Before I ended up in Microsoft Jail, I was having a grand time at the Forza 5 event talking to Greg Levine, McLaren's director of sales and marketing. What a guy like Mr.Levine really needs is lots of incredible/inane suggestions from a guy like me, so I was happy to help him out.
McLaren, of course, is partnering with Microsoft to include their P1 in Forza 5 as the cover car, and they had one of the two publicly-available P1s on display for filthy auto journalists like myself to gawp at. It's a stunning looking car, and inspecting it got me thinking.
Greg Levine seems like a genuine gearhead, not just some business guy who ended up in the car industry. He's a guy who really regrets selling his old (original) Fiat 500, worked for Fiat and Audi, and endured with grace my admission that the most I'd ever really heard a South African accent was watching District 9. He was a great, friendly guy, and I repaid that openness with these terrible questions:
Me: I saw that the P1, while incredible, is pretty short on luggage space. In that it seems to have none. Well, there is a net behind the seats. Maybe you could get a laptop bag back there. I'm sure some of the people who are lucky enough to have a P1 may want to take themselves and a friend on an overnight or longer drive. So how about a shooting brake version?
GL: No.
Me: Okay, fine, I get it. You want to keep the purity, or aerodynamics or something. How about a roof rack option? Or a tow hitch, with a special McLaren-designed aerodynamic trailer?
GL: No.
Me: Okay, okay. How about this? there's so many people who absolutely love what you're doing and have no shot in hell of owning any of these, without crippling organ donation. What about an 'entry level' McLaren? Say, starting around $60,000?
GL: Sorry, no.
Me: Hm. Okay, okay, one last thing. You know how Aston Martin has to make that Toyota/Scion iQ-based Cygnet to cover those fleet emission rules? What about something like that from McLaren? Say, an electric city car that leverages the KERS system you have in the P1?
GL: (Stares blankly) Hell no.
So there you have it - four things you can count on McLaren not doing! I hope this helps your future car-purchase planning.
Source: http://jalopnik.com/four-things-the-sales-director-of-mclaren-says-the-comp-513199495
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