1 technology in Britain

McLaren to build high-performing sports cars in UK

WOKING, England — Formula One car maker McLaren unveiled plans on Thursday to build a range of commercial sports cars in Britain, using race technology to take on other high-end European manufacturers such as Ferrari and Porsche on the highways.

McLaren is banking on renewed spending after the global economic downturn to bolster demand for its first offering, the MP4-12C, which will go on sale in late 2011 with a hefty price tag of between 125,000 ($191,127) and 150,000 pounds.

“Following any recession, there’s a resurgence,” McLaren Automotive Chairman Ron Dennis said at the company’s headquarters — and new factory site — in Woking. “We intend to catch that wave.”

“Our volumes are very much linked to how we see the recovery,” he added.

The company aims to make up to 1,000 of the 12C cars next year, with up to 40 percent being sold in North America.

It will compete with the Ferrari 458 Italia, priced at around 170,000 pounds, and Mercedes SLS AMG at around 145,000 pounds.

McLaren’s investment in a 40-million pound production facility south of London, due to begin work on the first car next spring, is also a boost for Britain’s waning car manufacturing sector.

“At a time when the U.K. is rebalancing the economy away from the past two decades’ over-concentration on financial services, we stand alongside other high-tech manufacturing and engineering companies, committed to securing Britain’s global leadership, and securing a sustainable economic future,” Dennis said.

This is not the first time McLaren has built a road car, but it is the first time the company has made its own vehicle in the “core sports car” market, defined as selling for 125,000-200,000 pounds.

McLaren built its first road car, the McLaren F1, 15 years ago, but only 107 were built, of which 64 were road cars and the rest racing cars.

The company said the MP4-12C would be based on the MonoCell or “tub” structure, making it the first offered to the public with a lightweight one-piece carbon-fiber structure.

The car was test-driven earlier this month by Formula One world champion Jenson Button and his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton.