prodriva

At around 0745 this morning I was driving into Woking when I got to the roundabout junction of A3046 Chobham Road with Littlewick Road and I noticed a heavily disguised car. First thoughts was the Mclaren/Mercedes roadster thing. It had a long bonnet with the seats rear biased and a short rear overhang. It was in black with loads of tape and stuff attached to the outside. The noise that came from it can only be described as deep, throaty and very powerful sounding. Anybody else see it???

Scooby Snacks

Bearing in mind that the McLaren factory and R&D Centre is in Woking, I'm inclined to agree with your first thoughts.

I regularly see McLaren F1 on the A320!

prodriva

Your not wrong there matey. A few years ago, as my route into work takes me through Chobham village, I used to see F1's almost on a daily basis. Will never forget the time I followed a bright orange one, i think they called it the F1 GT, with the dirty great wing on the back. Sounded awsome and flamed on overrun heading towards the Gordon-boys roundabout.

krankyd

I saw the new maclaren mercedes thingy on the M25 coming back from Heathrow about 3 weeks ago. Just noticed it in the outside lane going the other way, a nice matt black one with white tape down the bonnet / sides.

prodriva

Contacted AutoExpress earlier this morning and they are looking into it, they sounded quite excited. Someones got a nice jolly to Chobham proving ground today so keep a look out in forthcoming copies to see if they managed to track it down.

RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

I used to work in Sheerwater in Woking - right next to the McLaren H/Q (before they moved up the road)
McLaren F1's trundling past all day long - heaven !

Ro.

Scooby Snacks

I'll have to keep my eye out for it.

What would happen if you had a collision with it do you think? The car hasn't been released so there probably wouldn't be an insurance policy on it?

prodriva

The joy of "Trade-Plates". afaik if you have these you have blanket fully comprehensive cover on any motor vehicle. I think this covers you even if the vehicle has no valid MOT of TAX. Any traders care to confirm this?

As for the car I saw, I cant remember seeing numberplates so they must have been running trade plates.

MarkCSC

Bit of useles trivia for you but.....
Did you know that the insurance only covers a car on trade plates for the bits of the car inbetween the plates i.e. if you put the plates in the front and rear windows your bonnet and boot are not covered by the insurance.

Not alot of people know that.

prodriva

I take it that a lot of traders dont know this then because every time I see a car on trade plates, '03 STI this morning (bootiful)on Maybury Hill travelling towards Six-Crossroads about 8am, the plates are as you described inside the car, one on the dashboard and one on the parcel shelf. Thats got to be a huge risk theyre taking.

RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

Must admit I worked in the car trade & never knew that !
Not so much of taking a risk & more of not knowing I think !

Ro.

simon_prickett

Prodriva - you don't need a tax disc on a car run on trade plates... but I think the trade plates themselves have to have an equivalent charge that's up to date at the time of putting them on the car.

Simon.

apn70

Have a look in todays Autocar, there is a pic of the Mclaren/Mercedes in all it's disguise.

Cheers

rr_ww

I seriously doubt it was the Mclaren MB at all. There would be NO WAY IN HELL that they'd
a) Risk a prototype on the road
and b) They would NEVER run it where the public would be able to see it. Closed test track at least, possibly even back at Stuttgarts track.

IMO

NENO

rr_ww, I'm sorry to say I just don't agree with you.

I used to live near Woking before the Mclaren F1 was launched and saw three of the eight prototypes on local roads fairly regularly.

In fact I very nearly wrote one off. I came off the A3 into Potters lane, it has a very short slip road and a tight bend at the end. Because it was a road I used twice a day ( and because I was a little less sensible when I was younger ) I always belted around it. One particular day as I came down the slip XP5 (prototype 5) was stopped just beyond the apex on the opposite side of the raod. I lifted off and the backend came around nearly pitching me backwards into it. I don't mind telling you I **** myself at the thought of having nearly written it off. I nearly drove off the road at the next bend looking in my rear view mirror too.

NotoriousREV

rr_ww, sooner or later a prototype will be tested on the road, no point them releasing a car that doesn't work in the real world!

rr_ww

Well until someone provides photographic evidence, Im sticking to my guns on this

I've got the "Driving Ambition" book, and it doesnt show or speak about Road testing in Britain on normal roads. Only the Chobham test track and Namibia where XP1 was destroyed. Heck the even went to the trouble of building 2 "mules" to test it all in (the running gear) cos they were so paranoid about people spotting it and putting 2 and 2 together. Also bear in mind that XP5 was the offical Press car for a while, so it may be that you've got your dates mixed up and it had already been launched.

Dunno, not having a go or anything, but IMO McLaren arent likely to do something like this.

Dracoro

You can't properly test the car on the test track. It doesn't have all the variation that normal roads give.

It could be another manufacturer and driving near merc/mclaren is a good 'red herring' as people will think it's the merc/mclaren.

Anyhows, take a pic if poss and phone AutoExpress as they love this sort of thing (you may get £££ for your pics I believe).

Reffro

The new Mclaren-Mercedes SLR has been driving around on the roads for ages now. They might not have revealed the final styling to the public yet, hence the disguise, but everyone knows where and who is developing it, so there is no reason not to test it on the road. This car has been seen in public before on the road already, the prototype show car was used by David Coulthard to drive and be seen arriving at the FIA awards ceremony in Monaco in 2001.

The SLR is going to have a higher power version of the supercharged 5.5 V8 seen in the SL, S-class and E-class. Now if they have made the SL55 AMG sound not unlike a NASCAR racer, its reasonable to expect the Mac/Merc SLR to sound similar, or even a bit better. From the description above of the noise it made, it has to have been a prototype of the SLR.

Below are pictures of the coupe and convertible show cars, note the long bonnet and short tail.



[Edited by Reffro - 2/20/2003 12:10:43 AM]

Scooby Snacks

I've had it from good authority (one of my colleagues had lunch with a Mclaren worker yesterday) that there three doing the rounds at Woking and it is the new SLR. As Reffro suggests, it's been about for a few months now (I just keep missing it!).

I've got the digital camera in the car so I'll snap away if I see it!

Dracoro

Can I have one when it's finished please Not got the cash on me but will have to owe you, is that ok?

Reffro

They have been taking deposits for a few months now.

You only need to find £25,000 to add yourself to the list of buyers, its the other £225-250,000 that you need cough up when taking delivery that might be the killer though....................