There's something about McLaren supercar projects that ends with people running in every which direction. Following the benchmark McLaren F1 supercar, some stayed with the Formula One team; Gordon Murray went his own way; others went on to work on the Caparo T1; while another is developing his own supercar. Likewise, the engineers from the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren project have headed off to do their own things. Case in point: Carbonyte, the automotive composites specialist that developed the SLR's chassis.

With the SLR on its way out, Carbonyte went on to annoy Ferrari by stretching a 360 Modena. Then the company came out with the stretched Smart ForTwo that looks like a Red Bull can. According to reports, the firm is now preparing to apply its high-tech, lightweight HotFusion Composite Manufacturing Process to a whole slew of supercars. First due to face the guillotine is a Lamborghini Murcielago commissioned by the same buyer who bought the stretched Ferrari 360. This time around, the Lambo is set to incorporate an additional rear axle for visual effect. Evidently not content to keep a low profile, Carbonyte is also working on plans for stretched versions of the two fastest seven-figure hyper-exotic supercars known to man: the Koenigsegg CCX and the Bugatti Veyron. We're a bit torn here: one part of us thinks Carbonyte ought to be stopped before they're allowed to hack apart any more exotics, while the other half is curious just to see them do it. Pioneers or butchers? Comment away...

[Source: Gizmag]

Carbonyte to stretch Lambo, Koenigsegg and Veyron into limos originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.