I’m
now hunkered low to the ground. I can see that vast wing in the rear-view
mirror. I’m in max-attack mode, in a sports racing car. Except I have rather
more power to play with than in any GT3 car, and I have active aerodynamics.
That big rear wing and little underbody flaps continually and magically change
angle to maximise grip. I feel magnetised to the tarmac.
Want
more? Fine, hit the IPAS button on the steering wheel – KERS in Formula 1 speak
– and all 179PS of electro-power is instantly unleashed, and the world’s
fastest road car on the track goes into afterburner hyper mode and fastest
becomes even faster. I can feel the kick.
Faster
again? Okay, engage the other maximum entertainment button on the steering
wheel – the DRS – and in the rear-view mirror I can see the big carbon wing
turn horizontal. To be honest, I didn’t feel much difference. You have to be going
270km/h+ to feel it, says chief test driver Chris Goodwin.
The car is
made from all sorts of exotic materials beneath its mostly carbonfibre outer
skin, but the key statistic that results from their use is a kerb weight of
just 1450kg
I
now need to rewind our tale to one day earlier. It’s raining and cool, British
weather in Bahrain. I’m about to drive the P1 for the first time, on the road.
The surface is covered in water (like British roads) and has a fine layer of
wet sand blown in from surrounding desert (unlike British roads). These are not
great conditions to drive a 916PS rear-drive car.
Project
director Paul Mackenzie is stoically sitting alongside. We drive, initially, in
the Normal mode (handling and powertrain), the suggested (and default)
programme for most road use. The ride comfort is good; the automatic gear
change (though you can swap to manual) is executive-car smooth. The seats are comfortable.
Low-speed driving is easy without any of the wearying roar and unyielding
firmness and askew seating of so many Italian supercars. Don’t push the accelerator
too far and you could be in a BMW 3 Series, except the P1 has a better driving
position.
The P1
boasts a two-seater carbon-fibre tub, much like that of a Le Mans prototype
racing car
We
try electric, engaged by pushing the E-mode button. It’s eerily quiet,
incongruous on a car with a twin-turbo V8 on board and cannon-sized exhausts.
Performance is now like a warm hatchback, 0-100km/h in about nine seconds. We swap
to Sport. I stab the throttle, a towering inferno of noise and power erupts
behind, the rear Pirellis break traction – 916PS is clearly too much for the
traction control – and we fishtail on the silt-strewn road. I briefly
contemplate the horror of being the first person to write off a P1.
Fortunately, we’re soon pointing straight and true and Paul Mackenzie is still
my friend.
In
many ways, the road capability amazes even more than the track excellence. Its
comfort, refinement and sheer ease of driving on the road is extraordinary. The
12C-derived, roll-bar-free, active suspension is partly responsible.
I
can’t imagine too many P1 owners using them as everyday transport tools, not at
$ 145,975 each. But this really is a car that can play Golf GTI in the city and
GT3 racer on the track.
The P1 is
not ultimately a car to be driven slowly
There’s
never been a car so fast, so thrilling, so deliciously rewarding to power and
manipulate around a track. There’s never been a car that offers such an
astonishing breadth of capabilities.
Just
as they did with the wonderful F1 road car, the men from McLaren have once
again redefined the supercar.
