McLaren orders carbon monocoques

The order, which amounts to €150m (£127m), will result in investment in a new production facility at the company’s Salzburg site. Up to 100 new jobs will be generated in construction of the new facility and in manufacturing the carbon-fibre-based monocoque.

Carbo Tech will manufacture the McLaren-designed carbon chassis (the Monocell) for series-production models of a new generation of McLaren Automotive road cars over the next eight years, making this the world’s largest carbon-fibre order for series-production cars.

Motor-racing company McLaren Automotive was the first to introduce carbon ‘tubs’ into motorsport and road cars.

The first series of Carbo Tech CRP (carbon-fibre-reinforced) components will form the chassis of the McLaren MP4-12C, the first of McLaren Automotive’s new generation of high-performance sports cars.

The 12C, and all future McLaren sports cars, will be of a lightweight monocoque design. ‘Our clear advantage over the competition was our ability to produce large carbon-fibre components in series for McLaren’s cars to McLaren’s design. Our skill at industrialising what has traditionally been a very labour-intensive process was decisive,’ said Karl Wagner, chief executive and chief technology officer of Carbo Tech.