Icon of the Century

McLaren Company 
McLaren is the last of the substantially sized companies that will be talked about over the course of this series, and it is safe to say that over their many years of operation, they have left quite a mark in

McLaren Headquarters

the industry.

The company was founded in Great Britain by a works driver by the name of Bruce McLaren in the year of 1963. As did most companies of the sort, McLaren started out as a company specializing in racing cars that formed out of the frustrations with the previous company of employment. The company, Cooper Car Company, was seen as throwing away its potential by using a less powerful engine than allowed, so Bruce set up the Bruce McLaren Motor Racing team to compete in Formula One racing. It took almost no time for Bruce to witness success as no more than a year later, he saw his freshly created team win the 1964 series. By 1965, McLaren had built a car capable of debuting at the Monaco Grand Prix. However, the success for McLaren himself was short-lived as he saw his life get cut short by a tragic car accident in 1970. The company itself went on to merge with Project Four Racing, a company ran by a man named Ron Dennis and had its name set as McLaren Cars Company. Under this new merger, McLaren saw some great years and great innovation such as the revolutionary application of aerospace grade carbon fibre within racing cars which became a permanent staple within racing cars and street legal cars up till current day. After several releases of models which halted in 1992 but resumed in 2010, what is now McLaren Technology Group has made quite the name for itself.


McLaren F1
In the year of 1988, the company decided that it would take a step out of their comfort zone and create what was supposed to be “ the finest sports car the world has ever seen” Whether or not they succeeded with that specific goal is debatable, but one thing is for certain: they definitively created a car that would not only leave a large mark on the exotic car industry but stand the tests of time. Through this vision, the McLaren F1 was born. This revolutionary car was the first of its kind to feature the extremely powerful carbon fibre monocoque that weighed in at only 100 kg and a central driving position that increased visibility without losing the control positions of a normal car. The car

McLaren F1

was produced from 1992 to 1998, but its legend far from stopped there. On March 31, 1998, a special version of the famed car set the Guinness World Record as the world’s fastest production car. It clocked in at an outstanding speed of 240.1 mph which was over 20 mph faster than the previous car to set it. More impressive than just setting it alone, the F1 was able to keep the record for several years until a car by the name of Koenigsegg CCX surpassed by a mere 1 mph. With only 106 models produced, its price tag of $810,000 at the time was a very fitting price for what was arguably the most iconic car of its time, and what is still arguably one of the most iconic cars of modern history.


Sources:
https://newatlas.com/50-years-mclaren/26807/

https://www.autoevolution.com/cars/mclaren-f1-1993.html#aeng_mclaren-f1-1993-61-v12

Ferrari, The Ferrari

Ferrari N.V.

Another company that is even more so arguably one of the largest, most well-known worldwide in the supercar industry is Ferrari N.V.­—the record-breaking company with one of the richest histories

Ferrari N.V. Headquarters

in all of the performance automobiles.

Enzo Ferrari was an Italian born race car driver turned race car creator. He started off his career with the Scuderia Ferrari branch of Alfa Romeo in 1929 with headquarters located in Modena. This branch served the sole purpose of fielding Alfa Romeo racing cars.  However, Ferrari’s goals became too large for the sub-branch, so he decided to break off and join the market as his own company in 1939. Although this led him to not be able to use his own name for the company for four years, as he had breached the contract with Alfa Romeo, he still successfully built his first fully independent race car in 1940. At the end of the four-year ban, the factory moved to Maranello where it has stayed up until current day. In the year 1947, the companies inception was officially recognized with the completion of the first Ferrari badged car. Enzo at this time had his only focus based on building the best racing cars of the time period but was forced into selling some of the cars to help make sure that the company could stay funded. However, profits became so significant that the company was able to go public in 1960 as the Società Esercizio Fabbriche Automobili e Corse S.p.A. The company continued to experience high levels of prosperity for many years to come. However, in the year of 1988, not long after the release of the Ferrari F40 which is highly regarded as the most famous car built by the company, Enzo Ferrari, the visionary creator of the company passed away. Though unfortunate, the corporation did not let its founders passing slow down the role that they had established. The corporation was officially renamed Ferrari S.p.A and production went onwards. However, with the death of Enzo Ferrari, Fiat S.p.A. saw the opportunity present itself to snag as many shares of the company as possible. By the end of the year, Fiat-owned 90% of the company.  Fiat remained the

Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi

main owners of the company until the official separation between the two companies in 2015. Over the course of time between the purchasing and the split, Ferrari had made quite a name for itself. It saw its own model, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, become the most expensive car sold in all of history, it saw the opening of the world’s first themed amusement park entirely based off of a car company in its name (Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi), and it saw it’s company ranked as the most powerful brand by Brand Finance in May of 2012.

Ferrari LaFerrari

Ferrari LaFerrari

Through all of the extensive history that Ferrari N.V. has created for itself, no car has been more representative of its history than the Ferrari LaFerrari – reason being that the car is named Laferrari which means “the Ferrari”. The design of the car was the only car since 1973 that was completely created by Ferrari themselves and without their closest design partners Pinafarina. The Laferrari design was based off a very popular previous model known as the Ferrari FXX. It mirrored the curves and edges of the FXX but gave a slightly more modern touch to it. The finished product featured a carbon fibre monocoque structure and a total of 21 onboard computers. It also clocked in with a top speed exceeding 217 mph, and a 0 to 100 km/hr in just 2.4 seconds. This limited production supercar saw only 500 models of its original version ever made, and 210 models of its special edition Aperta the 70^th birthday of the company, ever made. The standard editions cost a high price 1.15 million dollars and the Apertas cost an even higher 3.4 million dollars. However, with the limited quantity of both of these two cars, it was inevitable that the auction price would turn out very high for someone who was trying to cash out on one of these extremely rare machines. Turns out the price for auction was not only high but a record-breaking high. The original version sold at auction for 7 million and the Aperta at 10 million. Through the pride and prosperity Ferrari N.V. has seen, the Laferrari stands tall as an epitome of the companies success.


Sources:

http://auto.ferrari.com/en_EN/ongoing-heritage/company/history/history-of-enzo/

https://www.dkeng.co.uk/company/The_History_of_Ferrari.html

http://entertainmentdesigner.com/history-of-theme-parks/ferrari-world-history-and-development/

http://auto.ferrari.com/en_en/sports-cars-models/past-models/laferrari/#specifications/

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-autos-geneva-ferrari-laferrari-debut-20130305-story.html

The 8 Million Dollar Trophy

Maybach Company

In the world of luxury automotive, few cars hold the level of esteem that the company Maybach holds within the global market. Founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach, the technical director of another car

Maybach Company Logo

company by the name of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG), and his son, the Maybach Engine Construction Company, as it was initially called, quickly rose up the ranks in German society to the point where it was one of the largest producers of engines for Nazi Germany’s medium and heavy tanks. However, the success of the company shortly fizzled out after the factory was bombed during Friedrichshafen bombing runs by the allied forces. After this devastation to the Maybach company, it was purchased by Daimler Benz in the 1960’s to create virtually handmade special editions of Mercedes cars. Daimler Benz was a company run over agreement of mutual interest by Mercedes-Benz and DMG and was a very prosperous brand within Germany. There was no significant work done upon the brand name of Maybach until the 1997 Tokyo Motor Show when Daimler presented a luxury car concept. Unfortunately, this car significantly underperformed in the markets and served as the first step towards the end of Maybachs manufactured by Daimler. However, to this day, Maybach is not dead as its revival came about through the line of Mercedes Benz S-Class which served as the sportier AMG’s counterpart through ultra-luxury.

Maybach Exelero

During the era of Maybach production from Daimler, the Goodyear subsidiary company Fulda contracted a vehicle capable of testing its Carat Exelero that would test the physical limits of the tires from Maybach in 2005. The one constraint that Fulda insisted on was a top speed of 217. Thus the record-breaking Maybach truly test the ch Exelero was born. The Maybach Exelero was not record-breaking for its speed and acceleration, but rather for its rarity and price. The Exelero was known as

Maybach Exelero

what is called a “one-off” car which meant it was the sole one of its kind. With the prestige behind the company and the special features put within the car, the price for this sole vehicle was exorbitant to the point where it was sold in one of the most expensive auto exchanges in recent history at a stunning price of 8 million dollars. Just comes to show that even with all the struggles endured by the Maybach motor company, it still maintained its prestige to a level where it still has one of the highest priced cars and one of the best reputations of luxury cars in the world.



Sources:

http://www.exelerocar.com/specifications/

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/rapper-pays-8-million-one-maybach

                                                                                                                

50th Anniversary Trophy

Automobili Lamborghini

Automobili Lamborghini Headquarters

Very arguably one of the largest company in its class of supercars, Automobili Lamborghini S. p. A. is a name that very few people wouldn’t recognize. Ever since its humble beginnings under local tractor manufacturer Ferruccio Lamborghini, Lamborghini has been creating cars that have been able to directly compete for head to head with any other company in its class.

In the year 1963, the company was founded in direct protest of Enzo Ferrari’s auto manufacturing s

tyle. By the year 1966, he had two cars out, but one of the cars went on to be a staple in supercar manufacturing of that era. Between these two alone, Lamborghini saw massive growth within its company. However, this success was very short lived. After the manufacturing of the legendary Countach, the end of the Ferruccio Lamborghini era saw itself come to a close. In the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, Ferruccio sold the company and went into retirement. However, after flip-flopping owners several times and even going bankrupt over the course of 25 years, it finally its home under the Volkswagen Group in 1998. Under the Volkswagon, the company immediately increased productivity by continually pushing out new models on a constant basis unlike any of the previous owners since the Ferruccio Lamborghini era.

Lamborghini Veneno

Through its ups and downs, the Lamborghini Company found itself not only surviving but thriving. In the year 2013, in celebration of making it through 50 years and maintaining financial stability at the milestone, the company decided to produce a specialty 50th-anniversary car known as the Lamborghini Veneno and debut it at the 2013 Geneva Auto Show. However, it was not your ordinary specialty car. Based on the design of the companies most successful model, it took on a very futuristic, aerodynamic looking façade while being virtually built from top to bottom in carbon fiber

Lamborghini Veneno

composites, which includes interior aspects. The materials used in the production of the car aren’t nearly the most impressive part of this car. Within the car that weighs the same as a Volkswagen Golf, you find a monstrous, 6.5 L V12 engine that allows the car to have a top speed of 221 mph and a 0 to 60 speed of 2.8 s. However, it gets even better when looking at the exclusivity of the car. Lamborghini only made 5 total, but only sold 3 at the insane price of 4.5 million dollars per car.



Sources:

http://www.whydoes.org/why-does-the-lamborghini-veneno-roadster-cost-so-much

http://newportconvertible.com/lamborghini/

The Diamond Car

W Motors Headquarters

The History of W Motors

You might recognize the Lykan Hypersport from the movie Fast and Furious 7 where it worked as a stunt car. If not, it is a car created by W Motors in 2013. W Motors was established in Lebanon in 2012, but it is currently headquartered in Dubai. The company had an initial 13 million dollar investment and it took off from there. The Lykan Hypersport was the first car that they created and it was designed by Lebanese, French, and Italian designers and the official production models are currently manufactured in Italy.  Regardless of its plethora of international designers, it was the first car designed and produced indigenously to the Middle East. The prototype of the Lykan Hypersport was debuted at the 2013 Qatar Auto Show and it first was available for sale in 2014. The car targets rich multi hypercar owning clients and it is currently sold worldwide.

Lykan Hypersport

Lykan Hypersport

The Lykan Hypersport has more to it than a name. There have only been seven models produced officially, each with a 3.4 million dollar price tag. Only two of these cars have been officially sold, one of which to the Abu Dhabi police force. It is currently the third most expensive car in production, and not without reason. The car has a top speed of 245 miles per hour and it can go from zero to sixty miles per hour in 2.8 seconds. The glamour does not stop there, though, the headlights are embedded with jewels and the titanium LED blades are embedded with 420 fifteen carat diamonds. Giving no room for disappointment, the interior of the car is just as impressive as the exterior. There is a holographic display system on the center console with interactive motion features and the seats are stitched with gold. Lastly, it is important to W Motors that you look the part of the new car owner, so all cars are sold with a special edition Cyrus Klepcys W Motors watch that is valued at 100,000 dollars. The watch was designed by the famous Swiss watchmaker Jean-Francis Mojo. Though expensive, if you have an extra 3.4 million dollars laying around, this car is a worthy purchase.

Sources :
https://thejewelerblog.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/3-4m-lykan-hypersport-supercar
-has-headlights-encrusted-with-420-diamonds/
http://www.wmotors.ae/hypersport-specs.html
http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/motoring/abu-dhabi-police-adds-one-of
-worlds-rarest-cars-lykan-hypersport-to-garage/news-story/258522315abf1ab80813183df962f3dchttp://wmotors.ae/models/lykan_hypersport