McLaren is a British company that builds racing cars and very expensive sports cars. Their racing cars take part in Formula One, so people who follow races know the name even if they will never sit in one. On the street, a McLaren is a low, loud, shiny sports car that costs more than a house in many places. Saying someone “drives a McLaren” is often a way of saying they are very rich, or at least want to look it. You say a McLaren for one car, and McLaren for the team or the company. The word feels modern and a bit showy; it belongs to sport and to luxury, not to ordinary family cars. Though actually, the company is a name before it is a thing: it comes from one man, and then the cars and the team took the name with them.