Yahoo Finance McLaren GT Being Recalled for Hoods That Can Fly Open Unexpectedly
McLaren is recalling its grand-touring-focused supercar, the McLaren GT, after reports of the hood unexpectedly opening while in the car is in motion, filings with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration show.
Introduced in 2020, the McLaren GT was the British brand's attempt at creating a more comfortable driving experience without losing the razor-sharp dynamics that help define the brand. However, a few of its owners have of their lives as the hood is liable to pop open while driving, prompting the company to recall around 1012 units built between 2020 and 2023.
A redundancy in the hood fastening system of the McLaren GT is to blame. In the GT, the hood can be opened in two different ways: either via an electronic release inside the cabin or using a manual release cable. While using the electronic method of opening the hood unlatches a primary and secondary hook, the manual release cable bypasses the two-step process and unhooks both of them at once. However, the addition of this safety redundancy is actually what causes the hoods to fail so spectacularly.
"The manual release cable of the bonnet latch may have excessive tension which potentially may cause the latch to open, causing an unexpected opening of the bonnet," filings with NHTSA explained.
McLaren's official recall paperwork states that an opening hood is likely to strike the windshield and completely block the driver's view. The recall explains that nearly a dozen McLaren GT owners have experienced this issue, with the first instance happening in June 2020. Since then, a trickle of the hood opening events have been reported, with McLaren implementing design changes in May 2021 and May 2023 to no apparent avail. There have been no reported injuries or crashes caused by this issue. McLaren also says that the hood will stay attached even if it does fly up.
The remedy to the problem is fairly simple: the hood latches will be replaced by one with a different design, at no cost to the owners. McLaren says the introduction of a loop cable release method is the primary solution, although a longer cable helps reduce tension, too. This part is already being used in other McLarens, meaning the timeline for repairs shouldn't be all that bad, especially considering the small number of vehicles affected.
"McLaren takes safety and quality extremely seriously and in accordance with this, and in an abundance of caution, has chosen to launch a safety recall to replace the bonnet (hood) latch on certain McLaren GTs, with a latch of a different design," a spokesperson for McLaren said in a statement to Road & Track.
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