News: Rotherham-made parts herald new era of McLaren
McLaren Automotive has launched the Artura - the first car to be built on an all-new platform architecture manufactured in Rotherham.
McLaren’s first-ever series-production High-Performance Hybrid (HPH) supercar is the first model to be built on all-new McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA), uniquely optimised for HPH powertrains and built in-house at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) in Rotherham.
The £50m MCTC was opened on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham in 2018.
All-new from the ground up, the Artura presented McLaren engineers and designers with new opportunities to innovate, chief among these being how to preserve McLaren’s super-lightweight engineering philosophy when adding hybrid powertrain elements including an E-motor and battery pack.
A demanding programme of weight reduction, encompassing every area of the Artura from the chassis platform through the uniquely compact HPH powertrain system to the weight of cabling used in the electrical systems (where a 10% reduction was achieved), resulted in the Artura having a lightest dry weight of 1,395kg. The total weight of hybrid components is just 130kg (which includes an 88kg battery pack and 15.4kg E-motor), resulting in a DIN kerbweight of 1,498kg which is on par with comparable supercars that do not have hybrid powertrains, giving the Artura a super-lightweight advantage.
Jamie Corstorphine, Director of Product Strategy, McLaren Automotive, said: “The new McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA) is quite literally at the core of the super-lightweight engineering philosophy that is inherent throughout the Artura. We developed this all-new, High-Performance Hybrid supercar with all of our learnings from decades of working with advanced composite and other lightweight materials, using world-first processes and techniques to deliver weight savings that offset heavier hybrid powertrains, ensuring greater energy efficiency and maintaining the outstanding agility and dynamic performance our customers expect.”
To achieve the very specific aims of the Artura programme McLaren started right at the core of its new supercar, with a completely new carbon fibre architecture. This had to not only be true to the company’s philosophy of super-lightweight engineering for dynamic and performance reasons, but also crucially to offset the extra weight of a hybrid powertrain, as well as being tailored to accommodate the battery pack.
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The new architecture features three elements: an all-new carbon fibre monocoque occupant structure, a new chassis with aluminium crash beams and rear subframe, and a first-to-market domain-based ethernet electrical architecture.
Four years in the making, MCLA is the first architecture to be manufactured at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC). Flexible in application (but physically incredibly stiff and strong) this scalable platform architecture heralds the beginning of a new era of McLaren supercars.
The McLaren Artura marks another revolutionary leap. No McLaren monocoque, whether designed for the road or race track, has ever had to do more: the carbon fibre structure now additionally provides a safety cell for the battery pack and integrates further crash and load-bearing functionality. Yet it remains incredibly lightweight, weighing just 82kg including battery compartment, aero surfaces, B-pillars and door-hinge fixings, contributing to the low overall weight of the Artura, despite its 130kg of hybrid components.
At first glance, the MCLA monocoque may appear similar to other McLaren carbon fibre structures, but the geometry of every surface is new, and it is constructed from four new carbon materials, a new resin system and a new structural core material. These new properties accommodate both the platform requirements and new, bespoke mechanised production processes now on stream at MCTC.
The in-house approach ensures McLaren can constantly innovate monocoques to accommodate new technologies or new models, without compromising the qualities that ensure its chassis are the lightest, stiffest and strongest in their class.
Mike Flewitt, CEO, McLaren Automotive, said: “Every drop of McLaren’s experience and expertise has been poured into the Artura. Our all-new, High-Performance Hybrid delivers all of the performance, driver engagement and dynamic excellence for which McLaren is renowned, with the additional benefit of EV driving capability. The introduction of the Artura is a landmark moment – for McLaren, for our customers who will appreciate and enjoy this car on every emotional and rational level, and for the supercar world."
McLaren website
Images: McLaren
McLaren’s first-ever series-production High-Performance Hybrid (HPH) supercar is the first model to be built on all-new McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA), uniquely optimised for HPH powertrains and built in-house at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) in Rotherham.
The £50m MCTC was opened on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham in 2018.
All-new from the ground up, the Artura presented McLaren engineers and designers with new opportunities to innovate, chief among these being how to preserve McLaren’s super-lightweight engineering philosophy when adding hybrid powertrain elements including an E-motor and battery pack.
A demanding programme of weight reduction, encompassing every area of the Artura from the chassis platform through the uniquely compact HPH powertrain system to the weight of cabling used in the electrical systems (where a 10% reduction was achieved), resulted in the Artura having a lightest dry weight of 1,395kg. The total weight of hybrid components is just 130kg (which includes an 88kg battery pack and 15.4kg E-motor), resulting in a DIN kerbweight of 1,498kg which is on par with comparable supercars that do not have hybrid powertrains, giving the Artura a super-lightweight advantage.
Jamie Corstorphine, Director of Product Strategy, McLaren Automotive, said: “The new McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA) is quite literally at the core of the super-lightweight engineering philosophy that is inherent throughout the Artura. We developed this all-new, High-Performance Hybrid supercar with all of our learnings from decades of working with advanced composite and other lightweight materials, using world-first processes and techniques to deliver weight savings that offset heavier hybrid powertrains, ensuring greater energy efficiency and maintaining the outstanding agility and dynamic performance our customers expect.”
To achieve the very specific aims of the Artura programme McLaren started right at the core of its new supercar, with a completely new carbon fibre architecture. This had to not only be true to the company’s philosophy of super-lightweight engineering for dynamic and performance reasons, but also crucially to offset the extra weight of a hybrid powertrain, as well as being tailored to accommodate the battery pack.
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The new architecture features three elements: an all-new carbon fibre monocoque occupant structure, a new chassis with aluminium crash beams and rear subframe, and a first-to-market domain-based ethernet electrical architecture.
Four years in the making, MCLA is the first architecture to be manufactured at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC). Flexible in application (but physically incredibly stiff and strong) this scalable platform architecture heralds the beginning of a new era of McLaren supercars.
At first glance, the MCLA monocoque may appear similar to other McLaren carbon fibre structures, but the geometry of every surface is new, and it is constructed from four new carbon materials, a new resin system and a new structural core material. These new properties accommodate both the platform requirements and new, bespoke mechanised production processes now on stream at MCTC.
The in-house approach ensures McLaren can constantly innovate monocoques to accommodate new technologies or new models, without compromising the qualities that ensure its chassis are the lightest, stiffest and strongest in their class.
Mike Flewitt, CEO, McLaren Automotive, said: “Every drop of McLaren’s experience and expertise has been poured into the Artura. Our all-new, High-Performance Hybrid delivers all of the performance, driver engagement and dynamic excellence for which McLaren is renowned, with the additional benefit of EV driving capability. The introduction of the Artura is a landmark moment – for McLaren, for our customers who will appreciate and enjoy this car on every emotional and rational level, and for the supercar world."
McLaren website
Images: McLaren
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