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McLaren Video

VIDEO: Chris Harris has a go in the McLaren P1

McLaren P1

Chris Harris is the latest to be given some seat time in the McLaren P1. And we’re very thankful for that, too.

The clip goes for over 28 minutes and the serious business of driving fast doesn’t start until the end of the video. At the start, though, Harris and McLaren’s Chris Goodwin discuss some of the P1’s finer details. It’s much better taking in this conversation rather than poring over a press release.

Driving action begins on the streets of Abu Dhabi and it’s something of a novelty seeing the P1 mix it with Corollas and Land Cruisers. On track the action is as you’d expect. Plenty of sideways, plenty of speed and plenty of superlatives.

That said, we think Harris has described the sensation and enjoyment of driving the latest übercar better in the past than he has managed to do in the P1. Likewise, we were a little disappointed with Steve Sutcliffe’s summation of the P1.

Is there a pattern emerging here? Is the P1 so gobsmackingly out of this world that mere mortals are unable to describe the experience in a manner that gives the audience a reasonable representation of what just happened?

However, we are becoming more certain of one thing. In this world of five-second attention spans where the latest and greatest object of desire barely has the opportunity to create a legacy before it is thrown away, we worry that the greatness of the P1 won’t be given the merit it deserves.

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McLaren Video

VIDEO: Autocar has a go in the McLaren P1

McLaren P1

Here’s the video from Steve Sutcliffe’s review of the McLaren P1 we shared with you last week. We’d like to say it was worth the wait, but we’re afraid to say we were a little disappointed with this video review. Let us know what you think.

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McLaren

Is the McLaren P1 the new Ring-daddy after all?

McLaren P1

If you’ve been following our coverage of the McLaren P1 and its mystery Nürburgring lap time you’ll probably be over it just like we were.

And yet, thanks to Steve Sutcliffe’s review of the P1 for Autocar an unofficial ballpark time has emerged and breathed new life into the ongoing speculation. It’s been that way mostly because McLaren got cute and told us they went sub-7 minutes, but not how far below.

First, a reminder that the Porsche 918 has lapped the Ring in a documented 6 minutes 57 seconds. Clearly, McLaren will want to better that, and by some margin.

We’ve had speculation of a 7:04 lap time from the hybrid P1 and also 6:47. Well now we can add a new and much more impressive claim thanks to Autocar:

According to the rumour mill that is the internet the number of 6min 47sec keeps cropping up. But according to a McLaren insider I spoke to who knows rather more about the P1’s capabilities than any armchair expert ever could, the actual time is “a fair bit quicker than that.” As in six minutes 30 something. Either way, the P1 is, until Ferrari unleashes the LaFerrari at the Green Hell, king of the ‘Ring. For the time being.

Six minutes and thirty seconds?! That is very, very fast. As in, approaching all-time fastest ever around the fearsome Nordschleife!

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McLaren

Autocar has a go in the McLaren P1

McLaren P1 in hot weather testing

Steve Sutcliffe from Autocar has just filed his review of the fearsome McLaren P1. It’s fair to say he was impressed by the experience, albeit with an underwhelming start as these selected paragraphs show:

On the road, the first impressions are of a car that feels remarkably like a McLaren 12C. Which is either a good thing if you’ve never driven a 12C before or, initially, a mild anti-climax if you have.

…

The P1 is not ultimately a car to be driven slowly, however, even if its electric power source does provide it with a hit of throttle response that a straight turbocharged car couldn’t hope to replicate. Instead it’s about going fast – really, really fast – and this something it can do with varying degrees of madness depending which mode you choose to drive it in. Which probably sounds a little bit digital but which is, in practice, anything but.

…

And, best (or worst) of all depending on how brave you’re feeling, it will also allow big hits of opposite lock before the ESP or TC systems intervene. You feel a lot more on your own in the P1 than you do in, say, a Porsche 918 on a track. More than any other characterstic, perhaps, this is what separates their personalities.

Follow the source link for the full review.

UPDATE: A teaser video has been added below, the full clip later this week apparently. Chris Harris promises his review isn’t too far away either. Happy days!

[Source: Autocar]

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McLaren

McLaren to take rain check on wipers

McLaren P1

Those clever clogs in labcoats at McLaren have been busy developing windscreen that will make traditional wipers obsolete according to a report in The Sunday Times. Apparently the special screen will use high-frequency soundwaves to repel water, bugs and other debris.

Expect to see the technology on McLaren’s road cars in 2015, or thereabouts.

All very clever stuff, of course, but do the humble windscreen wipers really place such a demand on a car’s electrical systems to warrant such a measure?

[Source: The Verge]

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McLaren

There’s at least one McLaren P1 money can buy

McLaren P1 for sale in Dubai

It’s only a few weeks since we reported the McLaren P1 had sold out. With only 375 to be made that may not seem like a tough ask, but at a final buy price of around £1 million that means there’s a lot of spare cash floating around.

If you’re lucky enough to have plenty of notes in your pocket and thought you’d missed out on getting yourself a P1 you’re in luck! Go to Dubai, now, and you can put your name on this bright yellow P1 from Al Ain Class Motors.

Listed as having 0km on the clock and being “Limited edition 1 out of 375” this P1 is sure to gather some interest. Reported to have a sticker price of almost £1.3 million (AU$2.34 million) it’s something of an oddity to be up for sale so soon after rolling off the Woking production line.

Exclusive hypercars such as this often include a clause in the sale contract which prevents the original purchaser from selling the car so quickly.

The basic list price for a P1 is a shade over £865,000 but McLaren says almost three quarters of buyers add bespoke touches taking the sale price beyond seven figures.

Should the worst happen, and you arrive in Dubai and the P1 has a sold sticker on the windscreen there’s other exotic machinery to tempt you, such as an Aston Marin One-77, a Koenigsegg Agera or a Pagani Huayra.

[Source: Autocar]

 

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McLaren

McLaren’s official statement on P1 Nürburgring lap

McLaren P1

Following the video we brought you late last week McLaren has given us their official word about the P1 recording a sub-seven minute Nürburgring lap. Although, there’s still no definitive time given.

McLaren says the XP2R P1 prototype was driven from Woking to the Ring before posting its lap time, which works out to be an average speed in excess of 178km/h over the 20.8km circuit. Notably, when in the Race mode used to break the seven-minute barrier the car was lowered by a total of 50mm.

The footage of the P1 rocketing down in Fuchsröhre is some of the most dramatic Nürburgring film we’ve ever seen. Test driver Chris Goodwin explains the sensation: “I have only experienced acceleration like this before in a Formula 1 car. This downhill snaking section of the track is taken flat, using DRS, shifting gear all the way down to the base of the valley, and the compression that follows applies the maximum vertical g-forces to the car. The forces really load the tyres, chassis and wing, but it is taken with only a slight lift of the throttle.”

Goodwin rounds out his commentary by claiming: “Driving the McLaren P1 at this pace, on this circuit, is the most impressive driving experience I’ve ever had in any road or race McLaren, on any road or track in the world.”

When you consider Goodwin has full access to McLaren’s back catalogue of road and F1 cars he’s just being a show-off!

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McLaren

McLaren continues P1 Nürburgring tease

McLaren P1

McLaren has released a teaser video informing us the P1 has broken the 7-minute barrier around the Nordschleife. But they still haven’t put their neck on the line by declaring an exact time. The video itself is very well produced and should we ever get a full lap it looks like it will be one of the best Nürburgring videos we’re likely to see.

Now, back to the lap time. Rumours have been around for a couple of months that the P1 lapped the Ring in 6 minutes 47 seconds but it has never been confirmed. Facebook is the source of the latest suggestions that the P1 has usurped the Porsche 918’s 6:57 lap by 10 seconds while running street tyres. It’s also been suggested that McLaren ran some laps on slick tyres and with the grippier rubber the P1 lapped the Ring in 6 minutes 33 seconds.

The belief is McLaren isn’t likely to have the courage to put its balls on the line until Ferrari publishes a Nürburgring time for the LaFerrari. The theory being McLaren will launch another assault on the Green Hell should the LaFezza beat its time.

The Nordschleife is currently undergoing track maintenance during the winter months so we’re going to have to wait a few more months before Ferrari can get busy.

So, once again we’re left with a publicity shy McLaren lacking the guts to stand behind its product. Even this teaser video isn’t publicly listed! Clearly, the P1 is a rip snorting car which seems to manage the balance of brutality and finesse with extraordinary success.

[Source: Bridge to Gantry]

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McLaren

The McLaren P1 really sells out this time

McLaren P1

We don’t mean sells out in the sense that McLaren has loaned out its P1 hypercar to Big Ted for review purposes, or that it’s the subject of a fairy tale Nürburgring lap record, we mean all 375 examples of the 903hp hybrid have been sold.

Which just goes to show that McLaren’s marketing team knows a lot more about the car game than us. As if you needed any proof.

Buyers in all markets around the world, except Europe, had been keen to make fools of us early and they got busy signing cheques ages ago. But the Europeans had to make sure they still had a pay cheque coming in before they could commit to buying the very desirable P1. Which they have now done.

Well done McLaren and well done to the 375 buyers who got their name on an order form. Would any of you like to give us a drive?

[Source: Autocar]

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McLaren

McLaren’s marketing dept must smoke cones

Robert Hardman, Daily Mail journo

“Just press a button and KAPOW! At 217mph, it’s the nippiest road car in the world…”

The nippiest road car in the world! What is this shit?

That’s how Robert Hardman introduced the McLaren P1 to his Daily Mail readers. Yes, we’re asking the same question: WTF is Robert Hardman? And why on earth did McLaren pick him as one of the very lucky few to be given an early drive of the company’s latest hypercar?

Hardman’s specialty subject appears to be the Royal family. And from where we sit giving him the keys to the P1 is a right royal cock up by McLaren.

His article is written for people who would struggle to point out the difference between a wheel and a tyre and pretty much trivialises the P1 as some sort of gimmick rather than the masterstroke of engineering it should be aspiring to be labelled.

We get that a new audience is probably reading about a car they will have forgotten all about by the morning, but so what. Does McLaren really want or need Daily Mail readers to give a toss about the P1?

Add this to the bizarre handling of the P1’s Nürburgring secret-but-it’s-a-record-we-promise lap time and you have start asking what is in the water at the McLaren Technology Centre.

[Source: Mail Online]

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McLaren

McLaren P1 breaks Nürburgring record. Honest!

McLaren P1

Remember last month when we reported a rumour the McLaren P1 had lapped the Nürburgring in 6 minutes 47 seconds? Well, it’s true. We promise. And here’s the video and press statement from McLaren to prove it:

 

Ahh, you can’t see it either? Well that’s because after two highly visible appearances at the Ring with the P1 hypercar in full view of spy photographers and McLaren’s own film crew on site they’re giving us… nothing.

Evo magazine thought they were getting the scoop. Editor Nick Trott was invited along to the Nürburgring during McLaren’s last visit and was hoping to emblazon the cover of his latest issue with a beautiful set of numbers, sure to boost sales and egos alike. But that didn’t happen.

Now, of all times, McLaren has stepped on its high horse and is preaching that chasing new records at the Ring is dangerous. In his editorial for Evo, Nick Trott explains:

When we began negotiations with McLaren about joining the P1 test team at the Ring, it was expected that the ultimate lap time would be achieved and revealed in time for this issue. At the last minute, I got a text from McLaren that read: ‘I have a conclusion on the Ring question. And not sure if you’re going to like it.’ A few minutes later, I was on the phone to Woking.

During the conversation that followed, it was explained that (spoiler alert!) the P1’s lap time would never be revealed and that the official line was that McLaren ‘had achieved its objective of a sub-seven minute lap of the Nordschleife’. My first feeling was disappointment because I’m sure many of you will be expecting the time, and we can’t give it, but my second feeling was relief. Here’s why…

I couldn’t give a monkey’s about the cult of the Nordschleife lap time. Never have. The chase for a notable lap time has become a form of motorsport in itself, but a motorsport without a governing body, without appropriate safety measures, without independent adjudicators, and a motorsport that is governed by the ‘competitors’ themselves. The result is a pissing contest, a trivialising of the Ring’s history and a chase for lap times that puts lives at risk.

And for what? A marketing message? Well, this week you’re able to find out what two prominent supercar customers think of the ‘allure’ of the Nürburgring lap time and the (lack of) effect it has when signing a cheque for the best part of £1million.

Aww, isn’t that cute, McLaren’s gone all shy, despite all those alluring smiles and incessant teasing it turns out they don’t want really want to measure up and get their dick out with Porsche after all.

So, after Ron Dennis’ bold claim in Geneva this year that the P1 would break the 7-minute barrier around the Nordschleife and take all records with it, the only evidence we have are a few hollow words. Not bold, confident actions, just a few meek words. Even Porsche, who rarely posts videos to support its claimed lap times, felt we deserved to see the 918 tackle the Ring from go to woah.

Yep, we’re disappointed in McLaren too.

[Sources: Jalopnik, Pistonheads, Bridge to Gantry, McLaren life]

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McLaren

Rumour: McLaren P1 laps Nürburgring in 6:47

McLaren P1

As you know the McLaren P1 has been sighted at the Nürburgring recently. And earlier this week performance figures for the hybrid hypercar were confirmed, with one notable omission: it’s Nordschleife lap time.

A new spy video (see below) alleges the P1 has lapped the Nürburgring in 6 minutes 47 seconds. We’re not taking that as gospel until McLaren themselves make an official statement, but we do concede such a time from the 908hp petrol-electric weapon is feasible.

A 6:47 lap time would undercut the road-ready Porsche 918 by 10 seconds and matches the track-only Pagani Zonda R.

Watching the tail end of this video also gives some idea as to what an annoyance amateur spy photographers must be at times for manufacturers going about their daily work.