As darkness descended at the £50million McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) nearing completion in the Sheffield region, McLaren Automotive chief Mike Flewitt was on-hand to illuminate the famous marque’s sign.
An indoor lightshow then greeted guests, culminating in the recently unveiled McLaren Senna road car performing a series of expertly choregraphed ‘doughnuts’ to leave a trail of fresh Pirelli tyre rubber on the new centre’s floor to ‘christen’ it.
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.
Flewitt said: “Today is an important and exciting milestone for everyone at McLaren Automotive, as well as a personal honour, to officially turn on the McLaren sign at what will be our McLaren Composites Technology Centre when it opens later this year.
“It marks the continueddevelopment of the current 2,100 strong company, and will bring new jobs to the Sheffield region which has a proud association with advanced materials; first with steel and now a future to look forward to with carbon fibre innovation and production for McLaren.”
McLaren Automotive inaugurates new carbon composites technology centre
1 min read
A key milestone was marked this week at the Yorkshire manufacturing centre that from 2019 will start producing carbon fibre tubs for McLaren Automotive.
