My visit to the Mclaren Technology Centre

[TELFORDS_LURK]

^^^ I am sitting on the front right wheel if you don’t know me already

On Tuesday I had the privilege of being a VIP at the Mclaren Technology centre in Woking.

The place is awesome; we arrived at 10am where we had refreshments and then headed of to the theatre for a presentation on Mclaren including all the different brands that exist at the building.
We then went on the tour, going to the wind tunnel, race and test team assembly areas, the gym (we were guests of Technogym after all) the Mclaren Boulevard (the walkway containing cars with loads of heritage, such as the car that Senna won his last race in), the Trophy corridor, aswell as the machine and design areas.
Also had a nose around the Mclaren Mercedes SLR show area, at one point there were 5 or 6 just sitting in the hall way at the end of the assembly line, which was abit surreal.

The cleanliness of the building is unbelievable; work surfaces where they strip the cars down after a GP or test session are cleaner than those in most people’s kitchens.

After the tour we went to the Mika Hakkinen dining room for our lunch, which was hhhmmmm, interesting, proper gourmet stuff.

Anyway after lunch we received our gift bags just before it was time for the journey home.

Not much more to say other than it was an amazing day and you can learn so much from their professionalism and they way they work.

Link: http://www.mclaren.com/technologycentre/

Chris

 

[Weeman]

Glad its a privilege, would be like me visiting a temple of boredom, would rather have root canal surgery, than listen to tech geeks babble on about F1, but thats just my opinion.

 

[Revels]

Glad its a privilege, would be like me visiting a temple of boredom, would rather have root canal surgery, than listen to tech geeks babble on about F1, but thats just my opinion.

Which, except for your poor poor girlfriend, nobody gives a f**k about!

 

[beatjunkie]

im an architect student and have studied that building its very technologically how the lakes cool and heat the building including the wind turbine!i really wanna go if you got an pics of the building i would be very appreicactive!

Ryan

 

[Remedi]

It's called Paragon isn't it?

nice one dude

 

[Nyphur]

What was in yer gift bag, out of interest?

Do they have a Mclaren f1 there?

 

[lanky]

Anyway after lunch we received our gift bags just before it was time for the journey home.
Chris

Ooooh what was in the gift bag if you dont mind me asking?

 

[lanky]

Great minds think a like hey

 

[tommyboy]

Looks cool mate. Shame McLaren weren't that great this year... always next season

 

[S77CCP]

The F1 places I've visited (4 in total and with mates which is access all areas) are no different from the class 2 bio lab I work in 9-5. Except instead of blood and urine, its carbon and titanium. I'd much rather have a look round a WRC or touring car team.

 

[TELFORDS_LURK]

im an architect student and have studied that building its very technologically how the lakes cool and heat the building including the wind turbine!i really wanna go if you got an pics of the building i would be very appreicactive!

Ryan

I have put a link to Technology centre site where you can see little bits of the building. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside the building, which is why they got us pose for the one picture that they took and printed for us before we left.

It's called Paragon isn't it?

nice one dude

TBH I thought it was called the Paragon centre aswell, which was what they were calling it when it was being built several years ago, but no mention of it now, simply the Mclaren Technology Centre.

Ooooh what was in the gift bag if you dont mind me asking?

Lol, in the bag was a Mclaren T-Shirt, a piece of Mclaren cheese, and a couple of magazines, aswell as a pin badge that was on our place mat at the dining table. We also got free membership for a year to the Team Mclaren members club.

Chris

 

[lanky]

lmao Mclaren cheese, although i do enjoy cheese. I may have to get in to the Mclaren company.

 

[Colin-S]

I have put a link to Technology centre site where you can see little bits of the building. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside the building, which is why they got us pose for the one picture that they took and printed for us before we left.

It's called Paragon isn't it?

nice one dude

TBH I thought it was called the Paragon centre aswell, which was what they were calling it when it was being built several years ago, but no mention of it now, simply the Mclaren Technology Centre.

Ooooh what was in the gift bag if you dont mind me asking?

Lol, in the bag was a Mclaren T-Shirt, a piece of Mclaren cheese, and a couple of magazines, aswell as a pin badge that was on our place mat at the dining table. We also got free membership for a year to the Team Mclaren members club.

Chris

You didnt manage to sneak a few pics on the mobile phone when no one was looking?

Did you get to meet Ron Dennis or was he too busy to attend?

"you cant beat a nice bit of cheese Grommet"

 

[Mark J]

I see Raikkonen is not in the photo

"I was having a sh*t"

oh right, ok Kimi.

 

[Englebert]

I'd loveto watch the fat b*****d in the blue shirt on the right try and get in the car!

 

[avstar1]

Nice one mate, sounds like you had an awesome time! How comes you got an invite? You seem to be rubbing shoulders with F1’s finest recently…

Didn't that building get shortlisted for a design award or something some years ago?

 

[Pootle]

They weren't allowed to call it the Paragon as I believe something was already in existence with that name, so it was changed to the MCT.

I was there on Monday for a job interview.

Certainly is impressive and very clever the way it's designed and organised, even as far as entering the building!!

 

[TELFORDS_LURK]

Nice one mate, sounds like you had an awesome time! How comes you got an invite? You seem to be rubbing shoulders with F1’s finest recently…

Didn't that building get shortlisted for a design award or something some years ago?

I was invited by Technogym to whom we are a client. I work for Thomas Telford School which is the top performing comprehensive in the country, but we also have a business arm to the school, of which with the profits we build city academies. We have recently opened the Sandwell academy, which is across the road from West Brom FC, where we kitted out the academies gym full of Technogym equipment.

On top of this we are building a state of the art gym at Thomas Telford School, in Telford which again will be kitted out with the latest Technogym gear, the best part of nearly 3/4 of a millions worth.

Plus there is also a new academy planned in the not to distant future, so at the moment Technogym's interests in us are quite high, hence the Mclaren VIP visits to the GP and the factory.

Plus of my own back I go to GP's and test sessions so it's great when I get to do this stuff through work aswell.

Chris