In the name of the P1, the 918 and the holy LaFerrari.
It’s the video we’d all been waiting for. After a bit over two weeks it’s racked up more than 1.2 million views. It’s Chris Harris in three of the most desirable cars ever made.
At almost one hour long the recipe couldn’t get any better. Throw in an empty and excellent Portimao racetrack and, well, yeah, the recipe does get better. And this video is great viewing, it really is.
But is it as good as you were hoping?
We’re going to start this post with a little rant. Such is the aura and legend of “the great” Ayrton Senna that you could be forgiven for not knowing that a little bloke by the name of Alain Prost won three of his four world championships with McLaren.
“Oh did Allan Prost drive for McLaren too? I thought only Senna did,” quips some kid who never saw either of them race.
For me, a proud fan of The Professor, the lack of wider recognition given to Prost’s achievements at McLaren has always sat uneasily in the shadow of the perennially increasing legend of Ayrton Senna.
So to see that McLaren Special Operations has prepared a one-off P1 “Prost” for this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed is both a surprise and very welcome. Hitherto you could be excused for thinking McLaren was willing to airbrush Prost’s steady tricolour helmet design from the history books in favour of the flash of Senna’s brash yellow.
Thankfully, though, we now see before us an incredible P1 inspired by Prost’s racing colours and we couldn’t be happier to see it. Thank you McLaren, thank you.
There’s more photos of the P1 Prost after the break and click here for more on McLaren’s Flat out and fearless campaign.
The mighty McLaren F1 in a road test against the even mightier McLaren P1. Or is it? In some respects the end result doesn’t matter too much. For one thing you’d take either, or both, if you could. And secondly, the fun is in finding out which one is best, don’t you think?
Thank you Evo.
Meet Paul Bailey. He’s from the UK and owns a McLaren P1, a LaFerrari and a Porsche 918 Spyder. What a bastard!
In this video Bailey drives his P1 to pick up his new LaFerrari. Not content with taking delivery of one car for the day he shoots straight off to Porsche to collect his 918. Nice work if you can get it!
We’re treated to some of his thoughts on all three cars. This is not a balls out performance comparison that’s going to get him banned by over protective car makers (yet), but it’s still a worthwhile insight into the three best and most desirable hypercars of the moment.
[Source: The Supercar Driver]
This is the McLaren P1 GTR and as long as your arse is pointing to the ground you will want one!
The hybrid powertrain of the track-only P1 GTR produces a combined power output of 1000PS (735kW) and has been significantly uprated. Further, unnecessary parts for road use have been removed to help save weight. The 3.8 litre twin turbo V8 offers 800PS (588kW) which is complemented by the 200PS (147kW) electric motor.
To improve the already sublime handling the front track is 80mm wider than the road-going McLaren P1â„¢ and it sits 50mm lower to the ground. The P1 GTR rides on 19″ wheels wrapped in super sticky Pirelli tyres.
Silverstone and the Circuit de Catalunya are the first two locations named for the driver program where, thanks to your extremely fat wallet—it’ll cost around US$3 million—you’ll get to see what it’s like to be Pastor Maldonado and get treated like a racing driver. But, please, whatever you do, don’t bin your P1 GTR.
The P1 GTR will make its full debut at the Geneva Motor Show in early March.
McLaren has announced its track-focused P1 GTR will debut at the Geneva Motor Show (5–15 March).
Development of the extreme model has been continuing at racetracks in Europe and the Middle East. Production will start later this year and in the next few weeks buyers will be invited in to commence their P1 GTR Driver Programme experience.
No final specs have been revealed at this stage, however McLaren promises the P1 GTR will boast a power to weight ratio in excess of 700PS (514kW) per tonne. That represents a power increase of more than 10% compared with the standard P1. Of course, the GTR will be so much more than a more powerful P1, with the benefits of a track-only life ensuring its handling will have few compromises.
It’s the McLaren P1 versus the Porsche 918 Spyder. It’s Evo. It’s Angelsey. This needs no further introduction.
Suffice to say, like Jethro, I’d be prepared to sell my soul. And I suspect you would too.
I want to buy a McLaren P1 GTR. And so do you!
How could you not? The car itself will be almost impossible to describe, so good and so fast will it be. But the whole driver programme that is attached to P1 GTR ownership is a boys’ own adventure on steroids.
There’s a video explaining it all after the break along with the first images of the car’s interior, including it’s MP4-23-inspired steering wheel.
The asking price is said to be over 3 mllion bucks, so you’d better start raiding that piggy bank!
Here’s a video shootout that’ll have you salivating. Autocar runs the fearsome McLaren P1 up against the amazing Porsche 918 Spyder. And for good measure they bring a Ducati 1199 along for a few laughs. Remember, it’s the superbike which gives its engine to the funky Volkswagen XL Sport.
Of course, there is a lot more to read from Autocar about the merits of these two hyperhybrids, including this bit:
Ultimately, the 918 handles, rides and steers like a big daddy version of every senior-level Porsche from the past 10 years, and that’s exactly how Porsche’s engineers wanted it to feel. Which is great, but…
The P1’s chassis, particularly its aerodynamic grip, really is something else again. At normal road speeds you rarely, if ever, notice what kind of sorcery is going on around you, because to get those wings to do their thing you need to be travelling at least somewhere close to three figures.
Naturally, Autocar wanted the LaFerrari to join in the fun too, but…
There was one simple reason for the absence of Ferrari’s rival hypercar here: Maranello was invited to provide a car for this test but declined. At the same time, Ferrari made it clear that were we to test a private example, we would not be invited back to Maranello any time soon.
[Source: Autocar]
Mention the name McLaren F1 and most car nuts go wobbly at the knees. Add the letters GTR, to make the McLaren F1 GTR, and we turn into a blubbering mess of admiration and awe. It really was that good.
Well, the F1 GTR will soon have a successor: the P1 GTR. At this stage we’re dealing with a design concept only and the final production models are scheduled to roll off the McLaren Special Operations floor in a bit under 12 months. The concept was revealed at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance event in California.
As the name suggests the new McLaren GTR is based on the already fearsome P1 hypercar and it will carry the company’s hopes to build the “ultimate drivers’ car” for the track.
To achieve that aim McLaren says it has extensively re-engineered the car “from the ground up”. Of course we don’t have final detail or specifications yet, but of note is the fact the P1 GTR will run with a fixed ride height. You’d think some fancy electronic active suspension gubbins might make the cut.
To help extract more power from the revised twin-turbo 3.8 litre V8 and electric power combo McLaren has made a new competition-focused exhasut from Inconcel and titanium alloy. This car will sound awesome! Peak power will be as high as 1000PS, up from the 916PS in the road-going P1.
Hopefully McLaren will take us on the journey of the P1 GTR’s development and we’ll be able to drip feed you information until the car’s official launch.
McLaren is never a company to miss a marketing opportunity and also announced at Pebble Beach is the McLaren P1 GTR driver programme. This is branding at its best and owners of the P1 GTR will be offered the opportunity to be fully immeresed in the McLaren racing experience.
Every owner will have a fully customised program which will include access to fitness staff along with race engineers and driver tuition. It sounds pretty cool.
Described as an exclusive driving club the program will be operated by McLaren Special Operations who will maintain and manage the cars as well.
Steve Sutcliffe from Autocar is really showing off now. Already he has spent time behind the wheel of the McLaren P1 and now he’s back for a second helping. A helping which lasted three full days and took in public roads, Castle Combe, an empty air strip and the MIRA test facility.
It is very much worth watching this video, of course. The P1 is a remarkable machine. Alas, after three days with the car, we’re not sure we’ve really learnt anything new.
Flippin’ heck!
The start of last week’s Drive video on the McLaren P1 began with Chris Harris chatting casually about the car with Chris Godwin. Sure there were no smoking tyres or screaming V8 sounds, but it was still just as entertaining.
This week Drive has given us another 28 minutes of P1, this time it’s just Harris and Goodwin waxing lyrical. It’s great stuff and if nothing else it’s worth it just to revisit the genesis of the term “torque fill”.