A look inside McLaren's bespoke dept

So there might be no B.A. Baracus on the timesheet, but they call it ‘McLaren Special Operations' - a name that really should involve the wearing of branded team balaclavas and tea orders that self-destruct after you've read them. But, in reality, MSO is a team of 50 engineers and designers whose only purpose in life is to make your McLaren unique. As you can imagine, this is an outfit that doesn't do things by halves.

Launched officially at last year's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in the US, MSO has actually existed - in part at least - since the late Nineties under the slightly more matter-of-fact tag of ‘Customer Care', dealing with the needs of current F1 and SLR owners. After all, dropping an F1 into Kwik-Fit for an MoT test would likely cause a furrowed brow for Terry the tyre-fitter. But the department also dealt with upgrades and various bits of bespokery, and with the advent of the MP4-12C roadcar, a new, wider-reaching branch of McLaren Automotive was born.