Rumour: McHonda NS12XC in the pipeline?

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R5

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"Honda is heading back to Formula One racing, and the automaker is doing so with former motorsports partner McLaren. This is big news for F1 fans, as it reminds many of a truly glorious era of Formula One racing. Interestingly, McLaren has a made a bit of news as of late on the street-legal side of the road. The MP4-12C is, by all accounts, a supremely super supercar and the new P1 should prove to be even wilder. Now comes talk that McLaren wants to build a car to take on the Porsche 911. Motor Trend seems to think this might mean that Honda and McLaren are cozying up even more tightly than it would appear. Honda is showing their desire to get back into the sports car world, both on and off the track. The NSX is (hopefully) just around the model-year corner, and teaming up with McLaren for F1 could bring about exciting bits of engine technology. Perhaps this merger could lead to a McLaren designed vehicle with Honda internals. If that thought doesn't tickle your enthusiast fancy, you need to go back and watch clips of Ayrton Senna using his loafers to heel-toe an Acura NSX around the track.

McLaren and Honda sitting in a tree Making sportscars for you and me First comes love, then comes the track Then comes a car to give the Porsche a smack"

Source: MotorAuthority
 
That's unlikely to happen any time soon, especially with the McLaren P13 around the corner.

Autocar
McLaren’s deal with Honda to supply its Formula 1 team with engines from 2015 onwards is not expected to have any impact on its road car division, an insider has told Autocar.

Drawing a parallel between McLaren’s current F1 deal with Mercedes, and the fact that arrangement bears no relation to the*road car division, the source said: “At the moment there is no anticipated impact on the road car division as a result of the Honda deal.”

In particular, the source denied that Honda would have any involvement with the McLaren P13, the firm’s next all-new road car and a mooted Porsche 911 Turbo rival.

Development of that car, which is thought to use a 450bhp version of McLaren's 3.8-litre V8, is said to be at an “advanced” stage.
 
Maybe if Honda had created a supercar that shows the world whats what and then get a F1 driver to develop the handling for them, I bet that would be good.
 
A development in the Mclaren-Honda story.

Autocar
McLaren and Honda are considering ways to extend their Formula 1 tie-up into road cars, McLaren F1 boss Martin Whitmarsh has confirmed.

Earlier this year, Honda announced that it would return to F1 as an engine supplier to McLaren Racing in 2015. The two companies enjoyed a fruitful partnership in F1 between 1988 and the end of 1992, winning four drivers’ championships and four constructors’ crowns during that spell.

Whitmarsh described the new deal as a “multi-year” one, and his comments suggest that there is scope for a much deeper co-operation that could spread into McLaren’s automotive division.

“It’s a pure Formula 1 contract, but we’ve already been looking at automotive technology and we’re sharing that very openly,” said Whitmarsh at last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. “Our road car strategy at the moment has no other automotive partner and 
Honda would be a good place 
to collaborate.”

Whitmarsh said the results of any Honda involvement in future McLaren road cars wouldn’t be seen for some years. The company is currently working on the third model in its contemporary range, the Porsche 911-
rivalling P13, but Honda hasn’t had any input into that car.

“If you look at our product range, 12C is running and will run for a few more years. P1 has just been launched and P13, which is the follow-up car, is relatively developed, so actually it is something that you would see in quite a few years to come,” he said.

A deeper relationship between McLaren and Honda would most likely be a bilateral technical arrangement, with both sides reaping the benefits for their road car projects.

“Nothing’s fixed, but we’re open to that and so are they,” said Whitmarsh.

It has also been reported that a McLaren 12C is being used in Acura's benchmarking tests for the new NSX in America.
 
Can't say I'm surprised even though only a couple months ago they didn't seem to be wanting to go this route. Even though Merc and Mclaren don't have anything going on they have had road division work, so it would surprise me to see some sort of McLaren Honda. However, after seeing that McLaren know how to extend their engineers beyond the machine workings of a body and toward engine building I'd hope they wouldn't use Honda, but if the project works I guess why not.
 

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