KUWAIT CITY, Dec 14: Another famous sports car brand will soon hit the streets of Kuwait with the unveiling Tuesday of the high-end, high performance MP4-12C from McLaren Automotive at a special event for VIPs and the media at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel. The innovative 12C marks the beginning of a new era in core-segment sports cars. The two-seat, mid-engine model features a revolutionary one-piece, carbon-fibre chassis structure, the carbon MonoCell, revealing for the first time a car that features such a one-piece, carbon-fibre structure; a strong, lightweight engineering solution that comes straight from the world of motorsport. The 12C introduces new standards not just in handling, ride and outright performance, but also safety, economy and practicality in an already competitive sector. The 12C is also equipped with a bespoke McLaren 3.8 litre, V8 twin-turbo engine producing around 600 bhp, and driven through a unique McLaren seven-speed, Seamless Shift, dual clutch gearbox (SSG). Yet, when it comes to CO2 emissions per horsepower, the MP4-12C is even more efficient than a hybrid car.

McLaren Automotive’s Sales Manager for the Middle East, Africa and Australia, Ian Hession, who introduced the company’s debut model, said: “We are proud to be here to reveal the MP4-12C to the Kuwaiti market for the first time. Like McLaren Automotive, Kuwaiti car enthusiasts have a passion for top-performance, high-end sports cars, and we are very encouraged to see high levels of interest shown in the 12C in Kuwait and around the region.”
Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive will represent McLaren Automotive in Kuwait and has been chosen based on their extensive experience and market-leading reputation in the field of automotive services in Kuwait’s luxury car market, to ensure that McLaren Automotive’s customers will always receive the best service possible.
Mohammed Alghanim, Group General Manager -Automotive, of Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive said the company is very pleased to be launching the MP4-12C in Kuwait. He added that the initial response to the car has been overwhelming, and that they have seen a lot of interest in the car among local car enthusiasts. “We are confident that its introduction to the Kuwaiti market will mark a new era in the high performance sports car market in the country,” he added.

As the local representatives of McLaren Automotive, Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive is now part of a worldwide network of 35 dealerships and will start selling the MP4-12C from early summer of 2011. Additionally, Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive will establish a fully equipped official service center that will be staffed by technicians who have received full technical training at McLaren’s headquarters in the UK.
As yet, even before hitting the market, the MP4-12C has generated immense interest globally and has already received over 3,000 expressions of interest registered on the company website www.maclarenautomotive.com, with Kuwait car enthusiasts among those that have shown significant interest in the car.
According to Duncan Hill, Regional After-Sales Manager for the Middle East and Africa, the company will build about 1000 cars worldwide in 2011 and customers can have a choice of options for the car they will order including 17 different colors and shades to choose from.
McLaren Automotive is an independent company, chaired by Ron Dennis, and based at the McLaren Technology Centre, the McLaren Group’s headquarters in Surrey. McLaren Automotive has a rich and seamless heritage in producing premium sports cars for the road: the McLaren F1 road car, which was launched in 1992, set the world land speed record for a production car, and is regarded as one of the best examples of supercar exotica.

The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren is the most successful supercar ever in its price bracket, having sold twice as many cars as its nearest carbon-based rival. McLaren Automotive is now launching a new car through a global network of highly regarded premium car retailers like Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive, who will sell a full range of McLaren high-performance sports cars built at an advanced new manufacturing facility at the McLaren Production Centre.
The MP4-12C is McLaren Automotives debut model, drawn on the company’s long standing Formula 1 experience in its concept and development and the 12C will be lighter, more powerful, more fuel efficient and more exclusive than its key competition.
The 12C will achieve its performance benchmarks by the introduction of a unique one-piece molded carbon-fibre chassis into the ‘core’ sports car segment in a new production method that brings the performance of high-priced cars to the market at a third of the price. All McLarens will be based on this innovative technology; McLaren has not built a racing or road car on anything other than a carbon fibre chassis in 30 years.