McLaren Kuala Lumpur opens for business

McLaren Kuala Lumpur opens for business

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McLaren Automotive continues its aggressive expansion plans in Asia with the opening of McLaren Kuala Lumpur, the brand’s 41st retail outlet worldwide that was opened within the last two years.

Expanding the brand’s official presence to 25 countries, McLaren Kuala Lumpur is operated by Sime Darby Auto Britannia, the third collaboration between Sime Darby Motors and McLaren after similar operations in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

McLaren Kuala Lumpur’s flagship showroom is located at the Ground Floor of Menara Mudajaya in Mutiara Damansara, and it is supported by a satellite service centre in Temasya Industrial Park, Glenmarie. The Service Centre has a fully-equipped two-bay workshop staffed by employees trained professionally at the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) in Woking, Surrey (UK). An adoption programme is on offer to welcome owners of private- or parallel-imported McLaren vehicles to be maintained by McLaren KL.

The official launch ceremony yesterday was attended by senior representatives from McLaren Automotive including Design Director Frank Stephenson and Sven J. Ritter, Sales Manager of McLaren Automotive Asia. Also present was Dennis Ho, Managing Director of Sime Darby Motors in Malaysia.

Speaking at the launch, Ritter said, “Asia is the world’s largest and fastest growing auto market. McLaren Kuala Lumpur’s new showroom is another testament of McLaren Automotive’s drive to expand quickly yet prudently into this exciting marketplace. Our expansion is hinged on working with partners with a proven track record in performance and delivery.”

Meanwhile, Dennis Ho went on to add that, “This is our third collaboration with McLaren Automotive and we look forward to successfully expanding the brand in the home country of Sime Darby Motors. Similar to McLaren Shanghai and McLaren Hong Kong, we will be leveraging on our intimate knowledge of the local market coupled with our steadfast commitment to excellent after sales service in order to propel the brand forward in Malaysia.”

McLaren Kuala Lumpur will start by retailing the McLaren MP4-12C in its Coupe and Spider formats. Malaysia gets an enhanced 2013 version of the 12C, which gets a 24hp upgrade to its mid-mounted twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8 to produce net outputs of 616hp and 600Nm, channeled to the rear wheels by a 7-speed dual clutch transmission. The 12C’s price starts at RM2.036 million.

Specially brought in in conjunction of the launch is the new McLaren P1, a 903hp hybrid-powered vehicle that is able to complete the century sprint in 2.8 seconds and is reported to have lapped the Nurburgring in 6 minutes 47 seconds which, if true, would make it the fast vehicle to ever do so, shaving a full second of the previous record. Only 375 examples will ever be made.

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