RSS_Auto_Poster
Well-known member
Written by Ollie Marriage
Look closely at this McLaren 720S. Notice something unusual? That"s right, it has a central driving position. You know what this means it"s a mule of the BP23 hyper GT.Now don"t get too excited and assume I"ve driven a disguised BP23. I haven"t. I"ve driven a 720S with the steering wheel in the wrong place. First deliveries of the BP23, the fastest, most powerful and most aerodynamic road-going McLaren ever, won"t take place until late 2019, and the theme of the interior was only finalised a few months ago.This car has been on the road just a couple of weeks. In fact, it"s the very first mule of the BP23 McLaren has built powertrain prototypes won"t commence testing until later this year. You don"t need me to tell you that shuffling the driver into the centre of the car is a tricky job. McLaren had to modify the Monocage II carbon tub, as the central spine of the standard 720S carries the coolant pipes and wiring. They now have a flat floor all the way across.The BP23 itself will use a bespoke, albeit similar, version of this carbon structure, but McLaren is coy about giving away many details at present. We know it"ll be hybrid, aimed more at road than track, have a slippery body and be McLaren"s most powerful and fastest car ever but they haven"t defined that explicitly.The comparison and relation to the McLaren F1 is unavoidable. That car had the same three-seat layout centre forward and two flankers to convolute a couple of sports references but also put the driver between two semi-structural spines (gearlever on the right, handbrake on the left) that carried many functions and were a pain to negotiate. The plan is for the BP23 to be easier to use. Faster, too? I"ll come back to that later.So what job is this prototype doing? Here"s vehicle line director for McLaren"s Ultimate Series, Andy Palmer: "We"ve done a lot of work around CAD and ergonomics before we even think about building a prototype. At this stage essentially we"re looking at ergonomics, layout of controls, visibility, access, packaging, the rear view mirrors, but also where you put the vents, what storage we can have and so on."
Date written: 28 Sep 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 9355
Look closely at this McLaren 720S. Notice something unusual? That"s right, it has a central driving position. You know what this means it"s a mule of the BP23 hyper GT.Now don"t get too excited and assume I"ve driven a disguised BP23. I haven"t. I"ve driven a 720S with the steering wheel in the wrong place. First deliveries of the BP23, the fastest, most powerful and most aerodynamic road-going McLaren ever, won"t take place until late 2019, and the theme of the interior was only finalised a few months ago.This car has been on the road just a couple of weeks. In fact, it"s the very first mule of the BP23 McLaren has built powertrain prototypes won"t commence testing until later this year. You don"t need me to tell you that shuffling the driver into the centre of the car is a tricky job. McLaren had to modify the Monocage II carbon tub, as the central spine of the standard 720S carries the coolant pipes and wiring. They now have a flat floor all the way across.The BP23 itself will use a bespoke, albeit similar, version of this carbon structure, but McLaren is coy about giving away many details at present. We know it"ll be hybrid, aimed more at road than track, have a slippery body and be McLaren"s most powerful and fastest car ever but they haven"t defined that explicitly.The comparison and relation to the McLaren F1 is unavoidable. That car had the same three-seat layout centre forward and two flankers to convolute a couple of sports references but also put the driver between two semi-structural spines (gearlever on the right, handbrake on the left) that carried many functions and were a pain to negotiate. The plan is for the BP23 to be easier to use. Faster, too? I"ll come back to that later.So what job is this prototype doing? Here"s vehicle line director for McLaren"s Ultimate Series, Andy Palmer: "We"ve done a lot of work around CAD and ergonomics before we even think about building a prototype. At this stage essentially we"re looking at ergonomics, layout of controls, visibility, access, packaging, the rear view mirrors, but also where you put the vents, what storage we can have and so on."
Date written: 28 Sep 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 9355
