The first prototype carbon fiber MonoCell, the tub that forms the main structure of McLaren’s cars, has been shipped from the company’s new £50-million (US$66-million) innovation and production center in Yorkshire to the McLaren Production center (MPC) in Woking, Surrey.

Codenamed ‘PLT-MCTC - 01’—which stands for ‘Prototype Lightweight Tub, McLaren Composites Technology center - 01’—the tub completed its 175-mile journey to the British sportscars and supercar maker’s global headquarters from the McLaren Composites Technology center (MCTC). There it will be involved with stringent crash testing duties.

First prototype carbon fibre chassis delivered from the MCTC.

The MCTC was opened in Yorkshire last year by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge alongside HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, as part of McLaren’s ambitious plans to increase the rate of innovation of its lightweight carbon fiber chassis that are at the heart of all its cars.

This will help the firm’s designers and engineers to find further weight savings as the company develops its next generation of vehicles as part of its Track25 business plan.

McLaren aims to win the automotive race to lightweight which will become ever more important as cars move towards hybrid powertrains which are generally heavier than their traditional gasoline counterparts. All McLaren’s sportscars and supercars will be hybrid by 2024.

The MCTC currently employs around 60 people which will rise to more than 200 when full production commences in 2020.

Carbon fiber has long been part of McLaren’s toolkit, the company having first introduced the material into Formula 1 in the early 1980s. Given the material’s lightweight and strength characteristics, it hasn’t produced a road car without it since.