As a designer, you're naturally curious. To stay creative I try not to work on my car projects on the weekends, I'd rather go somewhere else completely different to recharge the batteries. I read anything — stuff I'm not even interested in, like classical music reviews, ballet reviews, picking magazines out of the…

In my design book, form equals function. If something looks right it is right, and if something is right it looks right. Neither one has priority over the other.

Somebody had to do it. It's a positive challenge. We didn't set out to make the successor to the F1, as much as a a spiritual successor to it. Because technology has moved forward so much, the P1 had to reflect that and had be different than the F1. We've built a car that has its own identity and represents the state…

I think that the new generation Mini that I started there was to convince the world that BMW could successfully carry the Mini concept forward. But like anything, either you evolve or die, and there's always a limited market for a single model. And the more models they can produce, the wider audience they can attract.…

You're assuming we haven't already done one ; )

Thanks guys for chatting. Wish I could hang out longer. Design beckons. See you all somewhere soon.

Be a rebel, but be a nice rebel. Never stop pushing. Be different and innovate. Don't worry so much about upsetting people. Rock the status quo.

I'm moving to a new house, and in the process of designing my ultimate man cave. I've got a chrome Rhinoceros head on the wall. I've got my 12-point Scottish red deer antlers above my 70-bottle single-malt whiskey collection, next to my 100-cigar humidor. It's going to have a glass ceiling and glass wall. It's got 3D…

She's still as sexy as ever, and she's still my only one. I can't get enough of her. PM me for photos ; )

Both.

Virtually?

That is actually old technology for us. We're improving that app considerably so you can actually dive into the car, and we do use an advanced version of that technology within the design studio, along with our power wall to aid our visualization throughout the design development process.

We wanted the headlight to be as low as possible, so the bulge is necessary to clear the heat field of the xenon lamp so the lens won't melt. You could make the whole lens bulge out as a single shape, which would look bugeyed, or you could shrinkwrap the lens and create a localized bulge. And anyway, because it's…

I don't really know yet.

I think the coolest design brief I could get is to design the cars for a futuristic scifi film, where current rules don't apply and I could be free to be an artist and designer not having to conform to reality.

Favorite car I've done (independent of McLaren, of course) would be the Maserati MC12, simply because the intent was to design a racecar for the road — much like the P1. The one I wished I would have designed is the Series 1 Jaguar E Type, simply because it still gives me goosebumps ever time I see one.

The overriding factor at McLaren is the ride and driving feel of the car, the aesthetic aspects at a racecar company will never be the priority. Don't ever expect to see a car from McLaren that's designed to be just beautiful. Obviously the car has to be attractive, because we're as customer driven as any other…

It removed the passenger seat and moved the driver's seat to the middle.

Thanks. The P1 is actually the least compromised project I've ever witnessed. Yes, we started with the 12C's carbon tub, but that's only because it's so good as it is. And being that we needed a snorkel intake, it pushed us in the direction of creating the monocell, which additionally worked as a crash structure for…

My father only accepted the best I could do at anything, and I wasn't as good enough at motocross racing to satisfy him, even though I was in world championships. I was top ten, but I never won. He was willing to back me if I wanted to study, but I had to be successful at that. I was one of a finishing class of six…