NEW ‘MCLAREN ELVA’
CREATES ‘BUBBLE OF CALM’ TO PROTECT DRIVER AND PASSENGER FROM THE WIND DESPITE HAVING NO ROOF OR WINDSCREEN
Mclaren’s new $1.7 million super car (pictured) doesn’t come with a roof, and it’s not even an option. The British automaker’s new ‘Elva’ is inspired by the open-roofed, two seaters of the 1960s, designed by the company’s namesake, racing legend Bruce Mclaren
British automaker Mclaren has created a new type of windshield technology called ‘aero protection’ that uses air in place of glass to keep the wind away from the driver and passenger. The new technology diverts air around the cabin keeping the occupants of the $1.7million Elva supercar ‘in a bubble of calm’, according to the company.
The car, which is based on the 1960s twoseater roadsters designed by Bruce Mclaren has no roof and no glass windshield, only the ‘aero protection’ system.
The ‘shield’ uses the Elva’s ‘Active Air Management System’ to take air entering through the car’s nose and then push it out in a ‘high-velocity sheet’ just ahead of the cockpit.
This creates a windshield like system, forcing oncoming air around the driver and passenger when the car is going above about 25mph.
The system includes a large central inlet, a front clamshell outlet vent and carbon fiber ‘deflector’ that raises and lowers to push the air away.
The automaker says it will still sell an actual windshield - or ‘fixed windscreen derivative’, as it calls it - but it will be available as a factory option not as standard.
The $1.7million supercar is based on the open-roofed, two seaters of the 1960s originally designed by legendary British racing driver Bruce Mclaren.
The ‘aero protection’ is not the only new technology in the 804 horsepower,
The ‘shield’ uses the Elva’s ‘Active Air Management System’ to take air entering through the car’s nose and then push it out in a ‘high-velocity sheet’ just ahead of the cockpit
turbo charged V8 engine car. It also has an automatic rollover protection system that’s meant to protect occupants in the event the vehicle flips from going too fast.
While cutting-edge, the new Elva is based on Bruce Mclaren’s ‘original race conquering open top sports cars of the 1960s – the M1A, M1B and M1C,’ the company says on its website.
The automaker says the ‘original road-going ‘Elvas’ were lightweight, open-roofed, mid-engined… and single-mindedly created to deliver a driving experience of exhilarating purity’.
Similarly, the updated version is Mclaren’s ‘lightest road car’ ever, the automaker claims. Only 399 of the vehicles will be made, selling for $1,690,000.
Would-be owners of the new car are promised it was born to ‘heighten every sense and build the closest connection between driver, car and the elements’.
Not to mention also keeping a driver and passenger’s hair from getting messy at high speeds.