The McLaren philosophy - The pure perfection (Part 2)
On the move
Perhaps the best
running update that McLaren has made to its MP4-12C has been the addition of an
actual door release button
Perhaps the best running update that McLaren has made to its
MP4-12C has been the addition of an actual door release button. Opening the
dihedral doors on the early models required rubbing your fingers along some
magic spot on the door, and this no longer worked quite as well as it should
have on this particular car. Embarrassing if a crowd has assembled around the
McLaren and you can’t get the door open. But the key fob opens them as well, so
once you’ve slung yourself over the big sill of the MonoCell and slammed the
door shut, you can adjust to the driving environment. That high and wide sill
is the only thing you need to worry about as the driver posi is just so, with
the pedals set perfectly while the outward vision is superb for such a low
slung sports car. The engine starts without any big drama, just fires and
settles into a calm idle. Push the button to engage the gearbox, ease the
throttle on, and you’re away without any jolting or jerking. It’s all very
civilized. And refined. There are two switches to fiddle with which tailor the
handling and the powertrain, allowing you to tune them between Normal, Sport
and Track. There’s also a button to click between manual and auto modes for the
gearbox. Pretty simple, as it should be.
In N mode, the
ride is cushy, the auto smooth and the steering light
In N mode, the ride is cushy, the auto smooth and the
steering light. You could drive this car all day in traffic if you had too.
Even the auto function has a fairly civilized creep function. The 12.3m turning
circle, limited rear view (no camera either) and no real storage places are the
only grumbles. Though it has daunting performance specs, it’s a doddle to drive
calmly. Nice that the buttons, interfaces, and dials are all new and unique. No
parts bin stuff in here. This car has a bit of history with 28,000km on the
clock, but it’s holding up remarkably well. No squeaks, rattles or shabby trim
pieces falling off. It’s like it’s been made by the Japanese.
But what will she do?
Plenty. And all so effortlessly too. It’s the quickest car
we’ve strapped ourselves into on home soil. For hero acceleration, simply press
the launch button, floor the throttle and go. The big 305 cross section rubber
bites hard, and hardly any of those 600 Newton metres are wasted when the
clutch closes at 3500rpm. Our best on the day returned 3.18sec, not bad
considering the heat in the coarse chip road surface. It turned in fairly
consistent times too, the worst being a 3.6sec run. We shouldn’t be surprised
though, this car is so well engineered and configured. Reminds us of them
Porsches.
McLaren says it
provides total rigidity, enough that the body panels bear no load
That 3.8-litre V8 has a bit of character too. Though it can
sound like some sort of four-pot rally special below 4000rpm, it cracks into a
glorious V8 wail from that point on. Then there’s a further uptick at 6000rpm
as it revs hard to 8500rpm. Sadly there’s only a few times you’ll be doing so
on public roads. The throttle response is fairly instant too for a turbocharged
engine.
