The Ignition Point - A Website and Blog for Car Enthusiasts by Chris Davies

‘Pure’ is a good word for McLarens new 12C. It’s Pure because there are no parts from other manufacturers watering the car down. Pure McLaren. Good start to the future of the company then. They have announced that this one, will be the first of a line up of cars that will go on sale at some unclear (to us) time in the future.

The MP4-12C will be aimed at the ’sports car market segment for cars costing between £125,000 and £175,000′. So we’re talking Aston Martin DB9, Ferrari 458 and Lamborghini Gallardo, Porsche 911 Turbo and the Bentley Continental GT, then. In its first year McLaren will build 1,000 12C’s.

At its heart is the F1 inspired Carbon MonoCell (weighing just 80 kgs) which will encompass the driver and passenger footwells, seats under-dash and side sills. This will not only be incredibly strong but also very lightweight too. Inside the 12C it is a ‘uniquely comfortable and functional space…. the design offers a symmetry that wraps around the occupants and makes them feel not only physically, but also emotionally comfortable.’ As well as being all this, the new McLaren doesn’t have any ‘distractions’ (buttons etc) on the steering wheel, emphasising the driver focus of the interior.

With weight being just under 1,400 kgs and the powerplant in the 12C being a twin turbo 3.8 litre V8 producing 600 bhp and 443 lb/ft of torque and driven through the rear wheels of the car, expect the 0-60 mph time to be under 3.5 seconds and a Ferrari 458 competing top speed of around 210 mph. Did we mention also that 80% of the power will be available under 2,000 rpm? This thing will be a real monster away from the lights.

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The new Pre-Cog (pre-cognition or foreknowledge) SSG (Seamless Shift) gearbox saves much time in gear changes. What you do is put a slight pressure on the paddle shifters on the up or down selector, this primes clutch ready for the next  gear you’re going to. It may be slightly like Volkswagens DSG gearbox except you are pre-selecting the gear for yourself. Dick Glover, McLaren’s Technical Director states ‘It’s a little but like the first pressure on a camera shutter button. There’s no requirement for the driver to use it but it is more satisfying and engaging if you do…it actually speeds the car up by recovering the energy of the crank spinning as it drops engine speed’. Clever stuff.

Looks-wise we reckon it’s a grower. Sure it’s clearly no Aston Martin when you first glance at it, but take a more lingering look at it and it really does start to grasp your attention. According to McLaren there’s no ‘designing for designings sake’ and everything has been designed for a reason. The ‘dihedral’ doors for instance, move forward and upwards to ‘allow the driver and passenger to get into and out of the car as easily as possible as well as allowing a smaller door opening than would otherwise be necessary’, and to save weight the rear Airbrake is airflow-assisted.

To sum the whole car up, a word from the Chairman of McLaren Automotive, Ron Dennis. ‘I am really proud of what the whole McLaren Automotive team has achieved with the 12C…we are determined to deliver the best car in its sector by almost any measure’.

We really can’t wait to hear that 600 bhp twin-turbo V8. Hurry up and bring us some action videos McLaren!

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For more specifications on and photographs of the McLaren MP4-12C go to McLaren Automotive here. Check out Jay Leno taking a look at the McLaren at the bottom of the article too.

Rolls-Royce are set to reveal their new Ghost at the Frankfurt motor show

in September, and there’s no question at all that this is definitely one finely made car. According to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ press release the Ghost will pass ‘through 60 pairs of hands, the production process involves more than 2,000 individual operations and takes at least 20 days to complete’.

In keeping with their tradition, the new Rolls-Royce will be classically simplistic on the interior, but they have some very cool gadgets to keep it bang up to date too. Some that are featured are voice control (for the audio menus and phone etc) and all-round cameras including a night vision camera placed in the front grille which has Pedestrian Recognition inbuilt. This means that the front camera reads the road up to 300 metres away,  which then sends infra-red signal of the pedestrians heat signature to the cars computer, which in turn works out the speed and direction the car is travelling in and if necessary, issues a warning to the driver of any imminent danger. Now that’s modern technology.

Some other cool features are a H.U.D (heads up display) for the driver and Lane Departure Warning-this is, of course useful, in case you drift off to sleep, nestled deep within the warm leather seat with no road or engine noise to intrude on your lovely nap. High Beam Assistance means that your lights automatically dip on approach to another oncoming car, which saves you all that hard effort of reaching the huge chasm up the button to switch it off yourself. Strangely enough, Cadillac’s Series 62, built in 1959, had this feature on it, which worked brilliantly well, so how come more cars don’t have it on now?

Something very useful though, is the Active Cruise Control with Stop and Go. I say it’s useful because it bally well is. If you’re on cruise control going down the road and a car in front is going slower than yourself, the Ghost will slow the car down to the same speed as them. Once they move out of your way, dammit, the car will automatically take you back up to your original set speed again.

Out to the exterior of the Ghost and it does look very elegant. The doors, as on the Phantom, are rear-hinged or ’suicide’ style and seem to finish the classy look off very well. It doesn’t quite have that ‘out of my way peasants’ look as the Phantom does and is almost half a metre shorter, but still definitely commands attention on the road. From the front and rear it is unmistakably a Rolls-Royce, the front being adorned with the large grille and long, long bonnet, the rear having a ‘this is a hugely expensive car’ look to it. From the side you notice immediately that the car has no design lines running down it and it is beautifully smooth, almost like a yacht.

The Ghost’s engine is a twin-turbo 6.6 litre V12 and, even though the car weights nearly 3 tons laden, will accelerate from 0-60 mph (0-96 kph) in just 4.8 seconds and go on to a top speed of 155 mph (249 kph), though we don’t know whether that is limited or not yet. The Ghost’s 8 speed automatic power plant produces a hefty amount of torque to the tune of 575 ft/lbs at just 1,500 rpm.  That’s some serious power from that amount of revs and put in this way, is nearly 175 ft/lbs more than a Lamborghini Gallardo 560-4. Horsepower is a staggering 563 hp which is an immense amount and 10 hp more than the Gallardo even.

Prices are looking to be around £190,000 including taxes and delivery. Will it be worth it? Well, the Phantom’s price was £265,000 and that was worth every penny you ever earned. We’re certain the Ghost will not disappoint its owners either.

Wealthy people of the world, get that deposit put down!

For more information on and photos of the Rolls-Royce Ghost click here.

Ferrari’s New 458 Italia looks (and sounds) like it’s a real driver-orientated car. For a start, all the buttons, dials and basically everything the driver needs to get to while driving, is all easily at hand.

The F1-style gearbox paddle shifters are now longer to allow easier shifts from any angle, the Shock Absorber setting button is placed next to the Start button on the steering wheel and even the indicator buttons, high beam lights and windscreen wipers buttons are all on the steering wheel and easily to hand (or finger). In fact the cockpit is entirely driver focussed, where even the lower centre console buttons are angled so that they are easier push than conventional flat buttons.

Now onto the exterior styling which was deigned by Pininfarina. I’m definitely seeing styling cues from the one-off Ferrari P 4-5. The small rear light clusters are very similar as is the rear diffuser to a certain extent. Overall the styling is very much like the P 4-5 as the 458 Italia looks hunched and purposeful. The ‘hanging’ triple exhausts pipes (two real, one for show) at the rear make the car look extremely mean and fast. Typical Ferrari thinking this. ‘Two exhausts, that’s just boring! Four exhausts. Been there, done that. Three exhausts eh?. Bellissimo’. Also sculpted into the car’s rear are air outlets to release the heat from the engine.

The front has an almost aggressive look to it as the ‘eyebrows’ next to the front lights are slashed into an angry demeanour . In front of the radiator grille are two ‘winglets’ which move slightly as speed increases to improve aerodynamic performance. These are beautifully sculpted and really make the front look unlike any other Ferrari to date.

The new mid-rear 4499 cc V8 has 450 Nm of torque and 562 bhp which equates to a 0-62 mph (0-110 kph) time of just 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 202 mph (325 kph). The Ferrari’s extremely low weight of just 1380 kilograms no doubt has a part in those acceleration figures. The 458’s engine has been made to develop most of its torque at low revs meaning it’s easily capable of hitting its top speed.

Thanks to the new ABS braking system the car will do 62 mph (100 km)  - 0 mph in only 32.5 metres. Now lets have a look at our (UK) completely out of date highway code braking distances and have a laugh. According to their ‘typical stopping distances’, the average car (in what year again, eh Government?) will brake from these speeds in 73 metres (240 feet). Ha. The Ferrari will do it in under half that distance Mr Brown. Even the average family car will now trounce those outdated and pathetic Gov. issued figures. But that’s another article altogether .

According to the official Ferrari blurb ‘the 458 Italia is designed for owners for whom the priority is uncompromising on-road performance with occasional track day capability, but who still demand a car that is useable in day-to-day driving like all Ferrari’s recent models’.

Keep an eye out on this website for an up-close and personal review of the 458 Italia when we get hold of one.

For more information on the Ferrari 458 Italia (including some great audio clips and videos) click here.

At the revealing of the car, Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen, Chairman of Bentley Motors stated “The challenge we set our engineers was to create a new grand Bentley that would stand as the pinnacle of British luxury motoring, offering the world’s most exclusive driving experience. They have responded to this challenge with real passion and the result is a luxury grand tourer that sets new standards in terms of comfort, effortless performance and hand-crafted refinement – the very qualities for which Bentley is renowned.”

The Mulsanne name, that of the famed corner at the end of the long straight at the Le Mans circuit, is synonymous with the Bentley marque and, according to Bentley ‘few places offer more emotive connection’.

Alongside the Mulsanne at Pebble beach was an Bentley 8-Litre from the 1930s of which 100 cars were originally built. Dr. Ulrich Eichhorn, Member of the Board Engineering said “The 8-litre’s breathtaking performance and quality was perhaps the finest example of a ‘pure’ grand Bentley. Every mechanical detail carried W.O. Bentley’s unique stamp and it was the clearest demonstration of a car built without compromise, the Mulsanne has been designed with exactly the same guiding principles, so it is entirely fitting that these Bentleys from different eras share the same stage.”

So, how does it look? I love the way that it’s quite squat and muscular. The huge and very beautiful (possibly 20-22 inch) wheels almost fill the arches. From a side profile, the windows look really quite narrow as the swage line near the top of the door and arches is very defined, especially on the last few inches of the door which runs over the rear wheel arch. This line bulges up and where it runs over the arch and flows over the rear light cluster, flattens out, giving the impression that the Mulsanne is hugely wide. The boot stands proud from the rest of the bodywork, sort of like the rear of the latest Mercedes-Benz S class.

Also noticeable are the exhausts, which have a flattened oval look to them. They are in themselves, almost pieces of art and fit in smoothly with the rest of the cars styling. Seen in photographs taken at the Crewe factory (without Bentley’s consent of course) before its official release, the front of the car was slated instantly and likened by some websites as looking like ‘a grinning idiot’, due to the shape of the lower grille and the pattern and position of the two front lights. However, to me the car looks great. Sure, the front isn’t exactly ever going to be called stunning, but from a side or three-quarter view the Mulsanne is very much like the Rolls-Royce Phantom, but with Bentley’s own styling flair.

As of yet there, no interior shots of the car have been released, but the car will be at the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show on the 15th-17th of September this year.

For more information on the new Bentley Mulsanne click here.

Lotus and rental company Hertz have announced a marketing co-operation agreement. However, for now at least, the cars will only be available in Italy. Well, they do have some nice twisting roads through the alps plus the right weather for the job. The Lotus cars will Continue reading “News: Lotus + Hertz Rental = Good Times”