The new McLaren MP 4-12C is the first of the new generation of supercars from the same racing team that has been successful 12 drivers Championships and 8 Constructors Championships. The McLaren MP 4-12C is not the racing team’s first road-going vehicle, this was the McLaren F1 GTR in the 1990s, and was the world's fastest production vehicle for over 10 years. In its race car form it was the winner and group winner of the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1995, and you might think this was the purpose for developing the car but it was built to be the ultimate road car not a race car. McLaren's next road-going motor was the Mercedes McLaren SLR which was built in partnership with Mercedes and was a GT Supercar. As Mercedes had demanded on adding lots of electronic equipment and a big heavy engine with a heavy automatic gearbox, it was initially hard to call this a supercar. This was because all this extra weight made the motor very bulky, which made the motor slow round corners but with the very powerful engine it could reach a top speed of 208 mph down the straights, which put it solidly in the supercar class.

With these previous road-going motorcars McLaren have had help from its partners in developing some of the smaller aspects of the motorcars, for instance on McLaren F1 GTR the main concern regarding wiper blades was to make sure they did not create any unnecessary drag, which would depress the motorcars top speed, and this is why they chose a flat wiper blades. This is one of the reasons why the McLaren F1 GTR was the fastest production motor for such a long time. The only reason they added any wiper blades to the McLaren F1 GTR was it was necessary to remove muck from the windscreen. The windscreen had a special coating that made precipitation flow from it, keeping it clear when in motion, so it was not important if the wiper blades lifted at speed. When McLaren design the Mercedes McLaren SLR they turned to their partner's Mercedes when it came to developing small things like wiper blades as they have experience of these, and also replacement wiper blades had to be available from Mercedes dealers. McLaren also let Mercedes design some of the larger parts of the motor, like the large and very powerful supercharged engine and also the automatic gearbox.

McLaren and Mercedes announced an end to their partnership in 2009, although McLaren will continue to use Mercedes F1 engines for few years to come in its F1 car. This meant that when McLaren began designing the MP 4-12C they had no partner to help them, although in a team with the experience of McLaren this will not be hard. The McLaren MP 4-12C has flat wiper blades similar to the ones used in the McLaren F1 GTR, although the replacement wiper blades are available off the shelf from almost all good motor parts suppliers. Also, with the exception of the tyres you will not find any other standard parts on the McLaren MP4-12C, as they have all been design and produced by McLaren automotive. This is because everything on the MP4-12C is custom-built by McLaren for the car, even the 3.8 L V8 twin turbo engine is built by Mercedes in its new engine development department. McLaren has borrowed a lot of its F1 technology in building this car, it has a seven speed twin clutch gearbox just like the F1 car, but this one has “Pre-cog” this which allows the driver to preselect the next sprocket by half pulling the paddle shifter, which allows for much quiter gear changes. The McLaren MP4-12C also has “brake steer” that was first seen on the McLaren F1 cars before it was quickly banned, this system almost cuts out any understeer when cornering at high speeds.