We have already raved about the Porsche 918 Spyder, and all indications suggest we'll be moved to dispense flowery Italian prose about the upcoming Ferrari LaFerrari (even if the name does sound like a skip on a 45-rpm record). In between these two hypercars comes this British mind-boggle better known as the McLaren P1
As a pure driver's exoticar, the P1 outshines the Porsche in dynamics and nimbleness, while the 918 engineers the miracle of potentially exceptional mileage combined with face-flattening speed that equals the Big Mac. Both cost around $1 million ($845,000 for the 918, $1.15 million for the P1 – at this level, what's a few hundred-thousand dollars among friends?), and both get most normal humans as close to experiencing Formula One for the street without driving something that looks like a single-seat, open-wheel car.
You can imagine my excitement as I was ushered over to Dunsfold Airfield south of London to have my cherished laps in McLaren P1 validation prototype No. 5. I have never experienced good weather here, but I was thankfully blessed with tepid air and brilliant late winter sunshine for this drive. This means that there wasn't the usual standing rainwater on the scrappy Top Gear test track. As I arrived at the McLaren bunker alongside the makeshift circuit, the mellow, flame-yellow P1 I was to drive was already going through motions in a client's hands.
This client and his charming wife were just finishing up several laps of their own, including some absolutely scorching rounds with McLaren chief test pilot Chris Goodwin, as well as with McLaren GT3 driver Duncan Tappy. The couple was as giddy as teenagers when I talked with them, smiling from ear to ear. And they were not from Dubai, not from Moscow, not from Singapore, and not from Beverly Hills. They were from Ohio, so leave your rich people stereotypes at the door.
I should get on with the drive experience, but a primer about what this McLaren proposes to the driver is needed. Like the MP4-12C, the P1's "petrol-electric" plug-in hybrid sits on the same aluminum-carbon composite architecture and uses the company's M838T 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 built by Ricardo. From there, it's all changes and intelligently pumped-up performance numbers.
A dry P1 sitting empty weighs a stated 3,075 pounds, which is not far off the weight of a 570-horsepower Ferrari 458 Italia. Its e-motor, lithium-ion battery pack and other EV ancillaries account for roughly 450 of those pounds. The rear-amidships, compact, twin-turbo V8 itself is calibrated to 727 brake-horsepower (616-bhp in the 12C) and 531 pound-feet of torque (443 lb-ft for 12C), both numbers already impressive enough to make mouths water. But then a 4.4-kWh lithium-ion battery array urges the electric motor to put out a further 176 bhp and 192 lb-ft of torque. In E-mode, the electric motor can run things alone over a maximum of approximately 7.5 miles.
A little less max e-torque happens when running in parallel with the combustion engine, hence combined numbers of 903 bhp and "just" 664 lb-ft when you're flooring it in all modes but electric-only. This powertrain has a racing-style Kinetic Energy Recovery accessed under full throttle via a red IPAS steering wheel button. IPAS stands for Instant Power Assist System and it does what it says on longer straights, using all available electric power.
2015 McLaren P1