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Gautam Sharma17 Feb 2014
REVIEW

McLaren P1 2014 Review

Motoring.com.au is one of the few media outlets in the world to have experienced the physics-defying capabilities of the McLaren P1...

McLaren P1

First ride
Yas Marina Circuit, UAE

“God gave me an okay mind, but an ass that can feel everything in the car.” This epic quote was allegedly uttered by three-time Formula One world champ Niki Lauda, and subsequently made famous in the James Hunt biopic, Rush, which released to critical acclaim last year.

The wily Austrian ace’s cheeky yet insightful quip comes to mind at this moment because I’m about to strap into McLaren’s outlandish-looking P1 – the ultimate embodiment of all the engineering and design know-how at the disposal of the celebrated British supercar specialist and Formula One luminary.

The only catch is that the seat I’ll be strapping into isn’t the one with the steering wheel and pedals in front of it. Alas, for now I’ll only be riding shotgun with one of McLaren’s factory test drivers, Duncan Tappy, so whatever feedback I glean today will have to be solely through the seat of my pants... and, of course, my eyes and ears.

The 350km/h P1 is the fastest, most tech-laden offering to date to roll out of McLaren’s Woking factory, making its lesser MP4-12C sibling appear almost prehistoric by comparison, and even the hallowed 1990s F1 seems a little pedestrian when stacked up against the latest cutting-edge flagship.

Squatting menacingly in pitlane, the black Mac is ostensibly more NASA space projectile than hypercar, with an assortment of scoops and air intakes complemented by a razor-sharp front splitter and side skirts, not to mention a rear wing that could serve as an ironing board if it weren’t for its elaborately curved contours. It looks more Darth Vader than the Prince of Darkness himself.

The P1 was first revealed in concept form at the 2012 Paris motor show – I was there – and the production version surfaced at last year’s Geneva motor show. A banana-yellow example also starred at last November's Dubai motor show, but the car I’m about to have my organs compressed in is a pre-production prototype. It’s done a lot of hard miles, many of these on frozen lakes and a fair few during hot-weather testing, and it shows. The car isn’t exactly pristine but, crucially, the vital bits are all in order.

McLaren’s minders are being understandably protective of the P1 (a $US1.4m-plus price tag and a build run of just 375 units has that effect), and the halo car has been made accessible to only a select group of motoring hacks around the globe. So, as disappointed as I am to not be driving the thing today, I’m consoled by the fact that I’m one of the very few who will at least get to feel and hear the P1 unleash the demon within as Tappy wrings its neck around Yas Marina Circuit’s 2.36km Southern Loop, which comprises 12 tight, technical corners and a long straight where Formula One cars touch over 310km/h.

While on the subject of numbers, I’ll throw a few more out there for the sake of perspective. The P1 slingshots from standstill to 100km/h in 2.8sec, while the 200 and 300-kay marks are dispatched in 6.8sec and 16.5sec respectively. Whichever way you slice it, that’s ballistic.

The McLaren comfortably eclipses its Porsche 918 Spyder arch rival for straight-line bragging rights and snaps at the heels of the significantly pricier Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.

The P1 has also lapped the daunting 20.8km Nürburgring Nordschleiefe (aka ‘The Green Hell’) in less than seven minutes – admittedly a feat the Porsche 918 Spyder has also accomplished – so it has all the right credentials for a benchmark-setting hypercar.

All this is well and good, but how is the Mac’s formidable firepower unleashed? Is it with the anodyne efficiency of a Bugatti Veyron, or with enough shock-and-awe violence to make even a Lamborghini Aventador or Ferrari F12 feel like a limp-wristed sissy?

Having wriggled through the narrow aperture between the P1’s wide side sill and dihedral door, I’m harnessed into the seat by one of the Mac minders, and a quick debrief follows on the different driving modes by Tappy, who also races a 12C in the Blancpain Endurance Series, so he clearly knows what he’s doing.

The lanky pilot opts to leave the powertrain in Track mode for sharp throttle response and quick gearshifts, but the plan is to work our way through the different handling modes to get a feel for how the suspension gets progressively more focused in Sport, Track and Race modes.

Cruising out of pitlane with the suspension in Normal mode, the P1 seems relatively civilised, and my teeth fillings don’t threaten to fall out even when Tappy lets the car roll out over the ribbed kerbs at the Yas circuit. Visibility isn’t too bad and the dual-clutch transmission slurs through the ratios seamlessly.

Tappy starts out sedately, but opens the taps once we loop back around onto the long back straight. With the foot buried and the tacho needle racing around the dial, the hybrid powertrain’s vacuum-cleaner soundtrack at low revs makes way for a hard-edged growl, with a healthy dose of wastegate whoosh and turbo whistle adding aural accompaniment.

The sound is distinctive, but the spine-compressing acceleration that goes with it seems almost unfathomable for a conveyance that could effortlessly potter around in the peak-hour gridlock, or be used to nip down to the shops for a litre of milk and a loaf of bread.

The mighty Akebono brakes are no less impressive, quickly and effortlessly wiping off the best part of 190 kays – from 240+km/h down to about 60km/h for the tight left-right sequence at the end of the back straight. The active rear wing also plays a role here, as its pitch changes to serve as an airbrake when the stoppers are stomped on.

Tappy is obviously a highly capable steerer, but even from the passenger seat I can sense the P1 is a well-behaved animal. The fact it corners flat and hard is no surprise (up to 600kg of aero-induced downforce at 260km/h no doubt helps), but the firmly planted McLaren remains so composed and bite-free even when the limpet-like limits of adhesion are exceeded that it seems the type of car that flatters even moderately competent drivers, rather than intimidating them – something that brutes such as the Lamborghini Murcielago SV670 were capable of doing.

The accessibility of the performance is equally outstanding, with the IPAS (Instant Power Assist System – McLaren-speak for an F1-style KERS electric power unit) kicking in an instant 131kW and 260Nm to supplement the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8’s already formidable 543kW/719Nm outputs. The enormous grunt is discernible even from where I sit, as the P1 rockets toward the horizon the instant Tappy nails the throttle.

Does it all feel excessively violent? No, it’s more a sensation of being propelled by the world’s largest elastic band, rather than being belted in the spine with a sledgehammer. The performance is delivered with potency and urgency, but it’s certainly not as dramatic as a Lambo Aventador, which titillates and batters the psyche in equal measure. The P1 is clearly a much more cerebral hypercar.

Naturally, I’d like to glean all of this first-hand, actually steering and pedalling the McLaren flagship, rather than just registering it all passively while videoing the action with my iPhone.

For now, though, the hot-lappery has come to an end, and the brief blast has merely done enough to whet the appetite for what would be a once-in-a-generation three-car shootout between the P1, Porsche 918 and imminent Ferrari LaFerrari.

If only the British/German/Italian manufacturers would make the trio available to us, we’d be more than happy to oblige...

2014 McLaren P1 pricing and specifications:
Price: TBA
Engine: 3.8-litre V8 turbo-petrol
Output: 543kW/719Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 8.3L/100km
CO2: 194g/km
Safety Rating: TBA

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Written byGautam Sharma
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