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‘Where we’re going, we don’t need roads, but we do need racetracks…’

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Who knew that of all the parts laying around McLaren’s technology center, there’d be a flux capacitor handy?

A few things are coming back to McLaren this year for this year’s 2015 Formula 1 season. Honda is returning as its engine supplier and Former Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso returns to the team after a scandal-fueled separation from the team in 2008. These circumstances have surely inspired this Back to the Future style video where Alonso and teammate Jensen Button take a page from Doc Brown’s handbook, converting a McLaren 650S into a familiar-looking time machine.

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The video starts with Button skateboarding to McLaren’s tech center, where he encounters the silver 650S unloading from a transport truck. After uttering “Lewis? is that you?” (sounds like Button is already stuck in the past if the thinks Lewis Hamilton is showing up in a McLaren), Alonso urges him to climb in (don’t ask where he got schematics for a time machine, We’re sure they came from a legit source this time), whipping the tail of the 641 horsepower sports car via remote control.

Button incredulously discovers the 650S  has indeed been converted into a time machine at this point, and the two plot to where they will take the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 powered supercar.

McLaren 650S
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Button suggests they travel back to the 1988 Brazilian Gran Prix, where F1 legend Ayrton Senna took his Honda-powered McLaren from 21st place to second after an amazing display of driver talent. Although he was disqualified after a disallowed vehicle change, it still remains an amazing moment in McLaren and Honda’s history together.

Alonso suggests instead they look ahead to the near future, leaping to this year’s Melbourne Gran Prix that will kick off the season, and the two take off. You’d think the sports car with its 3-second 0 to 60 time would get up to 88 miles per hour rather quicker than demonstrated in the video, but maybe the new Mr. Fusion system is heavier than we realize.

It’s a fun video that’s designed to get us excited for what McLaren has in store for us this season. Still, If we had a supercar time machine, we’d be more inclined to see some of racing history first before hopping forward a couple of months.

Alexander Kalogianni
Former Automotive Editor
Alex K is an automotive writer based in New York. When not at his keyboard or behind the wheel of a car, Alex spends a lot of…
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