How important is weight reduction in McLaren vehicles?

When building high-performance vehicles, one thing about which engineers have to be constantly vigilant is curb weight. The more weight a vehicle has, the more its performance is crippled. As McLaren continues to move toward the hybrid supercar future in which it’s already heading, it has put a special focus on winning what the company has dubbed “the weight race.” In other words, weight reduction is incredibly important in McLaren vehicles, as was evidenced in the design of the McLaren 765LT.

[ READ MORE: McLaren 765LT Aerodynamics & Carbon Fiber Design ]

“Reducing vehicle weight is at the center of our strategy for the next generations of McLaren supercars. We are already class-leading and committed to further driving down weight in order to be in the best possible position to maximize the efficiency and performance of hybridized models to be introduced by 2025. Vehicle mass is the enemy of performance whether a car has a conventional internal combustion engine or a fully electrified powertrain, so winning the weight race is an absolute priority for us.”

– Mike Flewitt, Chief Executive Officer, McLaren Automotive

How does McLaren focus on weight reduction?

One of the primary ways that McLaren continues to reduce the weight of their vehicles is my utilizing carbon fiber when constructing the body of their vehicles as well as many other components throughout the automobiles. McLaren Composites Technology Centre located in Yorkshire, United Kingdom, is innovating and manufacturing all manner of composite materials, carbon fiber among them, so this facility will go a long way towards winning the weight race.

In the aforementioned McLaren 765LT, engineers were able to reduce a total of 176 pounds thanks in large part to the use of carbon fiber materials, giving the vehicle a dry weight of 2,709 pounds. Pretty astounding, and we cannot wait to see the brand’s continued success in this regard.