McLaren announced that the first prototype of the carbon fiber chassis built in the latest factory has been delivered and began crash testing at the factory.
The carbon fiber “barrel” named PLT-MCTC-01 was built at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) in Sheffield, Yorkshire at a cost of ￡50 million and then sent to the company’s main plant in Surrey King And headquarters.
The MCTC, which opened last year, will be the seat of McLaren's chassis manufacturing plant in the foreseeable future and will increase the speed of carbon fiber chassis innovation-helping to reduce the overall weight of the brand's supercars and supercars.
Wes Jacklin, MCTC Plant Director, said: "The new MCTC delivered the first carbon fiber prototype to McLaren headquarters. For everyone directly involved in the project, it is not only an exciting day, but also an important milestone for McLaren. The automotive industry wants to be a world leader in lightweight and composite technology, which is closely related to our transition to hybrid powertrains as part of our Track25 business plan.
"We have never innovated for this; we continue to innovate to keep fulfilling our commitment to building iconic sports cars. It is becoming more and more obvious that as the demand for powertrains increases in the future, the development of innovative lightweight technologies will become The key to unleashing all the controllability and agility features your customers need."
The MCTC factory currently has 60 employees, but by 2020 when the factory begins mass production there will be more than 200.