Ron Dennis unveils the 2007(?) Vodafone McLaren Mercedes at our offices

[warren_cox]

Ron Dennis just arrived by helicopter at our HQ, after an all night party in Valencia where the new 2007 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes was launched. He & our CEO unveiled a mock up of what is supposed to be the new 2007 car (but looks convincingly like the 2006 car to me - I'm sure someone on here will be able to confirm or otherwise).

No drivers, just Ron. He then opened the new HQ store before rushing off to continue life as a high brow CEO. Tough at the top.....

 

[Craig Senior]

Yes, that's last years car.

New livery looks good though.

 

[F2 Stu]

Yep, an 06 chassis

 

[tris]

why have they got the number 1 on it?

 

[Craig Senior]

why have they got the number 1 on it?

Because the World Champion (Alonso) carries No.1

 

[tris]

forgot he had moved teams

 

[F2 Stu]

Had Alonso moved to another racing series Renualt would of had to carry 0 & 2 as there numbers

I'll stop being a geek now.

 

[Craig Senior]

Do you think we should tell them they've got the tyres the wrong way round?

(The arrow next to "Bridgestone" should point in the direction of rotation)

Or maybe it's just me that's sad enough to notice stuff like that

 

[tris]

that happened at williams once if i remember Hill had the 0

 

[warren_cox]

Supposedly we wont get the 07 car until the championships kick off due to confidentiality requirements.....

Ron Dennis was not your typical CEO typre, a fairly plain spoken and grounded kind of guy. TBH although I'll miss Schuey and his antics I'm glad we now sponsor McLaren as I prefer the team.

 

[andyb]

the cars are generally show cars (I worked for McLaren in the 90s). An external company takes the moulds and makes replicas which have some more sturdy parts to allow for idiots to stand on sidepods, wings etc. They also ensure some more secretive stuff is changed on the showcar

The car at your place looks like a showcar, but not 100% certain. Showcars often dont have all the winglets etc as well. as they are ugly. Production of the showcars don't really start until after the race team have a full supply of parts and can give up tooling and moulds for a few days.

As for Ron. A VERY VERY misunderstood person and not how the press portarys him. He's a real racer and when McLaren looses, you could really see his pain on the restaurant de-brief back then.

 

[andyb]

(The arrow next to "Bridgestone" should point in the direction of rotation)

I noticed the official press images of the 2007 racecar had a tyre on the wrong way....

Not as bad as BMW though, they launched their new F1 car yesterday and all the drivers suits had the central blue/white part of their BMW logos back to front.... I'm sure some one is in serious sh1t today

 

[goble]

just had a look at your website andy.very impressive stuff
talented person indeed

 

[Craig Senior]

I noticed the official press images of the 2007 racecar had a tyre on the wrong way....

Not as bad as BMW though, they launched their new F1 car yesterday and all the drivers suits had the central blue/white part of their BMW logos back to front.... I'm sure some one is in serious sh1t today

Glad I'm not the only one sad enough to notice these kind of things

 

[F2 Stu]

Just had a look at the bimmer pics - pmsl