Dear Ron,
When one sees the Mclaren MP4-12C in the flesh, especially from the rear as I did on the M25 yesterday, it is very impressive.
And much bigger than it looks in the pictures:
The reason it doesn’t looks so impressive in pictures is the front-end is a little bland – it has something of the 90s Ford Escort about it.
But when I saw McLaren’s P1 I thought, ‘Wow, now that’s supercar styling. Why didn’t Ron think to do that for the MP4-12C?’
You obviously did think that, at more or less the same time as me, because your new 650S, which effectively replaces the MP4-12C (I know you know that, Ron) is much more supercar than budget car:
And it’s really just the lights detail that makes it so good:
So it’s a real shame, and terribly bad luck, and a staggering coincidence, that another budget car maker has started to style their car in a frighteningly similar way:
That headlight is from the family MPV, the Vauxhall Meriva:
What do you think to that Ron?
Before you get too upset, let’s get some perspective. Not all Vauxhall’s cars have looked like the first Vectra. There was the Calibra:
What do you say now, Ron?
Still not impressed? Well, in the 1970s there was this edgy concept:
Yes, that is genuinely a Vauxhall concept – they made it in these (at the time) state-of-the-fashion Luton studios:
So just as you have stylish offices in the unglamorous Woking, Vauxhall’s Luton premises were pretty cool when they were built.
What do you think to that, Ron?
So maybe there’s nothing wrong with McLaren basing itself on Vauxhall? May be that’s secretly your plan?
