The Son of F1 is here, and it’s ready
to recalibrate your idea of just how fast a road car can go. Strap in…
“As beautiful or as fast as they are, most
of these cars often don’t feel as good on a circuit as you’d expect them to,”
Jenson Button, serial supercar owner, told TopGear a while ago. Well, if
anything’s going to change his mind, it’ll be his employer’s new beast, the P1.
As the info drip feed continues, the breaking news is that its power output is
confirmed at “around 900bhp”, with roughly 700 coming from an ‘enhanced’
version of the existing 3.8-litre twin turbo engine (there are no common parts,
and the block has a unique casting), and the rest from an electric motor.
McLaren is still squeezing energy out of the P1, so there might be even more to
come, but 900bhp puts it in one hell of a ball park. It also produces 664
torques, and the curve is apparently impressively steep to begin with and then
fabulously flat. So, it’s not just massively powerful, but also phenomenally
tractable with minimal lag. No performance figures were available as TG
went to press, but the P1 is rumored to have turned in a sub-7min lap of the
Nordschleife, an astonishing, possibly even bewildering achievement for a road
car.
McLaren
also says that the P1 can run in electric mode only, with the range of 10km
Less immediately exciting but still
thrilling in its own way are the P1’s CO2 numbers: it emits less
than 200g/km. McLaren also says that the P1 can run in electric mode only, with
the range of 10km (Ferrari rejected this possibility as ‘uncharacteristic’,
interestingly). On top of everything else, then, it’s the ultimate milk float,
with the environmental footprint of a family hatch.
P1
cabin is a world away from the Pagani Huayra’s extravagances
McLaren has very publicly exempted itself
from the mega horsepower contest that has been going on, and claims that its
long-awaited F1 road-car successor is all about delivering the ‘best driver’s
car on the road and track’. We already know its wildly aerodynamic shape helps
generate 600kg of down force at a speed ‘well below vmax’ and it also use a
version of F1’s drag reduction system, available to the driver via a steering
wheel-mounted button. In full race mode, the P1 drops 50mm, and the enormous
rear wing extends upwards 300mm.
McLaren
has very publicly exempted itself from the mega horsepower contest
Button arrived at the launch of this year’s
F1 contender in the P1, though he was quick to admit that piloting it round the
lake at the front of the company’s HQ was as much as he’d managed to do in it
so far, so no major down force knowledge there. “I’d certainly like to get more
involved,” he admitted, nodding over his shoulder to the camouflaged car behind
him, as it wafted silently away, dodging Woking Council health and safety
diktats by emitting precisely no nasty by-products whatsoever. “Did you know
that the squiggles all over its bodywork are actually racing circuits?” he
added.
Carbon fiber obviously figures extensively.
McLaren calls the P1’s chassis a MonoCage, as opposed to the 12C’s MonoCell
(the smaller car was engineered from the start to be a Spider as well as a Coupe),
and claims its Monocoque is the lightest of any road car. It uses a variety of
different fibers, including some that are twice as stiff as steel, and others
that offer more than five times the structural integrity of top quality
titanium. With Ferrari claiming some of the composites in its new Hypercar are
the same grade as the stuff the nuclear industry uses to make the centrifuges
that enrich uranium, we clearly need boffins to officiate this one.
Configurable
digital dash displays ‘race data’. Ooh
Some of the really big strides have been
taken in the batteries that feed the P1’s electric motor. Usually heavy and
plagued by efficiency issues, the P1’s lithium-ion battery pack is a
lightweight set-up that offers the greatest power density of anything yet used
in a road car. It’s also been configured to maximize power over energy storage,
and the driver can trigger its release by pressing the KERS button on the
steering wheel. McLaren won’t confirm the duration of this boost, but does say
that the system harvests energy from the engine off-throttle, but not,
crucially, during braking.
Some
of the really big strides have been taken in the batteries that feed the P1’s
electric motor.
As you can see from these newly released
images, the P1’s cabin is ruthlessly driver-focused and minimalist to the point
of being sparse. The dash, headlining, doors, rocker switches and center
console are all made of carbon fiber, and, by skimping on the top layer of
resin, McLaren has shaved off another 1.5kg. There is no sound deadening, and
carpet is optional, but there is satnav and a suitably potent audio system. The
seats have ultra-skinny carbon shells are mounted on lightweight brackets; they
weigh just 10.5kg each. Unlike the Ferrari, whose seats are molded into the
tub, the P1’s move fore and aft, and can be tilted back slightly to better
accommodate race helmets. Both McLaren and Ferrari claim fighter-jet
inspiration, with canopy-style cabins, deep windscreens and compact dimensions.
These are serious cars for serious times.
Battle is most definitely joined.
