All language subtitles for The How To Build A Super Car

We just want to be
the best at what we do.

And we don't engage
in any programme,

be it Formula 1 or
the production of the McLaren 12C,

unless we can realistically expect
to be the best in the world.

If you built a Formula 1 car
and you wanted it

to go as quick as it possibly could
with massive amounts of horsepower,

these are the trick bits
you'd put on a Formula 1 car.

It's British engineering
at its best.

We're taking on
the world of sports cars.

Formula 1 has the most
technically-advanced gadgets,

you know,
it's like NASA of motorsport.

I think NASA would compare
themselves to us, to be honest.

The temperatures coming out
of the exhausts are approximately
about 800 degrees,

so we've seen problems
with the bumpers melting before.

To actually be here
looking at the car like this,

at this stage of the programme,
is unheard of.

This is almost as if
it's in the womb of the mother,

and not even the doctor
has seen it yet.

This is a dirty job,
but somebody's got to do it.

Heavy most of the time,
hot some of the time.

It's more than just
one person's dream,

this holds really the future key
to 800 jobs in automotive.

There's a lot riding
on this working.

Hidden amongst
the Surrey countryside

lies a building like no other.

The glass-and-steel structure is
the brainchild of both the architect

and one of Britain's best automotive
engineers, McLaren boss Ron Dennis.

Lots of people visit this facility
and sort of cross-reference us

to a sort of Bond film or something.

I haven't quite had a stuffed
white cat presented to me

to stroke at my desk, but
those comparisons have been drawn.

Is that such a bad thing, though?

I mean, what's being portrayed
is someone who is

clearly looking to have

an incredible environment in which
to take on the world.

And it's an environment

where every detail
is thoroughly thought through.

Ron is obsessed with perfection.

Now here there's a broken tile.

Most people would be annoyed
and just, as I am, thinking,

"Oh, that's a broken tile."

But the reality is that when
it's changed it will be imperfection

because effectively
the colour won't match.

It's impossible.
Tiles come in batches, therefore...

you can see here, this one's been
changed. Doesn't that bug you?

It bugs me. Big time.

It's 7.30am
and one of McLaren's newest recruits

is on her way to work.

My name's Rachel, I'm 19 and
I'm currently a trainee at McLaren,

so after I've done that, I'll become
a full-time production member.
There's

the big McLaren sign there,
which is lit up red

when either Jenson or Lewis
wins at a Grand Prix.

Rachel Melvin is
an apprentice production engineer.

It really does look like
a Batcave entrance with
the spiral staircase going down

and you can't really see anything

until you get back up
inside the building.

This is not really
a general entrance corridor,

like any
other building would have.

I thought at first it looked like
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

You know, when they've got
that massive white door

that goes into nowhere.

There's no question in my mind you
are being mentally de-cluttered,

and it's a cleansing experience.

You are stimulated by the whiteness.

I think there's a slightly sterile
feel, but it's a small price to pay

for someone coming into the building
and then having the impact

of all the colour that comes as a
result of the products that we make.

Comfy trainers off,
big, clumpy work boots on.

Not really a girlie-type shoe,
but have to put up with it.

It really is a maze,
it's unbelievable.

Unless you know where your going
you'll definitely get lost.

If you look at these two sides,
you can see

that side is exactly
the same as that side.

It's very easy to look at things
in this building and question

what anal mind is behind it
and what is the thinking behind it.

Of course, it's very apparent
that it's very clean.

It's less apparent
that it is odourless.

It is also a constant temperature.

We hold the whole building
within one degree of 22 degrees.

There's no clutter in this building.
Cluttered building, cluttered minds.

It's the attention to detail that
I'm really quite well known for.

And in his search for perfection,
Ron hopes the building's message

can translate into
McLaren's newest venture.

I've worked in a few garages before,

which is a lot more of
a mucky environment,

which I didn't like too much.

This is a much better environment
to work in,

you don't smell of grease,

you go home cleaner than you were
before you came into work.

The company is
branching out of Formula 1

and, for the first time ever,

they aim to create and produce
a range of road cars.

I'm the privileged one
that's orchestrating it.

But I'm certainly not the only one.

I am merely a chapter in the book.

The first is the MP4-12C,

which is being built
in a special production line

right next door to
the company's Formula 1 cars.

This is the production hall

where the whole car is
built from start to finish.

This car doesn't really look like
a car at the moment.

As you can see, great big hole there

where the engine will go
when it's fitted.

Gearbox also attached to engine.

There is some interior,
such as the dash

and some of the carpet inside,
you've got a lot of the wiring

going on here, which obviously
has to go in first.

Moving down to this car,

we've got some brake discs
and callipers on it.

These are the carbon ceramic
brake discs.

The car's now looking
more like a car.

It opens this way.

If you move round to the front, you
can also see that the bonnet's on

and the front side panels
are also on.

This new venture is a big risk.
The company has already invested

nearly £800 million

into what is a very competitive
and established industry.

It's great for engineering within
the UK

to have a real brand that's
exciting, can really take the fight

to a lot of brands around the world

and supercars around the world.

At £168,500 each, the new car

is clearly aiming at
high-end, luxury customers,

customers who just might want

a piece of Formula 1 engineering
for themselves.

But it's a big gamble
for the company.

I think this represents
the best of world engineering

because there is
nowhere else in the world

they're going to be able to match
what our team's able to do.

At this end of the building,
we have the Formula 1 team

with all the inherent technologies

that are needed to support it.

Here are the cars that were racing
just two days ago.

Engineering innovations from
over 50 years of experience

have often placed McLaren
on the winning podium,

but Ron knows
he'll have to enjoy the same success
with his new venture

if it's to pay off.

I've never really embraced
coming second.

I've always considered coming second
as being the first of the losers.

Formula 1 technology
means the company builds

some of the fastest and most
sophisticated cars in the world,

but mass-producing this car is
going to be a whole new ball game.

The car started life in the hands
of this man and his team -

chief designer Frank Stephenson.

We're the guys
that sit on the airplane,

we don't watch movies,
we sketch or we're sitting
at a table in a restaurant,

we're sketching on the napkin,
we sketch in our heads.

Designers, I think
that's just a normal thing
to sketch, sketch, sketch.

Car designers like Frank use
all sorts of inspiration.

I personally keep some of
my favourite animals in the studio.

Sharks, there's a horse.

I love that. I love shapes, so this
is one of my favourite shapes.

I get a lot of inspiration from
looking at sculptures such as that.

I'm never bored.
Just walking down the street,

you can find so many things,

not just the shops,
you can find things on the sidewalk,

the type of tiles,
the paintings on the signs,

there's always something
to inspire you.

So where'd my bike go?

My big interest
since I was a kid was motorcycles.

This just keeps me inspired
because I look at it and think,

if I had done it I probably would
have ended up with something

a bit different than that.

I love that guy.

You know, you'd think we're kids,

because we're allowed to have
these toys in front of us -

that's the nature
of any designer,

you'll find they have
a toy shop around them.

The Fokker Dr.I,
this is my favourite plane.

Morning, Mark.

Hi, Frank.

And Frank's inspiration
doesn't stop with his toys.

I mean, if you look
at the animal kingdom

you'll see a lot of animals
that were build for speed.

None of them have fat on them,
they're all shrink-wrapped.

I mean, you could
really relate to all the energy
being coiled over the rear wheels,

especially because that's the
driving part of our car at the back,

as an animal,
or a cheetah or whatever,

they're driving off their
rear legs most of the time

and you get the undulations
of the skin

and the muscles actually
pushing through.
That's an element

that we're starting to actually
bring into the design.

Animals that have gone through
hundreds of thousands of years of
evolution, are still around,

still look extremely beautiful,

nobody says that a cheetah
doesn't look beautiful.

You know, it's
an optimised design of what works.

And therein lies the beauty
of perfected design.

While computers help Frank
conceptualise his designs,

it's vital for him to bring
his computer images to life.
Something he can physically touch.

Good. Now I'm going to take
you into the design studio.

It's probably
the most restricted area

in the McLaren Technology Centre,

very rare that people come
in here even within McLaren itself,

so what I'll show you is what
we actually do in here.

And when you come in,

you'll notice
there's a very sticky pad here.

That collects anything
that's on your feet,

so we have a very, very clean area
here to work in.

What you are going to see
is the clay model

and, contrary to popular belief,

it's actually done by people
who build it by hand

so mostly they're like
trained sculptors

who are very, very efficient
at creating a physical object

from a sketch and they are masters
at what they do.

McLaren are incredibly secretive
when it comes to showing off their
clay designs,

because they are constantly
experimenting with the finer shapes
and contours for their cars.

To actually be here
looking at the car like this

is unheard of,
we don't let anybody in.

I mean, for us,
it's a joy to come in

and see the baby sort of
being developed.

This is almost as
if it's in the womb of the mother.

The advantage of clay,

it's been around for
the whole history of car design,

is because you can actually
put it on the model

and then if you
put too much on you can take it off,

if you need more, you can put it on.
It's almost a labour of love.

You have to actually get
very close to the model

and feel how the transition
from a hard radius

goes to a softer radius. We can't
do that on a computer screen.

It's almost as if you could
design the car blind.

You don't have to see it you,
have to feel it,

and by feeling it, you feel if
it's right or if it's not right.

The design work is obviously
the first thing a customer sees.

But underneath the skin,
engineers have taken advantage

of some of their
Formula 1 innovations.

Chief mechanic to racing legends
Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost,

Neil Trundle has worked with McLaren
for over four decades.

You do 10, 15, 20 years
of travelling

and then you kind of think
you've seen every hotel and track.

The passion doesn't go but then you
want to find a job at base,

see the family.

This is the F1 preparation area,

where we prepare the cars
for demonstrations, for testing,

and also,
we prepare our old historic cars.

This is MP4/1, the first
carbon-chassis car ever made.

This is an old friend
of the family.

The new car has its genesis
in this Formula 1 car,

the first to use
a lightweight material

borrowed from
the aerospace industry -

carbon fibre.

Everyone had narrow chassis,
same kind of shape as this,

but because of this
inherently weak area here,

the aluminium chassis were twisting.
When we did the carbon chassis,

we realised we achieved
a 100% stiffer chassis

than had been made before,

so suddenly our car was, you know,
the leading technology.

Some of the other teams said
that it was a fragile material,

that it would shatter,

but all the accidents we've had in
it proved that it was up to the job.

And since then, carbon chassis
have got stronger and stronger

and safer and safer.

But this was the start of it.

Not only was the company's
carbon chassis stronger and safer,

it was also a lot lighter,

which meant acceleration
and handling were greatly improved.

And applying these design features
to the new road car

has obvious advantages.

In the 1990s,
McLaren set the land-speed record

for the fastest road car
at the time -

240mph in this, the XP5.

The secret was the carbon-fibre
chassis, called a monocell.

But it took 4,000 man hours to make

and cost the lion's share
of the £600,000 price tag,

so production numbers were limited.

But through precision engineering,

strength like this can now be
mass-produced by the company

at a much lower cost.

How do you make a composite car,
which is normally unaffordable,

ie north of 500,000 euros,

how can you make the same car
for 2,000 euros?

Well, that remains
a closely-guarded secret at McLaren.

But, all of the new road cars
start life like this,

a carbon-fibre tub.

This is the very first component
that goes to making the car.

Without the tub,

the interior
doesn't have anywhere to fit

and you can't put
the crash structure on,

you can't put the engine in,
you can't put the body panels on.

Everything about this tub

is maximised to combine
as many functions as possible

into a single component.

Everything has to be perfect
in order for us

to be able to build the car.

The tub is made away from
prying eyes in a factory in Austria.

Now what I have here is
a Biax material,

which means that on one side,
you have fibres running that way,

and on the other side,
you have fibres running that way.

That's held together by the
stitching that you can see here.

Now, by layering this up
in different ways,

by using the Triax material
and the Biax material,

we can orientate the strength
in the direction that we want it

without adding additional weight.

Pieces of carbon fibre are layered
until they form the correct shape.

This is the part of the process
that I'm really excited about.

It's where we actually combine
the carbon-fibre pre-forms

with the resin that
will hold the whole lot together

and form the carbon monocell.

So, we have three different areas
of this system.

We have
the pre-form loading section,

which is what you can see behind me,

we have the transfer system,

which will then take the tool from
this area into the press

and we then have
the resin injection system,

and that is where
all of the clever bits are done.

This machine is where
a secret process

injects a resin into the mould
under intense pressure.

Unfortunately, I can't go into
too many details

because it is top secret,
it's the sensitive area of the tub

where we really don't want
everyone to understand

exactly how we make what is
effectively the recipe for the tub.

This secret system
is completely unique to McLaren

and means a new tub can now
be produced about every four hours.

With this process, we've reduced
the number of man hours it takes

to build the chassis from 4,000
on the F1 road car

down to four hours on the MP4-12C,
which makes me really proud.

Once the engineers have
the monocell back in the UK,

the rest of the car
can start to be built.

The first stage of the assembly
takes place at Unit 22,

two miles from the main building.

Welcome to body assembly.

So this is the start of the MP4-12C.

This is where
we get the first components,

the start of
the production line for us.

So within this unit,
we're completing that monocell

prior to it going to paint.

The first things added to the tub
are the crash structures,

which help absorb energy
in the event of an impact.

Every car is hand-built

and assembled by
a team of engineers.

You load these longies,
you load them into here,

with the clamps and so what,
slide it in, slide it in,

put the bolts in,
tighten the bolts up.

Job's a good 'un, out it comes.

It looks all technical
and tricky and that,

but it's just three parts there.

All that, just to put three
parts on, that's what the jig's for,

to make sure they're
all in the right position.

Many of the body parts
are made from a special,
lightweight plastic material

and are secured using
an extremely strong adhesive.

This allows them to bond plastic,
carbon fibre and aluminium together

and is the same bonding technique

used in
the aircraft and space industries.

Better than superglue.
But you've got two parts to it -

you've got the orange
and the yellow sides.

One is harder. Once it's bonded,
it doesn't come apart.

Once you've applied all the adhesive

then you've got to put the parts
into the jig.

You line it up
on these two holes here,

which line up on
these two pins here

and then you put that in, pull the
clamp round and locks it into place.

With the body panels attached,

the car is moved from jig to jig,

where the various other parts
are fitted into place.

It's like a big Airfix kit,
really, you know,

it's a similar thing,
obviously a bit more complicated.

There's so many clamps and heaters,

you've just got to make sure
they're all on.

With the car's outer pillars
in place,

the rear body upper structure
is attached.

Then the side panels, which attach
to the lower side of the car.

And with the rear panels fitted,
the roof tops the list
and the body is complete.

The body is then taken
to a huge robot arm,

which measures 356 points to make
sure everything is in place to
within thousandths of a millimetre.

The process time within
body assembly, from getting
that carbon fibre tub

to a completed monocell
that you see on the CMM
is a total of 495 minutes.

Our main aim in the facility
in MPC is to get one car out
every 45 minutes.

Currently, the new car is assembled
within two separate buildings,

but to streamline the process,
a new facility is being built
to house everything under one roof.

And if the company's to make
this a viable project,

they need to ramp up production
from 10 to over 80 cars a week.

One of the biggest challenges when
you're trying to build a super car,
is without question, paint quality.

Painting cars is often
an automated process,

but here, even this is done by hand.

It's going to take over 12 hours
from the body first entering
the paint shop until it leaves.

And in this facility, attention
to detail is everything.

We do it until it's perfect,

until every surface on this car
is flat.

Until all the imperfections are
sorted, we won't let it go through.

It can be tough but we don't
stop until we get it right.

You're just fighting against dust,
dirt, sweat, water...

That's why we wear gloves.

Everything that can contaminate
paint,

no matter how small it is,
will contaminate it.

We all take pride in making sure it
is perfect and some, you know.

After day's work you can't wait to
jump in the shower or bath.

Plenty of deodorant. But the correct
stuff because some deodorants can
contaminate the paintwork.

Some hair gels do affect
the paint work as well,

but some people don't have to worry
about that.

I don't have to worry about
that, no. Thank you, John(!)

Behind the booths, paint mixer
David Carter has worked in the trade
for over 30 years.

This is called a paint kitchen

because you make stuff and create
masterpieces, if you like.

Different tinters
and Xirallics, metallics,
straight colours, reds, greens.

All colours of the rainbow and some.

I would imagine with these tinters
we can reproduce any colour that
you could ever imagine.

Today, Dave is hand mixing
volcano orange.

Gently stir it in, trying not to
splash any out or onto the side,

and with the special colours,
the extra sparkle as well.

Sometimes it may just sit on
the bottom there

and using a clear cup you can see
those last bits in there.

You don't want to get to a point
where you pour it out

and half the ingredients are still
stuck to the side or bottom.

But before the paint goes on,
there's one last job to do.

This is an anti-static gun.

We pass it over the vehicle and it
takes away the static electricity,

which draws particles to the body
and will end up as dirt inclusion.

Finally, the paint can be applied.

This is a pressure-pot system
where all the paint is in a pot
at the front there.

The pot is charged and paint is fed
through the line at a constant rate.

The cars come in a variety
of colours,

but whatever the customer chooses,
they have to pass an eagle eye.

My name is Claude but my nickname
in the business

is either Hawkeye or The Master.

If I see something, I have to pull
it up. I just can't leave it.

I am fussy. I have to be for these
sort of jobs.

Customers are looking for perfection
and I have to deliver that.

I'm looking through the centre
of the door.

I'm looking for flat marks, which
will be where I've DA'd the panel.

I'm going to look through there
to see if the panel
is uniform all the way through.

It's going to be one of those days

where this panel
is going to be spot on.

HE LAUGHS

Once painted, the car is ready for
the rest of the assembly process.

First, is the electrics, which
come in something called a loom.

In this box is the wiring loom
for the car, in its entirety.

With over 2km of cable and 2,000
individual circuits,

it takes a team of three men
to put it in place.

The way we put the loom in is,
operator one sits in the middle

and feeds the loom from the inside
of the car to the rear,

and then feeds it to me,
operator three,

from the inside of
the car to the front.

I am, literally, the middle man.

One feeds and one tugs.

Your knees and your back,
they tend to hurt

after about 10, 15 minutes,
but it's not too bad.

You get used to it.

I run it across the back
and then make sure it's not twisted,

and once I've made sure
it's not twisted,

there's a fir tree up here
which I plug in,

and then I drop it through
this gap here,

work out which wires go where.

It's not too bad once you've done
it a few times.

You get the hang of it. You get to
know which plugs go which side,

which side the wiring loom's
got to go in.

It's the nervous system,
the veins.

Without a loom,
nothing's going to work.

You have to be careful of the plugs,
because they can break easily

if you're a bit ham-fisted with it,
but other than that, it's all right.

We just work all right as a team.
Everyone sort of mucks in

and you just get the job done,
really.

Help each other out where needed.

It's all compact. It's like moving
a stick without breaking it.

It's just a bit hard to move,
get into place,

try and get the plugs coming out
in the right directions,
just getting it sitting nice,

so you can put the rest
of the interior on top of it

without wires bulging out
everywhere.

It can be tricky.

The team fit out a loom
in just two hours,

but to hit the targets
for the future,

they'll be trying to
do this job in 45 minutes,

which means more workers
and more space.

Since March 2010, this purpose-built
production line has emerged on

the landscape right next to the main
building for exactly that reason.

Operations Director Alan Foster
is in charge of the build.

It's really only when you stand up
on the hill that you actually

see the true scale of the
production centre.

All you see is the top one-third.
I mean, there's
a basement underneath here.

For McLaren to succeed
with their ambitious business plan

and recoup their costs, the new
facility has to increase production

to at least 2,000 cars a year.

So, what you've got here is
general assembly.

It's just a larger version
of what we saw previously

in the technology centre.

It's a row of 18 cars
on the right-hand side,

14 cars on the left-hand side.

They come back towards us before
they move off into completion.

When you open this door,
you'll walk onto the production
floor of McLaren Automotive.

This is the new production centre
for the 12C.

So we've got body construction,
which is just to the right of me,

just behind the wall is
the new paint shop,

and then general assembly,

and then final vehicle
and line certification for the cars

before they go out to the customers.

You can create a facility to do
today's job,

but in five years' time, that
facility possibly won't be able to
do what you want to do,

so then you're into
large structural changes,

equipment changes - very expensive -
so what we've tried to do is
maintain openness,

and there's only really three hard
points in the facility -

the rolling road, the monsoon
and the paint shop.

Everything else is completely
interchangeable,
at almost within a week's notice.

The carbon-fibre mono-cell tub
is not the only F1 innovation

to cascade into the new car.

They've also included a technology
that was actually
banned from Formula 1.

We've introduced some very
innovative ideas over the years.

Brake steer was our secret weapon.

Brake steer was a fourth pedal,
inside the cockpit.

So, conventionally, you had
three pedals - the throttle,

the brake and the clutch.

We introduced a fourth pedal
on the left,

and in the corner, the driver could
squeeze that pedal

and it biased the drive to
the outside wheel

and enhanced
the turning of the car.

Well, we kept it a secret for,
I think, about six races,

and then a journalist
put his camera down inside the car

and he got a picture of that fourth
pedal, and the secret was out.

But it's a great method
of improving the cornering.

Neil's car had an extra pedal, but
the 12C does this all via computer.

At this speed, the car would
normally follow this line,

but using brake steer allows it
to follow this line,

holding the apex of the corner
and killing any understeer.

By taking into account the speed
and steering angle,

the computer works out
the correct trajectory.

Located in the front luggage
compartment, it sends a signal

to the inside rear brake
when cornering,

allowing the car to effectively
pivot around the desired path.

So all you feel is like
someone's grabbed hold of

a pole on the inside
and you're swinging around it,

so it just buys you

massive cornering performance
without having to compromise
high-speed stability,

and so we've got
the best of both worlds.

But it's not just the brake steer
that helps with handling.

The braking system on the 12C means
it can come to a complete stop

from 124mph in just five seconds.

Making sure the car will
stop quickly and safely
is a big responsibility,

and today, it falls to
trainee Rachel,
who's about to fit the brakes.

I've taken the brakes apart before,

I've taken the callipers off
and a couple of the discs,

but I haven't done it to process.

One EPB. Cool.

As an apprentice, Rachel is under
the watchful eye

of a more-experienced
assembly engineer.

The torque values are set
for each bolt and for whatever
material it's going into.

It just ensures that it's not
going to come undone

and it's at the highest
tightness sort of thing that the
car can go for,

and now it's going to
be checked by the quality engineers.

Charlie!
Here's our quality man.
He is a quality man.

I have to make sure that their
bolts are done up to...

within minimum tolerance.

Because it's an EPB,
it's a safety critical part.

The parking brake has to be
doubly checked,

just to ensure that it is
at the right torque. 354, all good.
Cool. That's fine.

That's probably about the
size of the wheel of my car,
let alone the disc.

The disc has to sit completely
flush on the hub,

otherwise it can cause juddering
when the car's braking.

You want to stop pretty quickly
from 150,

so you don't want it juddering
when you're trying to stop.

It's all done hydraulically,
so the fluid comes in here,

and when you put your foot
on the brake pedal,

pushes the fluid round the system

and then that'll
push the piston closed,

which will clamp the two pads
onto the disc.

That's a quick explanation, really.

Just make the holes are lined up
with the disc before you
start putting the bolts in.

That's it, yeah.

I've found that having small hands
is quite an advantage

as a lot of the guys have ended up
coming round here

and going "Oh, can you
just get that for me,"

or, "Can you just plug that in,"
or, "Can't reach it,"
so it is quite good in that respect.

Yeah, I worked my way up
through apprenticeship,

and then it's nice to see young
people like Rachel

coming through
and doing good stuff,

and it'll be nice to see them

work their way up as well.

Doing the brakes on the car
is quite tricky.

You've got to make sure
everything's aligned
and sitting right on the car,

and she does it perfectly, really.

Hopefully, when I've worked out
how to do it today,

I'll be more confident in
changing any of the brakes,

and it'll be a lot easier
when a job comes in.

Hopefully, I'll get it
done a lot quicker.
That's job done for the brakes.

While McLaren have been
adapting their F1 technology
for many things,

it's different for the engine.

The car's 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8
is the first engine

the company has ever
designed themselves.

A V8 is basically
two four-stroke engines

bolted together with
a single crank.

A four stroke-engine works by
allowing air and fuel

to mix in the cylinder.

At the first stroke,
a vacuum is created.

At the second stroke,
all valves close,

allowing the pistons to compress
the air and fuel mixture

ready for detonation by
the spark plug.

The explosion forces the piston
down,

transferring its energy
to the crankshaft,

which, in turn, powers the flywheel,
the gears and the wheels.

The last upward movement
of the piston

forces open the exhaust valve,
releasing used gases.

The pistons are just one of the
1,100 hand-made parts in the engine.

And they're made at a specialist
factory in Basingstoke.

It's the job of Shaun Ward to turn
these blocks of aluminium,

called "billets", into pistons.

I've only been in engineering

ten-and-a-half years.

Before that, I spent nine years
as a lorry driver,

and before that,
I was 12 years serving King...

Queen and country, I should say!

Not King and country!
I'm not that old.

The lube we use
is a graphite-based lube,

sprayed on with a carrier,
which is GTX.

The billet is first heated
to 460 degrees C, or gas mark 21,

to make the alloy malleable enough
for Shaun to forge.

And the lube we use to paint on
the brush is also graphite based,

and it just stops everything
from sticking onto the tool.

The hydraulic forge press has
squeezed up with the equivalent
weight of 88 elephants

onto the pre-heated
aluminium billet,

creating the basic shape
of the underside of the piston.

Quick visual check - yep,
everything's OK.

It's like baking a cake, this job.

You've got to get
the temperatures right,
the ingredients right,

otherwise you don't get no cake!

In here, we have enough pistons
for 29 engines,

with a few left over.

So, this week, I've produced
enough pistons for 60 cars.

I don't normally look at it
in that perspective,
so I'm quite chuffed with that.

But when production ramps up
in the new building,

Shaun will need to build nearly
double the amount of pistons.

Basically, this is what
we call the 600 oven.

It's the main
heat-treat quench oven.

When I can get it through the gate!

It's a bit of a tight squeeze,
and they're quite heavy.

To optimise the piston's basic
metallic structure,

the forgings are cooked again,
at 485 degrees C for ten hours.

The parts are then
dropped into a secret solution.

This type of alloy
increases in strength as it cools.

Then they're cleaned
through an acid line,

removing the graphite lubricant that
was used in the forging process.

It can burn you, so it's best to
wear your apron, long gloves
and the visor.

They're placed in acid for
four minutes and then washed off

before they go into another
special solution.

In here, we have tiger juice.
Put it this way -

if I was to put some on
the concrete,

we'd see bubbling,
and it would disappear down towards
the centre of the Earth.

It is like washing up,
but don't tell the wife,

otherwise she'll have me
doing it home as well.

As you can see - before acid,
after acid.

Now we come to the fun bit -
pushing this into the ageing oven.

Something you have to
put your back into.

Close the door,
check the temperature...

185 - job done.

At full speed, each piston travels
up and down 140 times a second,

so precision engineering
is essential.

The piston goes through
a process of further ageing,

milling and machining
before being put together.

So this is where we actually put
the piston together,
with the piston rings,

gudgeon pin,
and all the pins that go with it.

And this is ready just to be
packed up in the packaging

and sent to
the engine-builder.

So, we have a full set of engine
pistons and a set of engine liners.

The engine liner goes in the block,
the piston gets connected

and then assembled together,

and that, basically,
is what you've got
at the heart of a supercar.

Then you turn the key - 170mph,
and away you go.

Just up the road at a specialist
engine manufacturer,

the rest of the parts are assembled,
with the pistons taking their place
in the engine head.

But this company doesn't just
build the engine.

They also create what it will
actually sound like.

My name's Matt Maunder.

My job is to make cars go
"vroom-vroom" as nicely as possible.

That's my job.

You might think
the sound of the engine

is a by-product of the moving
mechanical parts, but it's
been designed by an engineer.

If you've paid extra money for
a sports car,

you really want something that's
going to make the hairs on
the back of your neck stand up.

A bit more vroom-vroom.

And when it comes to how a car
should sound, this man is obsessed!

This is the Ricardo car park.
We'll have a look round,
see what cars we can see.

That's a Japanese car.
That's probably pretty quiet.

The BMW - that will be tuned up for
the American market.
A bit more rumbly.

That's a Lotus Esprit, isn't it?
I think they have a turbo engine

and are pretty much a high-speed,
European-style screamer.

They're all four-cylinder cars,
and they're all a bit dull.

British people definitely like
a bit more exhaust sound

coming out of their car.

It's a throwback to the
motor-racing history
that we've got in this country.

Yeah, Americans tend to like more of
a burbly V8 sound.

Italian cars tend to be a bit
kind of shiny, pointy shoes,

and a bit girly sometimes,

but they kind of squeal
beautifully, Italian cars do.

Japanese don't seem to care
about the sound of their cars

so they're quite happy
to have something that's just quiet
and innocuous.

There's a Honda there.
Maybe they are too polite to have
a raunchy car sound.

CAR ROARS

We did a study that showed that
sound made up basically

half of the feeling of sportiness,
so part of it

is the feeling of acceleration,
being pushed back into the chair,

but the other part is the aural
onslaught you get from the engine.

McLaren's brief was concise.

They wanted it to sound really
extreme as a sports car, in fact,

so first part of the work we did was
to find out what that meant,

so we've got here
the most boring sounds...

CAR REVS SOFTLY

So, McLaren thought this was dull
normal and weak.

No character. Like a Kylie Minogue
pop tune, you know?

And then this one is
the kind of Kanye West -

very well produced, smooth, precise,
pleasant. I quite like that one.

Whereas this one is
a bit more extreme, you know?

A bit more rough round the edges.
A bit of a Dizzee Rascal, that one.

ENGINE ROARS

Welcome to the least echo-y room
in the world.

Basically, these wedges are made
out of absorbent foam,

and they actually the absorb sound.
Because of the shape of the wedges,

as the sound comes in, it bounces
further into the cracks,

so it also hits a foam multiple
times and never comes out again.
That's the idea.

Which is the same effect
as you would get if you were
in an open field,

where sound travels away and there's
nothing to reflect it back.
That's why it sounds a bit strange.

So this is our workhorse car,
which we've been using for the
development of the sound of the car.

The business end
is at the back, of course.

The 12C has a relatively small
3.8 litre engine.

To get the power associated
with a supercar,

engineers have bolted on
twin turbo-chargers,

which force more air
into the cylinders,

creating an even higher
combustion level.

The turbo-charger cuts down
a lot of the sound that comes
out of the exhaust pipes,

which isn't good for a sports car.
We want to have as much noise
as we can coming out of there,

and a tuned to a nice sound.
So, one of the key things we've had
to do on this car

is to tune the exhaust system
to match up with the turbo-chargers,

so we can get the right sound
out of the car.

The engine is like the breathing
and spitting heart of the car,

then it's got two saxophones
on the back of it,

and by tuning the exhaust system to
get the right kind of mixing
between the different cylinders,

that gives us the Metallica sound
that we were looking for earlier on.

ENGINE STARTS

ENGINE REVS POWERFULLY

So that has got a bit of oomph
to it, hasn't it?
I really like that.

ENGINE ROARS

I can really say I did that,
I made that car sound like this,

and that does make me
feel quite proud.

BEEPING

BOTH ENGINES REV

How do you feel the sound is?
I like it. Yeah? It's sports mode.
Really? I can't hear it.

If you put it in track, it's good.
Oh, he's going. See you.

Give it some, so I can hear what it
sounds like from here.

ENGINE ROARS

OK. We're on the runway.
Slippery as hell. 4,000rpm now.
Now I'm dumped.

Professional racing drivers
might have pushed the new car
to its limit,

but most customers won't be
driving it on a race track.

It's a road car, so how it handles
on different surfaces all
round the world is a top priority.

We use these secret proving grounds
for two reasons.

One is confidentiality,

so we can develop our product to a
level where we're happy to sell it,

so, if we're going to make
any mistakes,

we want to make them
in relative secrecy.

The second reason we come to
proving grounds

is that you can do
what you want with the car

in terms of speeds and how fast
you go round corners,

and, obviously,
you can't do that on a public road.

This kind of testing allows them
to find and fix faults
before customers do,

and they use specially-built roads
to do it.

So, this surface is a specifically
designed badly-maintained road.

It will expose any squeaks
and rattles.

We're now going onto
the Belgium pave surfaces,

so these generally give shorter
wavelength inputs into the car

and expose any secondary ride issues
that it might have,

or if anything is going to
drop off the car, it would be here.

It does rattle you around a little
bit, driving over these things.

These are the washboard surfaces,
which are...

JUDDERING

..quite harsh, and not dissimilar to
cat's eyes on a motorway,
but more severe.

It's quite difficult with
a sports car that needs to be

stiff in the corners to also be
compliant on the bumps.

The new car has some very clever
engineering, which should

allow it to cope with most
road conditions.

At each corner of it,
there are independent spring
and hydraulic dampers.

Fluid-filled chambers
are linked to each other.

As high pressure meets
high pressure under roll,
the chassis stiffens.

But to have a more comfortable ride
on a badly-maintained road,

hydraulic lines connect the front
and back, allowing each wheel
to operate independently.

The car has got a number of discrete
suspension settings,

which allow it to become
moderately firm on rough surfaces,

but at the flick of a switch,
you can turn it into something
that's also very responsive

on race-track environments,

so Jekyll and Hyde, I think,
is probably the best
description you can give.

The team work with
a fleet of over 50 prototypes,

and one of the oldest is maintained
by engineers like Richard Yeo.

It's a workhorse, basically,
so it's just kept running,

patched up

and does its job.

Temperatures coming out
of the exhausts are approximately
800 degrees,

so we've seen problems
with the bumpers melting before,

so it's just a way of bypassing that
and just carrying on.

When the team discover problems like
melting bumpers,

tweaks and adjustments can be fed
back to base to fix them.

This car does look proper Mad Max,

but I can assure you,
all of the equipment in the car
is top notch,

and it's the highest spec
you can get.

As you can see, it's quite different
to a production car
that you would see on the line.

We run quite a lot of
data-logging - two screens here -

so the driver can see everything
that's going on in the engine,

and also all these switches here

are bespoke to nearly all
the test cars.

So you have here fire extinguisher,
armed, engine kill,

battery kill,
and this will be for just

recording their laps
during the durability cycle,

and on the rear shelf is where the
data-logging computer normally sits.

Having worked on this project for
nearly five years, Richard has
become attached to this prototype.

Yes, my baby!

I've worked with it
for a long time now.
What will happen to it, eventually?

It's going to get crushed.
It will die eventually, this car,
although it keeps refusing to.

The first time
I went on this curve,
I thought was going to crash.

To expose any weakness from
high-mileage wear and tear,

the team put the car
through the kind of stresses

it would accumulate over
several years.

We're doing maintenance checks
before we hand it over

to the night-time driver.

We do sometimes work 24 hours
if the job needs to be done.

We can't hold up production,
so it's imperative we keep going.

Hopefully, I'll get home
before my girlfriend goes to sleep!

The testing programme is not
a nine-to-five job.

Continuously on the road,
24 hours a day, 7 days a week,

the car can accumulate
more than 50,000km a month.

Tonight, it's the job of Rob to do
the first three-hour night shift.

If we ran just during the day,
we'd get half the amount done.

And in such a short period of time,

we've managed to gain
a lot of information.

I suppose a lot of us are just a bit
frustrated Formula One drivers.

Didn't get that opportunity,
so, er...we'll keep on
pushing and pretending.

Tests like this are the only way
McLaren can know how the car
will last during its lifetime.

Back at the assembly line,

the new cars are about to have
their engines fitted.

To save on weight and space,
the engine and all its ancillaries

have been packed extremely tight.

The assembly engineers
must take utmost care
when bringing the car down -

guiding everything into place
and making sure nothing clashes.

Bolts are put in
underneath the frame

and the engine is fixed in place.

On other stations, the interiors,
final body panels

and wheels are also fitted.

Currently, around ten cars
are rolling off the production line
every week.

But Operations Director Alan Foster
will need to quadruple this output

to meet the initial demands
for delivery, and is looking forward

to moving into the new McLaren
Production Centre -

or MPC for short.

It's getting very busy.

We're only about two weeks away
from the planned move now to MPC

and, frankly, we need to
get into the new building
very, very quickly now.

My goodness! Everywhere you see,
there are car parts.

I think you could call that a pretty
congested end-of-paint facility.

Obviously, we're limited
for space here -
we've only got five spray booths,

therefore we can't get as much
output as we would like,

so the new facility should
speed things up a great deal.

It's like a car park at the moment.

McLaren need to start selling
these cars as soon as possible,

in order to recoup their
multi-million pound investment.

Bottom line is, we need to move cars

so I want the transition from
this pre-production facility

into the production facility
as smooth as possible.

Despite the mounting pressure,

the company remains
a stickler for detail

and continues with
its drive for perfection.

The castors have arrived
and the suppliers changed the colour
of the rubber

and that's not acceptable.
It's not the colour that I ordered.

So, it's going back
and they're going to change them.

That times 400 throughout the build
facility would just look too dark

against the background that
we've developed within MPC.

The colour it should be
matches the cabinet

and the walls in this room.

As you can see, a couple of shades
too dark.

With the new castors in the post,
it's now just weeks

before McLaren need to start
delivering cars to customers.

And today is the day
of the big move.

My plan is we will take them
over in groups of 20,

so that we can give them
an induction.

Kind of show them
station locations, et cetera.

Cars will be going after lunch
from here.

By the end of play today,
I expect all of my team

to be out of their lockers and go
to work in there tomorrow morning.

OK. Thank you very much, guys.

It's taken 14 months to build,

and Alan realises the hard part
still lies ahead.

It is quite a massive move. To think
you're going to move a whole factory
in less than eight hours is...

Is quite insane, really.

Body assembly and the paint teams
are the first to move in,

and Executive Chairman Ron Dennis
is on one his frequent inspections.

What we have here is our, er,

assembly hall for the 12C,
rapidly nearing completion.

This side of the factory is
dedicated to the assembly

of the mono-cell
and crash structures.
And then into the paint facilities.

In the old building,
five booths painting body parts

meant around three cars
a day could be finished.

But in the new facility,
this can be increased tenfold.

The whole objective of having the
level of detail that we strive for

is to get the perfection
in the finished product.

It's sort of like a second home
to me. I have a sense of order

and attention to detail -

a desire to do things really well.

And, er, time will tell
whether the approach we've taken

to producing this very unique car
has worked or not.

If all goes according to plan,
then this new facility will enable

the company to add 300 new jobs
to its workforce

and produce 80 cars a week

to help them meet the orders
they already have, and the targets
for future sales.

But now it's time to unveil
the new car

at the new dealership
in London's Knightsbridge.

In the end, I think it's all about
selling cars to real people

and this is where it starts.

I think it looks fantastic.
Looks absolutely amazing.

It's a big night.
We've been looking forward to this
for a long, long time.

Personally, it's like going to
the hospital

to see your baby finally being born
and brought out into the daylight.

I like the way how the doors open as
well. It's really cool.

Keep smiling.

When the doors open for business,
the first customer that comes
through the door will be told,

"We're very sorry, it's
a two-and-a-half-year waiting list,"

which in this world, in this market,
is a great thing to hear.

I've ordered three, obviously.

This is the point we've all been
working for for the past four or
five years.

So, very, very, very excited.
Difficult to put into words.

The phrase that comes to mind is,
"I'm clearly in on this one."

That's when you know you've
got it right -

when everyone looks at it and says,
"I wish I could have something
like that."

There may be glitz and glamour at
the launch but for the engineers,

there's an
important message to be understood.

People say manufacturing is dying
a death in this country,
but anything but.

Manufacturing's getting busier
and busier.

We're a nation of inventors.

We've had a long history of being
the best at what we do.

Basically, I'm just trying
to carry it on.

There comes a point where we need to
share it and take it.

Whatever comes -
be it critical or praise -

it will go to the market.

The first car was delivered.
That is the first car.

The dealers will receive all of
their cars by the end of the month.

We will ramp production
to 4,000 a year

over the course of
the next four years.

We are going to be criticised,
but I can tell you
we are going to succeed.

Thank you very much.

With the creation of their new car
and the facility it's built in,

McLaren know the stakes are high.

The place is so big, it's amazing.

I can't believe how clean and white
and sparkling, brand new,
everything is.

I said to one of the guys today,
"If you went down the hospital
with your arm cut off,

"you'd rather be here having it
tended to than there."

ENGINE PURRS
I made that car sound like this.

And that does make you feel
quite proud.

ENGINE REVS

They'll see it driving down the road
and everyone's going to be like,

"Yeah, my friend Terry
fitted that car."

We've made cars in Britain
for decades

and although some argue
we have passed our heyday,

taken as a whole, the automotive
industry still accounts for around
10% of all UK exports

in a highly-competitive
international market.

You can feel
the passion in this place.

There's people that have been here
a long time

and we're not just here
for the money.

McLaren's new car
may be the latest,

but it certainly won't be the last.

In the next programme,

we meet the engineers in one of
Britain's most hi-tech industries,

and discover how to build
a satellite.

From sketch to structure, see how
designs come to life by visiting...

..and follow the links
to the Open University.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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