That’s what P1 stands for, and it says
plenty about McLaren that its new hyper car is named after first place. All 375
of them are sold, so few will drive one. But, today, we do.
Bahrain Grand Prix circuit, the pit
lane, a cool but sunny Sunday and I’m about to go faster than a Formula 1 car.
The McLaren P1, in a strange but striking
black paint job that changes to purple when the sun is out, has been
transformed into Race mode. I know because I pushed the little Race button on
the bottom of the non-lacquered carbon centre console and watched on the dash display
as the car magically lowered (by 50 mm) and the giant rear wing extended (by
300 mm). I’m now hugging the tarmac, bum snug in the carbon-framed Alcantara-trimmed
race seat. I’m eye-to-eye with the Armco guardrail, eye-to-kneecap with a
mechanic who stands nearby.
The McLaren P1 is the latest super car
from McLaren but it’s not like any other McLaren, the P1 is a petrol-electric
supercar and boy is it fast
I push the ‘Launch’ button alongside
the ‘Race’ button. Then stab the brake pedal hard. It’s instinctive to push the
brakes hard, as though it’s necessary to keep the beast from bolting forward.
In fact, a soft but firm touch will suffice. Then I push the accelerator pedal
as far as it goes and the twin-turbo V8, barely a foot or so behind my spine, its
power boosted by a silent electric motor, screams and growls and, thank god, I’m
wearing a helmet to mute the thunder going on behind.
The bar-graph tachometer comes alive.
A little dash display sign comes up to say ‘launch control ready to go’, and
the brakes are released. And…
Tony Bennett may have left his heart
in San Francisco; I left my innards and my previous comprehension of supercar performance
back in the pit lane of the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain.
The P1 has a 3.8 litre
twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine and electric motors, together they generate
a massive 903bhp
We blast forward as though I’ve just
hooked a lift with an F-16 fighter jet flying low overhead (the Bahrain Air
Show is being held next door). We bolt forward with just a tiny chirrup of rear
wheel spin from the big Pirellis. We catapult forward, straight and true,
propelled by 737 PS of V8 twin-turbo power, supplemented by 179 PS of electric motor
muscle (grand total 916PS). The g forces make my brain scream, my tummy turn,
my eyes ache. I momentarily feel very sick. My right foot wants instinctively
to lift off the throttle for it is in shock. Like the rest of me.
Next time I look at the fascia we are
doing 160 km/hr (in about five seconds, although I wasn’t timing), and we slow,
momentarily, to do a little left-right jig out on to the main straight. A
Formula 1 car will never go this fast in the pit lane. They’re limited to 80
km/hr. We’re faster than an F1 car! Wimps.
The bald figures tell me the P1 will
go from 0 to 100 km/hr in less than three seconds, 0-200 km/hr in less than
seven seconds and 0-300 km/hr in less than 17 seconds. I can assure you it
feels every bit that fast. Add the speed with which it can lap a racing
circuit, it rewrites everything we know about supercars. Just as the McLaren F1
did 20 years before.
Rear wing of the P1 can extend up to
300mm, helping create 600 kg of down force
On the track, the P1 is astonishing.
When first I venture out on the circuit – well before our pit-lane
launch-controlled getaway – McLaren test driver and racer Duncan Tappy is
bravely alongside. He suggests we start our test in Normal handling mode but
with the powertrain set to Track. Now, the P1 has almost as many programmes as
Sky TV, so there’s a lot to choose, all selected by various rotary controls,
buttons and switches. Little wonder all 375 P1 owners will get tuition on how
to drive their new chargers.
