The Badge on the New McLaren Predates the Company Wearing It

McLaren's newly rolled-out wordmark is not, in fact, new. The mark now appearing across the automaker's lineup existed before the company itself was founded, a wrinkle that matters more to students of the marque than to a driver glancing at a hood. McLaren is presenting the reissued badge as the formal opening of its next era of engineering, rather than a cosmetic refresh. For collectors who track this maker by provenance as closely as by horsepower, the move reads as a return to a name older than the firm, not an invention of a new one.

With reporting from Car and Driver.