Soldato
- Joined
- 5 May 2004
- Posts
- 4,428
- Location
- Northern Ireland
My McLaren GT - Ownership Thread
- Thread starter DRZ
- Start date
Given that I moved house on the Saturday and collected the car on the Monday, the garage was in something of a state. I cleared enough room to get the car in but had about 1" front and rear clearance between the racking and garage door. Last night I spent some time clearing a much bigger space, moving the racking etc etc so now I've got about 2ft of room front to back.
Future plans are to seal and tile the garage floor in something like ribtrax, insulate/board the walls and ceiling and replace the doors and window. The walls are just a single skin of brick so I want to at least try and keep the temperature above the outside temp in the winter to some extent. Not so much for the car but for the other stuff in there. I've got a dessicant dehumidifier on the go in there in the mean time to take the edge off any moisture in the air. It doesn't feel particularly damp but still, it'll help.
Future plans are to seal and tile the garage floor in something like ribtrax, insulate/board the walls and ceiling and replace the doors and window. The walls are just a single skin of brick so I want to at least try and keep the temperature above the outside temp in the winter to some extent. Not so much for the car but for the other stuff in there. I've got a dessicant dehumidifier on the go in there in the mean time to take the edge off any moisture in the air. It doesn't feel particularly damp but still, it'll help.
It looks like that but they were rock solid and aren't there any more in any case, don't worry!
Given that I moved house on the Saturday and collected the car on the Monday, the garage was in something of a state. I cleared enough room to get the car in but had about 1" front and rear clearance between the racking and garage door. Last night I spent some time clearing a much bigger space, moving the racking etc etc so now I've got about 2ft of room front to back.
Future plans are to seal and tile the garage floor in something like ribtrax, insulate/board the walls and ceiling and replace the doors and window. The walls are just a single skin of brick so I want to at least try and keep the temperature above the outside temp in the winter to some extent. Not so much for the car but for the other stuff in there. I've got a dessicant dehumidifier on the go in there in the mean time to take the edge off any moisture in the air. It doesn't feel particularly damp but still, it'll help.
I run a dehumidifier in my garage which pumps out warm air, think its 700W at maximum power and it typically keeps my concrete double garage around 5-6c above the outside temperature, so when its around 0c outside the garage stays around 5-7c. I keep the dehumidifier set to around 60% so it works well for my double garage, no damp.
Given that I moved house on the Saturday and collected the car on the Monday, the garage was in something of a state. I cleared enough room to get the car in but had about 1" front and rear clearance between the racking and garage door. Last night I spent some time clearing a much bigger space, moving the racking etc etc so now I've got about 2ft of room front to back.
Future plans are to seal and tile the garage floor in something like ribtrax, insulate/board the walls and ceiling and replace the doors and window. The walls are just a single skin of brick so I want to at least try and keep the temperature above the outside temp in the winter to some extent. Not so much for the car but for the other stuff in there. I've got a dessicant dehumidifier on the go in there in the mean time to take the edge off any moisture in the air. It doesn't feel particularly damp but still, it'll help.
Sounds very similar to mine, i've never checked but with the new door my garage is always a few degrees warming than outside, never warm though! do you have a single door into it, or just the main door?
Yeah this is a dessicant type so the air coming out is warm - the manual says about 10c warmer than ambient so we'll see.
I have a side door as well as the main door (and the window). Both the side door and the window are functional but not great looking or efficient so will be getting replaced with something better.
Obviously just going to say that the main door is going to be your biggest source of heatloss when it's open or closed, but being able to enter through a smaller door will help with keeping it slightly warmer if you're going in and out regularly in the winter.
Soldato
- Joined
- 11 Dec 2005
- Posts
- 11,364
- Location
- Cheshire
Insulated garage door is the way to go. Heated too, even if you just have electric heaters. Makes a big difference.
Definitely does I'm lucky in that my oil boiler is in my garage so keeps it rather nice and toasty. Throughout the evenings. DRZ the car looks awesome. Congrats
One week update!
Had a few minor issues
First one was that every single time I started the car I'd get a call from the tracker company. Seemingly a litany of random BS issues from the GPS signal being weak in the garage to being around tall buildings or it moving before the engine was started (wtf?!) etc. That is until I spoke to someone there who knew what they were doing and correctly diagnosed it as a weak battery in the tracker fob. Replaced that, did a reset and all my tracker woes were resolved! Second issue was that I was struggling to get it to lock and unlock sometimes but not always. After the tracker fob issue I thought I might as well try a new battery in the key and again, instant resolution of those issues. BMW replaced the batteries in my keys (where possible) on handover of previous cars so I'd presumed McLaren would have done the same but clearly not.
My only other issue so far is that the angle/height/curve of the front plate clearly disagrees with some ANPR systems I regularly use. This is a minor gripe but extremely irritating as doing something as simple as getting your arm out the window to wave a fob/card/whatever at a regular-height post is actually quite hard. In previous low cars (and I've had a few!) you could simply pop the door open a bit to get some more lean angle but that is impossible with dihedral doors... First world problems and all that but still...
Everything else is mega - the performance is more than adequate, the interior is a nice place to be and to live with on a long journey, the B&W sound system absolutely rocks and on a steady cruise at regular motorway speeds in regular motorway traffic over 200 miles it returned 32.2mpg which I did not expect. I have of course averaged somewhere around 11mpg elsewhere as it is definitely not frugal when you open the taps! One pull 0-60 saw the predicted range drop from 225 miles to 45 miles
The positive attention it gets is really surprising - so many people who love McLaren through the F1 team or the road cars have come up to ask to take photos of/with it. Obviously it is hardly subtle being bright orange and I expected it'd get the odd bit of attention but not quite this much. Especially because it is a GT which isn't top of the list for most people when it comes to desirable McLarens.
Took it to a couple of events over the weekend, one at The Motorist near Leeds and the other to Cars and Coffee Cheshire. Both events were superbly run and well attended and I'd recommend both to anyone into cars.
Had a few minor issues
First one was that every single time I started the car I'd get a call from the tracker company. Seemingly a litany of random BS issues from the GPS signal being weak in the garage to being around tall buildings or it moving before the engine was started (wtf?!) etc. That is until I spoke to someone there who knew what they were doing and correctly diagnosed it as a weak battery in the tracker fob. Replaced that, did a reset and all my tracker woes were resolved! Second issue was that I was struggling to get it to lock and unlock sometimes but not always. After the tracker fob issue I thought I might as well try a new battery in the key and again, instant resolution of those issues. BMW replaced the batteries in my keys (where possible) on handover of previous cars so I'd presumed McLaren would have done the same but clearly not.My only other issue so far is that the angle/height/curve of the front plate clearly disagrees with some ANPR systems I regularly use. This is a minor gripe but extremely irritating as doing something as simple as getting your arm out the window to wave a fob/card/whatever at a regular-height post is actually quite hard. In previous low cars (and I've had a few!) you could simply pop the door open a bit to get some more lean angle but that is impossible with dihedral doors... First world problems and all that but still...
Everything else is mega - the performance is more than adequate, the interior is a nice place to be and to live with on a long journey, the B&W sound system absolutely rocks and on a steady cruise at regular motorway speeds in regular motorway traffic over 200 miles it returned 32.2mpg which I did not expect. I have of course averaged somewhere around 11mpg elsewhere as it is definitely not frugal when you open the taps! One pull 0-60 saw the predicted range drop from 225 miles to 45 miles
The positive attention it gets is really surprising - so many people who love McLaren through the F1 team or the road cars have come up to ask to take photos of/with it. Obviously it is hardly subtle being bright orange and I expected it'd get the odd bit of attention but not quite this much. Especially because it is a GT which isn't top of the list for most people when it comes to desirable McLarens.
Took it to a couple of events over the weekend, one at The Motorist near Leeds and the other to Cars and Coffee Cheshire. Both events were superbly run and well attended and I'd recommend both to anyone into cars.
One week update!
Had a few minor issues
My only other issue so far is that the angle/height/curve of the front plate clearly disagrees with some ANPR systems I regularly use. This is a minor gripe but extremely irritating as doing something as simple as getting your arm out the window to wave a fob/card/whatever at a regular-height post is actually quite hard. In previous low cars (and I've had a few!) you could simply pop the door open a bit to get some more lean angle but that is impossible with dihedral doors... First world problems and all that but still...
Everything else is mega - the performance is more than adequate, the interior is a nice place to be and to live with on a long journey, the B&W sound system absolutely rocks and on a steady cruise at regular motorway speeds in regular motorway traffic over 200 miles it returned 32.2mpg which I did not expect. I have of course averaged somewhere around 11mpg elsewhere as it is definitely not frugal when you open the taps! One pull 0-60 saw the predicted range drop from 225 miles to 45 miles
The positive attention it gets is really surprising - so many people who love McLaren through the F1 team or the road cars have come up to ask to take photos of/with it. Obviously it is hardly subtle being bright orange and I expected it'd get the odd bit of attention but not quite this much. Especially because it is a GT which isn't top of the list for most people when it comes to desirable McLarens.
Took it to a couple of events over the weekend, one at The Motorist near Leeds and the other to Cars and Coffee Cheshire. Both events were superbly run and well attended and I'd recommend both to anyone into cars.
Was good to see it in the flesh at Cars and Coffer, the colour really pops. Enjoy it once you've owned a mid-engine car its hard to go back to anything else for visibility factor alone.
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 21 Nov 2004
- Posts
- 46,286
One week update!
Had a few minor issues
Classic McLaren.
Depending on the distance / walls etc. from your keys to where the car sits it might be worth getting a blocker pouch/box/thing. They have a habit of staying 'awake' for much longer than other brands for some reason which might lead to the increased battery drain (car and fob!).
FWIW I had exactly the same tracker issues with my GT4 so Porsche also are slack
. Actually had to go back to the dealer for a day to get it working.
FWIW I had exactly the same tracker issues with my GT4 so Porsche also are slack
. Actually had to go back to the dealer for a day to get it working.