British luxury performance carmaker McLaren selected Coppell for a new North American Headquarters and the invitation-only grand opening is Saturday.
Some lucky students from Coppell’s New Tech High School were invited to the first tour of the 31,000-square-foot facility on Friday and NBC 5 was invited to go along.
Dozens of McLaren vehicles are currently housed at the location.
“This is really something else, this is cool,” said student Mateo Vinson.
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He said he has loved cars since he was a little kid but his knowledge of McLaren grew with video games.
A $3 million Speed Tail was on display for the tour.
“I was joking with my friend, ‘Oh there might be a Speed Tail.' Then, I saw that,” he said.
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McLaren technology is refined from Formula One race cars. It takes about three weeks to build each one of the street models by hand at an 800-worker British factory.
“So we get to take a lot of time and a lot of care making sure that the cars are perfect and when you are mass producing on an assembly line with robots you don't get that attention,” McLaren Vice President Randy Nowell said.
The students saw presentations on all the McLaren models including the new Artura, a V-6 hybrid.
The 80 students were selected for their interest in design and engineering.
“I want to get to the point where I can design the cars, industrial design and stuff," said Vinson, a high school freshman.
“I want in my life, I want to be part of building a car that has the best use experience that is possible for a human and just takes someone's breath away,” said Vishwas Vijayan, a sophomore.
Just sitting in one can take make an average guy’s wallet surge. The lowest-priced models start around $200,000.
The new North American Headquarters location is far larger than the old one in New York City which was around 2,000 square feet.
“A lot of the folks who worked in that office never got to see our cars because in that office environment in Manhattan you can’t keep a lot of McLarens in Manhattan. So, we wanted something with a lot of garage space,” Nowell said.
The location was also chosen for its proximity to DFW Airport, which may help more people see the cars and the technology.
“This opens up a whole new world for students,” Vijayan said.
McLaren will only make around 1,500 cars in 2022.
It has been selling cars in the US since 2011 and the number sold has steadily increased, Nowell said.
