Chris Harris is fast forging himself a solid niche with his extended video reviews for Drive. At 10–15 minutes in length they are long enough to allow the reviewer to provide in-depth feedback, without being so long as to bore the audience.
In his latest edition Harris takes up the cause for McLaren and its much hyped, but often maligned, MP4-12C. Via his Pistonheads blog Harris introduces his thoughts by asking:
Has the media treated the MP4-12C too harshly? Maybe. The odd technical gremlin isn’t such a problem. Even the biggest names have bad days, but perhaps what has undone the McLaren more than even the punchy rhetoric is the sheer expectation of a new supercar made by McLaren. Did the prospect of the values that built the Technology Centre being transposed onto a street car propagate unrealistic expectations?
I think they did. Flip those group test results on their head and you’re left with a brand new car, from a company with zero experience in this sector, that ran the best car Ferrari has ever made very close. That is a mighty impressive result.