The McLaren Technology Centre turns 20
McLaren has provided 20 facts about its Technology Centre which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.
Having grown up in the Woking area of Surrey, it was quite exciting to have the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) just around the corner. An actual Formula 1 team was building its challenger with the best engineers and drivers in tow mere miles from where I lived. I had only just started getting into Formula 1 when Lewis Hamilton burst onto the scene in 2007, narrowly being pipped to the World Championship by Kimi Raikkonen during the final race of the season. Hamilton would go on to correct that a year later but would signal the beginning of a dry spell for the famous team who are still waiting for a new world champion 16 years later.
Of course, Lando Norris’ win in Miami over a week ago has reignited the hope that McLaren may, once again, be in the mix for world titles soon. He drove a composed race after the safety car left the track on lap 32 to secure his maiden win in Formula 1 and made fans dream about the possibility of a wide-open championship in a sport which has been dominated by Red Bull for four years.
I’ve driven past the MTC many times and a good place to walk is the nearby McLaren and Berwin Parks which give a good vantage point for the centre, as well as Fairoaks Airport. The centre looks like something out of a Bond film with its giant lake and futuristic architecture, the sort of place where a villain would plan for world domination. Or maybe where a tech billionaire would plan for life on another planet (it was actually used as a filming location in the series Star Wars: Andor). It was way ahead of its time when it was first opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 and the main business of the MTC has been producing cars for the road - with the addition of the newer McLaren Production Centre in 2011 - and track to push the limits of what is possible in the automotive world. All aspects of the McLaren Group are now based at the Woking site, having been at 18 separate locations previously, and overall the centre cost an estimated £300 million to build.
To mark 20 years of the McLaren Technology Centre, the British brand has provided us with 20 facts about the facility.
The lake which surrounds the building contains over 30 million litres of water. The water is pumped through heat exchangers which in turn help to cool the buildings and dissipate the heat produced by the wind tunnel.
During the design process, the dimensions of the building were adapted to ensure no tiles needed to be cut to fit into the building’s design measurements. In the production centre, test equipment was also designed so that no tiles would be cut and they would perfectly fit around the equipment.
The design of the supporting blades for the building’s facade took inspiration from the suspension wishbones of a Formula 1 car.
The atmospheric pressure in the McLaren restaurant is slightly lowered and controlled in order to contain the smell of food.
Over 100,000 trees and shrubs have been planted on the 50-hectre site since McLaren took ownership of the land. There are over 14,000 individual plants in each of the company’s five car parks.
The land on which the campus was built was originally home to an ostrich farm and model railway.
More than 300,000 cubic meters of earth was removed when building MTC. All of the soil was redistributed around the site and relandscaped.
If viewed from above, the Technology Centre and lake form a perfect circle.
The futuristic-looking building has been used as a set for multiple award-winning film and TV productions, including Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
There is approximately 43,000 square meters of glass used in the building.
It took 2 million hours of labour to build the McLaren Technology Centre.
The Rivers and Lakes provide habitat for 11 species of dragonfly and damselfly, which is unique for such a built-up area.
The main frame of the building is big enough to house nine Boeing 747 aircrafts nose to tail.
The building is surrounded by a slurry wall one metre thick and 27 metres deep. To dig this out a Backhoe Excavator, one of only three in the world, had to be brought over from America. It arrived as parts that filled nine articulated lorries and took a week to assemble.
On a sunny day in July or August, if you walk the boundary path around McLaren Park you can expect to see approximately 350 individual butterflies. More than 25 difference species are seen on McLaren Park every year.
The design brief for the building was to make it feel 90% Nasa, 10% Disney.
100 tonnes of carbon are captured and stored each year by vegetation at the MTC campus.
The lake now homes “McLaren bred” carp which are larger in size than the original stock that were first introduced.
The glass lifts on the company’s façade took inspiration from a piston. Built from a one-piece hydraulic ram, they were designed to avoid the need for a telescopic ram which would create unsightly grease along its length.
Renowned architect Sir Norman Foster of Foster and Partners was responsible for the building’s design. He was also behind Wembley Stadium, the famous Gherkin in London, Hong Kong airport and the Century Tower in Tokyo.
words: Mike Booth
pictures: McLaren Automotive