To be honest there is also some personal investment into this, back in 2014 we approached McLaren to ask to be an authorised repairer; same as an official dealer but no car sales. A meeting was arranged and a couple of senior McLaren managers came over for a meeting. Well, it didn’t go well, not least the arrogant, sniffy, look down their noses at us type attitude we got but the sheer rudeness as to how they dismissed us as being unsuitable stuck in my mind for years. One comment made at the time was ‘but John, you dont even have a tarmac car park’
Well, it pissed me off and in the 9 years since that meeting during which we have established the Worlds largest independent McLaren service (and now sales) operation it has always irked me to the extent that as and when we had the financial security to invest such sums into our operation we would do so.
As you might expect we put some effort into this, the site has been graded and levelled so any excess water drains into drains at the edges to ensure no standing water will be created even after heavy rainfall. The parking spaces are 3m wide each to allow for McLaren owners to safely open then dyhedral doors without fear of hitting the car next to them. We have used high quality tarmac so the surface is both resistant to stains but also offers high grip for winter months but also wont be affected by soft track rubber (which can stick to some tarmac coverings) We wanted this to match the high quality of the rest of our operation.
And the three guys at McLaren that instigated this? One left to join an EV manufacturer, one left to join a niche supercar operation and one went and opened a McLaren independent! Ha. So owners can thank these guys when they bring their pride and joy McLaren here and drive on our nice new car park, all we need to do now is save up to buy another 720!