TECHNOLOGY CENTRE

The McLaren Technology Centre is located on a 50 hectare site located approximately
three kilometres north of Woking town centre, Surrey, UK. 
The building's 57,000 square metres of office space is home to the majority of the McLaren
group's 900 employees, in an area large enough to hold nine Boeing 747 jumbo jets.
The building is environmentally friendly, with natural light used wherever possible and
energy recycled throughout the site.
The lake, one of the signature features of the building is not simply there for the sake of
appearances. Functional as well as aesthetically attractive, its 50,000 cubic metres of
water form a vital part of the cooling infrastructure for the building. Water is pumped, one
third directly and two thirds via a natural filtration system of reed beds and a cleansing
biotope, through a series of heat exchangers which extract heat from the chiller plant.
The water is recirculated via a 160m long cascade that extends around the far edge of
the lake and its temperature reduces as it cascades down a series of shallow steps.
Plus the fast flowing movement of the water causes it to aerate thereby helping to
oxygenate the system. 

McLAREN AUTOMOTIVE

McLaren Automotive was created in 1989 to produce leading edge cars leveraging
all of the experience and technology available to the McLaren Group. The company’s
debut vehicle, the McLaren F1 road car, was produced in 1994 and was until recently
the fastest-ever production road car, having achieved a world-record speed of 240mph
/ 386kph, a record held for seven years. McLaren Automotive produced a number of
variants of the F1 and achieved some impressive racing results including the Le Mans
24 Hours win in 1995 and victory in the GT Championship in both 1995 and 1996. In 1999
McLaren Automotive entered into an agreement with Daimler to design, develop and
manufacture the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren sports car which was launched in 2003.
The SLR, which is manufactured at the McLaren Technology Centre, breaks new ground
in super sports car design by combining the usability and comfort of a luxury GT with the
extreme performance of the fastest supercars. McLaren Automotive continues to design
and build new products such as the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition (2006) and
the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster unveiled in 2007.