The car behind me is the McLaren Elva.
To understand what the Elva is all about
it's worth briefly talking a little bit
about the aerodynamic history of our
ultimate series cars.
So the first ultimate series car we did
here at McLaren Automotive was the P1
and the mission for that car was to be
the ultimate car on road and track. And
on track that car generated 600 kilos of
downforce at 150 miles an hour which
back then, with its active aerodynamic
system, was definitely a high-water
mark. The next car in the series the
McLaren Senna -
it's a road-going car of course but it's
brief is absolutely to be the ultimate
road-legal car on track. Next came the
Speedtail. That's a car that will do 250
miles an hour (400 kilometers an hour).
That means achieving very very efficient
aerodynamics, which means low drag
coefficient. The McLaren Elva is a car
the concept of which is just for the
pure pleasure and exhilaration of
driving. When we talk about pleasure and
exhilaration and exposure in this case,
that meant stripping the car of
absolutely everything including the
windscreen. So effectively no weather
protection at all and that presented the
aerodynamic challenge for this car. The
idea for this car in terms of the
aerodynamics was, with absolutely nothing
between you and the wind coming at you,
would it be possible to create a virtual
canopy? And that was the challenge that
we set ourselves. Inside here there's a
giant hook-shaped duct. Air is channeled
in the front of the car, which is the
area where the highest pressure
obviously as the cars pushing its way
through the air. This air is all ducted
and channeled through the centre of the
car and is turned through 120 degrees
and actually exits the top surface in
this direction. So it is fired out of
here at very, very high velocity. Of
course there's onrushing air coming
behind it and that high-energy channel
of air that's being forced up here is
bent back by the oncoming air and is
effectively curved back all the way over
the canopy. If you're sitting in the car
with the system deployed at let's say
100 kilometres an hour or 120 kilometres
an hour, you can sit here in relative
calm, your hair (if you have hair) is
unruffled and if you put your hand above
your head there's a certain point where
you transition and it's just literally
like sticking your hand out of the car
window at that speed. It's as dramatic as
that. The system is actually boosted in
terms of its performance by a gurney
which is here, this actually
rises as a function of speed when you
start going faster and faster, the gurney
rises. And the system, the whole system,
can be switched off from inside the car.
There's an internal flap that shuts the
whole duct off.
