There are few markets more obstinate to penetration than the automotive industry. To compete with the giants of East and West — Korea and Japan on one side, Europe and the United States on the other — you need either a massive resource base to fund your start-up operations or a full nelson on regional sales, and preferably both, as is the case for government-run manufacturers such as China’s Zhongxing. So when a new, independent automaker of limited size crops up in a region already thick with competition, take-off is going to be a measured and gradual process. This has been the story for Britain-based McLaren Automotive, which has worked for two decades to extricate itself from the larger milieu and gain traction as a truly independent manufacturer. From its debut in 1989 to the release of its last road car, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, the high-performance automaker has always
