Designed, developed and produced at the manufacturer’s new £50 million Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) in Sheffield, the as-yet-unnamed carbon-fibre platform implements innovative techniques to remove excess mass, while also further bolstering structural integrity and occupant safety. McLaren hasn’t built a car without a carbon-fibre chassis since the M6 GT in 1981, and is continuing this trend into its second decade of series production.
The new architecture follows in the wake of the MonoCell, which debuted on the MP4-12C 10 years ago this week. The one-piece carbon-composite passenger cell featured Formula 1-derived technology and was constructed using resin transfer moulding processes, which cut the process time by 90 per cent and allowed McLaren to build more cars than it would have been able to otherwise.
The following MonoCell II was introduced for the 570S and used for the subsequent 570GT, 540C and 600LT, while another version, the MonoCell II-T, ‘T’ standing for Touring’, was introduced for the McLaren GT. The McLaren P1, 720S and Senna, meanwhile, have used a different carbon-fibre architecture known as the Monocage, with Monocage I, Monocage II and Monocage III respectively.