McLaren has unveiled plans to build a new McLaren Applied Technology Centre, adjacent to its existing headquarters in Woking. The centre will provide additional accommodation for McLaren Applied Technologies (MAT), which is leading the diversification of the McLaren Group into non-motorsport sectors, creating new high-tech markets through innovative product development and design with third-party partnership companies. The McLaren Applied Technology Centre will comprise up to 60,000 square metres of workshops, prototype manufacturing and testing space, research and development equipment, offices, meeting spaces, innovation hubs and informal break-out spaces. It will also accommodate spaces for teaching and training, which will enable McLaren to play a significant role in developing new and advanced technical engineering skills in partnership with local schools and colleges.
Up to 300 construction workers will be employed at the site at any one time over the phased development, and 400 direct jobs will be created and retained at the site. An additional 200 jobs will be created indirectly through manufacturing, suppliers and clients, and increased retail spend in the area.
McLaren is working closely with the planning consultancy, Terence O’Rourke, on plans for the new building, which will enable it to grow its capabilities in the high-technology innovation sector. Terence O’Rourke has submitted an outline planning application to Woking Borough Council on behalf of McLaren, and an exhibition of the proposals will be held at the Lightbox in the town centre in early October.
joeblogsf1 
John (other John)
would you please join twitter. It would be my pleasure to chat with you on F1. Look for JoTorrent on twitter or click on my pseudo
This is all good, going back to the days when racing cars at weekends was a tool to promote the real business you did during the week and it makes we wonder how many pure racing teams will be left in F1 in a few years time, as more of them look to develop business and technical partnerships outside of racing.
Same goes for manu junior formulae teams who need to redefine their business models, to sell their skills and experience outside of motorsport to survive/develop IMO.
I just hope McLaren show a bit more staying power with their new hi-tech products than they did with their brief foray into high end hifi from 1998 to 2003. This left their customers in the lurch, with huge depreciation on their now obsolete products. Nobody likes a dilettante.
Any chatter in the UK about McLaren going public?
Hi Joe:
Off topic, could you post something to mark Graham Jones’ passing last week? There’s also a comments/message board with his obituary at Race Car Engineering’s website. All the best,
David
Is there any truth in the rumour that Mclaren are developing a cane made from carbon fibre? Apparently they have a customer who wants an aerodynamic cane that is silent as it whips through the air… Yes it will be expensive to develop, somewhere in the $100m bracket!
Jo Torrent,
i only just looked in to this thread, there’s always too much to get stuck into here.
Really, thank you for your compliment, but what would i twattle about? I can’t fit a sentence inside the Tardis, let alone 140 characters*, and about all i’d be twaddling about would be Joe’s blog. Anything on wider subjects would be a stream of profanity (I mean polite criticism) mixed with fairly radical politics which i’d rather keep bottled up. I just know that when constrained i’d never have enough space to balance my not so often resisted temptation to slag off sillies, (prime target, me) and it might invite people to ask if i need my head examining. If there’s a blog taking the mickey out of shrinks, i’d be all over it. But i have a dear friend who is truly diagnosed as far gone, who already owns the market on that. Or should do. Just he writes short stories of the shhh which happens to him when he gets sectioned. Funniest, most rational analyses ever, considering the mayhem, beautifully written. Ouch, i should get off my desk and say hello.
But i might give it a go, and look see what you’re up to!
A little stalking, oops., i mean “lurking” seems to be the internet thing.
Thank you so much, you now have me splurting out with laughter at what a comprehensive drooling nincompoop i’d be if i was “allowed out”. I can hear a mostly sane friend of mine now saying “back in yer box, Johnny”.
If i fluff getting around to it, see you back here.
yours,
– john
*of course, some clever cloggs worked out a way to encrypt or compress far more, into a twank, just lately. That’s like the fact you could signal at a almost morse code / radio teletype rate for free down the D channel of an ISDN line. Or the best one was slinging a prefix code which would force the call to route satellite not trunk, so you could blag a explorative pitch “ship to shore” and claim you never heard them telling you to eff off, cos you’re on your yacht, obviously. That, is good example why geeks don’t actually rule the world.
Jo Torrent
This is one of the best Formula One blogs on the internet.
I always make a point to check out what John (other John) has to say.
His stream of conciousness is always cerebral and amusing!
Ed Gorman used to have an excellent blog on timesonline, but he left, they went paywall and now they have a tiresome, dull writer.
It’s this diversification and applied technology work that will keep McLaren at the front and give it competitive edge over rivals in both motorsports and beyond.
Ferrari maybe purists in a manner of speaking and that’s fine but it’s hesitation to embrace an entity outside of racing and road vehicles maybe detrimental when trying to keep pace with firms such as McLaren and Mercedes etc…