New Book Review: McLaren The Cars 2020 edition by William Taylor

I’ve always rated Coterie Press’ and William Taylor’s “McLaren the Cars” highly and it’s included in my list of favourite F1 books to own or read. So with the release of the 3rd edition which now covers all McLaren cars up to 2019, – it was well and truly time to upgrade to the latest. Similar to the question of upgrading your smart phone, is the new version worth it?

You can read my original review post back in 2012 here – so rather than regurgitate my review comments, it will be easier if you read that review first and then I’ll highlight the main differences in the 2020 edition:

• The quality of Coterie Press books are always excellent – physically, the 2020 edition hardcover is similar to the earlier editions although the dust jacket design is graphite grey instead of the previous white (I prefer the old one) and the inside cover is the McLaren papaya orange (the bookmark ribbon is also orange too).
• Ron Dennis has since been replaced by Zak Brown who now pens the book’s foreword.
• Surprisingly, the page count is 300 which is actually 4 pages shorter than the 1st edition (I wonder why – cost reasons?). This raises the obvious question as to how the content of the additional 2012-2019 cars has been squeezed into less pages. This has been done by adjustments to the layout – text is now smaller font and many of the thumbnail photos in the 1st edition have been removed.
• Reference to the Mercedes SLR McLaren has completely disappeared.
• There is now only one Appendix – the old appendices 2, 3 & 4 which contained have been removed.

With all the deletions, what’s new?

• Chapter 6 is the new extension of post-2012 including all F1 race cars – MP4-24 through to last season’s MCL34 and McLaren roadcars & GT sportscars (+ Senna GTR racecar) with an intro written by Jenson Button.
• 2020 petrol electric hybrid Speedtail roadcar

Content-wise, there are many pages dedicated to newer model McLaren road & sportscars – so if you’re a fan of the GT racers, then you’ll like the 2020 edition.

Overall, it comes down to the new post-2012 content vs some previous photos being stripped out. I actually preferred the older layout with small thumbnail photos but I can see the benefit of the larger size formatted photos in the 2020 edition. I can’t help feel though the new edition would have been better if it keep all the old content but tacked on the new chapter 6 to make the new edition a 330+ page book instead.

Wow Factor/Money shot: The 2020 edition doesn’t offer any new wow factor but the inclusion of the various test cars is still one of the best features.

Suitable for: McLaren and F1 history fans

1st edition and 2020 edition side by side

Compare of pages of 1st edition vs 2020 edition – Photo layout and size changes

New Chapter 6

2019 McLaren MCL34 is included