Apple wants to buy Formula 1 car firm McLaren – report Apple, the reassuringly expensive maker of iThings, is reportedly trying to convince Formula One racing car firm McLaren's execs to fall into line with a buyout. The Financial Times this afternoon claimed Apple is considering “a full takeover of McLaren or a strategie investment”, citing three people familiar with the …
"Vauxhall made good cars? When?"
Well, it's a bit of an import from Oz, but the Monaro was excellent for the purpose intended; lots of power, simplicity, very well priced. Considering what they set out to achieve, it was definitely "good".
Even the Astra got tonnes better, with Jeremy Clarkson having to honour a pledge to eat his own hair (a hair omelette, prepared and consumed on the spot on Top Gear) after Vauxhall followed up a car show concept with actual production.
The Insignia also failed to elicit a constant stream of loathing from the loud mouthed one.
So, good? That's subjective. But compared to where Vauxhall were in the 1990s to where their cars are now, they're definitely a contender in a lot of people's shopping lists. From a manufacturer's point of view, that makes them good.
Traditionally the problem lay with Opel, not Vauxhall. Vauxhall knew that given a decent chassis and a range of pokey engines they could shift warmed up hatchbacks easily and profitably. Opel got stuck in a mode of boring German stodgey conservativeness, leaving Vauxhall to try and sell cars that had all the appeal and handling of a day old soggy Weetabix. But that was a while ago now.
It's like in Germany there were two sorts of automotive engineer. The ones who believed in excitement, performance, power, etc. went to work for VW, Merc, Porsche, BMW, and Gumpert. The rest went to work for Opel...
"It's like in Germany there were two sorts of automotive engineer. The ones who believed in excitement, performance, power, etc. went to work for VW, Merc, Porsche, BMW, and Gumpert. The rest went to work for Opel..."
Well spotted - there are two sorts of automotive engineers in Germany. Those that work for companies that have their HQs in Germany (like VW, BMW, Daimler-Benz, ...). And those that work for companies that have their HQs in the USA (GM, Ford). GM bought Opel in the late 1920ies. So whatever decision is made at Rüsselsheim can (and quite often will be) overruled by Detroit. There have been periods, on and off, when the Opel engineering and design staff had little time to do their actual jobs because they had to "assist" GM's teams.
Former classmate of mine used to be an engineer for Delphi, did a lot of work for Ford Europe and GM Europe, retired last year. He has some interesting stories - let's just say they made me stop ranting about "public sector inefficiency".
I've never been a fan Vauxhall or Opel with the exception of the Lotus Carlton of course. Some liked the hotter versions of the Corrado G60 and even the Calibra, but they didn't do it for me.
Looking at the whole Opel / Vauxhall thing, I would say that the Manta which is the only Opel ever to hit our shores with the Opel brand was by far and aware a nicer proposition than the dire Cavalier or almost anything else that followed.
Paul
"I've never been a fan Vauxhall or Opel with the exception of the Lotus Carlton of course. Some liked the hotter versions of the Corrado G60..."
Corrado was VW and the G60 (supercharged) version was the hottest model until the advent of the VR6.
"Looking at the whole Opel / Vauxhall thing, I would say that the Manta which is the only Opel ever to hit our shores..."
The Opel Monza, Commodore and Ascona were all available in the UK.
Opels were sold here for a while (V Cars), Monza was my favourite, later were the Senators with Vx branding. Manta is a coupe version of the Mk 1 Cavalier, it just remained in production longer.
But I reserve my hatred for the branding abomination that is the term "Vauxhall Adam". The person who decided that should be strung up. I think some stickers would fix them.
He was called Adam Opel.
"Vauxhall made good cars? When?"
Early 80's if I recall, owned a couple of 83 Cavaliers in my younger driving days each one was at least 10yrs old and one was the first car I ever owned. Reliable, and the pokey little 1.6l engine was much better than the equiv Ford of the time. It was easy to work on too, with it only need a few minor repairs like a couple of rad hoses that perished after 10yrs use, rocker gasket that leaked... which was a cork one.
I never serviced it, changed the oil just kept it topped up with petrol and changed the brake pads and tyres as needed.
Fast forward to 99 and I got one of the last Cavalier 2lt GLS models of the production line and that thing was a dog... cracked manifolds, leaked oil, dodgy handling.
These days I stick with Mazda, Honda or Lexus cars... all the ones I've had in the last 12yrs have been ultra reliable and so comfortable to drive and great fun to chuck around country lanes or on trips to the Nordschlieffe. :)
Vauxhall made good cars? When?
Quite a few in the 70s with the Droop Snoots, HS Chevette, 80s & 90s with the Senator and Carlton, later with Omega.
Also have a soft spot for the older Cavaliers especially the 2.0 SRi.
My favourite Astra was the old blobby shaped one - as a van. I didn't like the GTE - too much torque steer.
Given how the current McLaren is running, and how it keeps throwing bits of engine and such out (OK I know that's technically Renault rather than McLaren) it could arguably be convergent technology between the two...
I'm sure there are some days when Alonso and Button must wonder if they've ended up with a pram by mistake.
Renault? Think you mean Honda, reliability isn't their main issue it is a size constraint placed on them by the chassis design. This has led to an under performing power unit.
I really can't see a complete buy out being on the cards, an investment in MAT or even McLaren Automotive is possible, the F1 side of things is part of their history but not the direction Ron is steering the group. Automotive make some amazing cars and their previous partnerships such as the Mercedes-McLaren SLR were incredible engineering feat achieved by massive corporate investment.
What seems to be up for discussion is McLaren Automotive which is a separate company from the other activities and these days mostly owned by former McLaren bondholders who swapped debt for equity.
Bringing the other companies into it could be seriously misleading.
Not sure what exactly is worth buying into as pretty much everything in terms of technology and manufacturing at Automotive was subcontracted. About the only things in house are marketing integration paint and assembly.
McLaren seems to play in a higher range than where Apple would consider. Maybe the lowest end that I could find, 570S, which sells for $184K might be the top top range of where Apple goes but I'd bet on them going to the $50K-$100K range - expensive enough that there's some decent margin to be had, and they don't need to make compromises, but still affordable or at least aspirational for a good chunk of their current customer base. They go up from there all the way to multi million dollar supercars, it is hard to see how anything about that overlaps with designing and selling electric cars that mere mortals can afford.
As for the F1 team, not really sure what good it does them, but maybe it holds some IP that Apple wants.
Never mind which bit of the company they're talking about, Apple would be missing the whole point as to why the name is McLaren.
McLaren is named after Bruce Mclaren, and the current owners and top bods kept the name and continue to be involved in the group / team largely as an on-going homage to Bruce and their fondness for their friendship with him back in the day, before he was killed in a fatal crash in Goodwood.
The loss of a friend can set fixed limits on what people will contemplate. It's probable that Ron Dennis et al would see selling control of McLaren to someone like Apple as selling Bruce McLaren's soul to the devil with the highest bid. Now old Ron is certainly capable of ruthlessness, but I doubt he or the others would stoop to that.
Having said all that, McLaren have an engineering consultancy business, they've done some clever things, and it might be that that's what Apple are after. It's not associated particularly with the cars or the race team.
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I think you will find Ron was a spanner for Rindt at Cooper, and he moved to Brabham with Jochan.
If you really want to understand the people in F1, look at whose careers were formed by Brabham Racing. Brabham had Ron T, probably the greatest race car designer to grace racing - lots of men learned from Ron and lots of drivers were shaped by Jack.
I was on a tour of the MTC a couple of weeks ago (oops, I must be a current or potential client or "in the know" in some way), a very cool facility.
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