Mercedes/Abu Dhabi in Brawn talks

Vertigo wrote:

danny bahr wrote:

- like their 'own engine' for the MC12 road car, which turns out to be largely designed, developed and wholly contracted-out manufactured by Mahle(Mahle Powertain), from Mahle Group, out of Stuttgart, Germany. Poor McLaren, can't seem to escape needing to rely on German know-how.

What on earth are you talking about? The MC12 is a Maserati. And please cut the jingoism, there isn't a car company on the planet which doesn't have some part of it produced in a different country.

Anyway, as for the MP4-12C's engine, apparently it actually uses a brand new unit. The entire car is supposedly built from bespoke components, so McLaren Automotive appears to be operating independently from the big manufacturers.

you silly little man, of course i was not referring to a Maserati. The McLaren road car name is a silly thing that does not lend itself to easy recall - that was my point of 'MC thingy' which was too subtle for you to pick up on. Never mind, worse things happen at sea.

As to jingoism that too is plain silly. First, there is a place for national sentiment; to deny that is to ignore what in-part motivates many actions. Mercedes-Benz/Daimler's desire to have more control over their F1 motorsport team plays to this sentiment. They wish to have a German driver in the team too. It will race in full 'silver arrows' livery, with a main, major German company sponsor's name on it. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

As to the MP-xx? thingy roadcar - surely named by an autism/asperger's syndrome sufferer - I repeat that McLaren and Autocar have set out to hide the fact that the engine for this is not truly, 'one-hundred per cent McLaren', their own and owes at least the outsourced manufacture to a German-owned company, Mahle, most famous for its pistons, and probably a good deal to at least joint design and devlopment by McLaren people with Mahle Powertrain of the whole concept and detailed engineering. Would be better if McLaren had been up-front about this, as surely there is little shame in having to rely upon a company that till recently was called Cosworth Engineering and obviously has great resonance in Great Britain. That was my point, not silly nonsense about jingoism, merely facts and that nationalism and a common culture do come into business motivations, as can also be witnessed by the advocacy of most of the German interested parties in Opel/Vauxhall for purchase by a company, Magna, whose founder emanated from German-speaking Austria.