Ignite Game Technologies, the online gaming company focused on building a new form of auto racing game — Simraceway (http://simraceway.com/) — today announced it has reached a deal with the McLaren Group to create high-detail virtual models of every car the legendary automotive company has ever created.

This partnership breaks new ground for the videogames industry, representing the first time McLaren has licensed its entire catalogue of F1, Can-Am, sports and road cars for use in a game. It also signals the gaming debuts of some of the brand’s greatest cars.

Included in this glittering line-up is the co-star of the hit movie Senna, the iconic 800hp, turbocharged MP4/4 F1 car that was driven into the history books by the legendary Ayrton Senna and his teammate Alain Prost. The MP4/4 is still the most successful car in Formula One history, having won 15 of the 16 races it entered in the 1988 season, capturing the same number of pole positions and leading no less than 1003 of the 1031 laps raced that season.

The deal also gives Simraceway users access to every other F1 car McLaren has produced, including the 1974 and 1976 cars made famous by Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt respectively and of course the 2011 car, the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-26, currently being driven by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. All 36 F1 cars, with the exception of the MP4-26, will be exclusive to Simraceway.

Away from the track, McLaren’s renowned range of road cars will also be available to drive, including the record-breaking McLaren F1 and the brand new carbon chassis-based MP4-12C, along with its racing variant, the MP4-12C GT3 that will feature in the 2012 season of the FIA GT3 European Championship.

In total, the deal brings all 60 McLarens to the Simraceway environment with a number being available when the game launches in the fall 2011. The rest will follow during 2012 as Ignite completes its “simulation library” of the brand’s glorious history.

“We’re equal parts proud and humbled that McLaren has chosen Simraceway to become the largest licensor of its vehicles and a virtual custodian of its rich racing heritage,” said Ignite CEO Jonathan Haswell. “Creating a playable library of McLaren’s complete line of celebrated race and road cars is a major step forward in our aim of pushing the racing game beyond the limits that have previously defined the genre.”

“In Simraceway we’re creating a living, constantly evolving, racing world that gives gamers access to authentic virtual models of the most powerful, beautiful and iconic machines on the planet. To achieve this we’re developing a lot of new and highly-innovative technologies, including simulation-grade vehicle physics and a proprietary skill quantification engine, so it feels appropriate to be associated with McLaren, a brand synonymous with innovation in motorsport.”

“Choosing Simraceway as our licensor for all 60 McLarens makes perfect sense,” said Jonathan Neale, Managing Director of McLaren Racing.  “We’re highly impressed with their gaming products, innovative technology and the drive of their people. We are very optimistic that this will represent the start of a successful co-operation between the two companies, and we look forward to seeing our rich and beloved heritage brought to life in the virtual world.”

About Ignite Game Technologies

Ignite Game Technologies is a San Francisco-based online gaming company focused on building a new form of auto racing game. It was founded in 2008 by skill-quantification experts Jonathan Haswell and James Synge, and plans to introduce Simraceway, its first title, in the fall of 2011. The company counts four-time IndyCar Series winner Dario Franchitti among its physics development team and benefited greatly from the expertise of double Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon before his death in October 2011.  It also has the distintion of  being able to leverage a permanent real-world racing facility – the Simraceway Performance Driving Center, based at Infineon Raceway, Sonoma – for R&D. To date the company has raised $12.2 million.

About Simraceway

Simraceway will offer live, person-to-person racing, utilizing highly-accurate, simulation-grade driving physics and proprietary middleware for player skill quantification in order to match racers by skill level. It will leverage a client-server model similar to those on popular online games such as World of Warcraft™ and will feature current and historic licensed content from a variety of auto and racing brands including Bentley™, Bugatti™, Mitsubishi™ and Saleen™. Its continually-evolving racing environment will contain street, fantasy and real-world tracks, many of which will be laser scanned for millimeter accuracy.

About McLaren Group

New Zealand racing driver Bruce McLaren founded the McLaren team in 1963. It entered its first Formula 1 race in 1966 and won its first Grand Prix at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium in 1968. More than 40 years and 174 Grand Prix victories later, McLaren is still renowned as one of the sport’s most successful competitors and as one of the world’s most illustrious high-technology brands.

The McLaren Group has grown to encompass much more than just racing. It now houses a cutting-edge electronics division that not only services the entire Formula 1 grid but also many racing series across the globe. McLaren Applied Technologies creates cutting-edge solutions for modern industry, while McLaren Automotive (previously McLaren Cars) not only produced the 1990s most iconic high-performance sports car, the legendary McLaren F1, and the unique Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, but is also now building its own high-performance sports car – the brand-new McLaren MP4-12C.

After a successful 2010 campaign in Formula 1 (five Grand Prix victories; second in the Constructors’ World Championship), Vodafone McLaren Mercedes continues with the proven double World Champion line-up of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button for 2011.