A key milestone was marked at the Yorkshire manufacturing centre that, from 2019, will start producing carbon fibre tubs for McLaren Automotive, the British creator of luxury sportscars and supercars.
At the £50million McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) nearing completion in the Sheffield region, a spectacular indoor lightshow followed this announcement.
Named after the famous Brazilian Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna, who won all three of his World Championships at the wheel of a McLaren, the McLaren Senna – whose design was led by Harrogate- born Rob Melville - was accompanied by Ayrton’s original Grand Prix winning McLaren MP4/5 race car from 1989.
The event provided the first glimpse inside the new composites technology centre which, when open, will be home to McLaren’s second production facility and the first ever outside of its native woking.
Over 40 McLaren employees are already based in Sheffield, housed at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, where they are advancing the process for creating the lightweight carbon fibre Monocage structures at the heart of McLaren cars.
When fully operational, around 200 people will work at the MCTC, which will supply carbon fibre tubs to the McLaren Production Centre in Surrey where the company’s sportcars and supercars are hand- assembled.
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23 January 2018
