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I spent this past week as a guest of Mclaren on their rally from SoCal to Montereycarweek, courtesy of a very very nice friend.
I had the incredible pleasure of having a P1 as my chariot on the road for the trip which I drove extensively, I sat in a 675LT for hours and drove it for some autocross (with an embarrassing power-oversteer which had me knocking over a few cones) and test drove the 570s to my heart's content. With all this fresh in my mind I'll offer the following:
The P1 is just the P1. It's insane.. so many modes, so many aspects to explore, so fast, such great steering, such great brakes.. sounds to die for. There is Definitely a heavy lump of batteries sitting in the back which adds some pendulum swing, and in tight twisty curvy roads with camber changes, it could use some rebound damping adjustments as you can make the back-end skip. The owner drives it quite well and masks this, i do not so i felt this. Yes, it's insanely powerful, exquisitely detailed, and allows you to open it up on the road for brief bursts of stomach churning acceleration. It's a spaceship, I'll never afford it.. but it's amazing.. the particular car was an even more rare validation prototype model.. it literally doesn't get any better than this:
there were a few other P1's on the rally.. one very very special prototype made for a special owner, all in carbon.. lets just say there were moments of mild competition between the two.
I have a nice video of a civilized drag race on a closed road Mclaren set up for us which I'll post here.. two P1 prototype chassis going at it.. not something you see every day. mclaren p1 prototype vs mclaren p1 prototype - YouTube
My fiancee also drove it in the Carmel Valley mountains and this is everything she had to say about it:
The 675LT is the sweet spot of the range if you have $500k to spend. For brief spurts its 99% as fast as the P1, it's massively lighter feeling, has the same insane suspension and wonderful steering feel, only you don't feel any pendulum swing or the suspension working very hard to keep it all together. It feels like the world's most comfortable road-legal race car. It's absolutely perfect.. find one with a roof scoop and hold on it to it forever.. If you have the $, this is the best car under a $1M.. no contest, end of story.. it's perfect. The kind gentleman who I navigated for and who let me drive the autocross specced his so perfectly, that it looked like it's a mini-mclaren F1 LM in papaya orange. he's also an incredibly fast racer with some of the fastest Laguna Seca lap times in this car. Keeping it all anonymous, but if you know him, he's as gracious as he is a good driver.. an incredible combo.. thank you 675LT owner, you're one of a kind. I would want a 675LT over the P1.. it's perfect.
it's easily as fast as this car next to it.. no contest:
The 570s, is probably the best car you can buy under $200k. the steering is the same excellent mclaren steering as on all the cars, and rotors with less weight to carry around, while not as aggressive as the 675LT, have a fantastic brake feel. The interior feels very well made, not like the early mc12's. The suspension, while not the same magic ride as the bigger cars, has incredible suppleness to it. There is some turbo lag, definitely. but when you're on boost it's fast as *****, faster than almost any road car.. and feels superbly planted. The 570 clearly benefits from having the same carbon chassis, motor and steering as the P1.. there is a huge intrinsic value built into that car, and you can feel it. If I didn't have my eyes on a manual gt3 for late 2017... (fingers crossed).. this would be my next car. After the gt3, the 570s WILL be my next car.
lastly, i can say that mclaren is working incredibly incredibly hard to build up its customer base. Every single interaction is authentic, humble, open, and searching for feedback. From their very top people to their sales guys, every single person there did their heartfelt utmost to create a new customer.. and they did.
The absolute highlight of this Mclaren experience was getting to buy beers (well, actually i ordered them but they ended up being free) for two of my heroes from when as a kid i had read "Driving Ambition - Mclaren F1 story".. Gordon Murray & Mansour Ojjei. I had casually mentioned in convo to someone that G.Murray was my hero.. and that I had often walked through the airport in Bologna wondering which chair they had sat in in the terminal as they first conceived of the mclaren f1 project.. well, a few days later there i am at a table perstering Ojjei and Murray on what thay conversation was like.. to a tee, they were nice, and answered all my fanboy questions. I'm a future mclaren customer, 100% sold.
The mclaren cherry on top...
Thank for your impressions. Particularly helpful to read that coming from a fellow Porsche GT car enthusiast.
Without looking at the pros and cons of Macs vis-a-via other cars, I believe the work they have been doing, both on the cars and on creating a brand has been brilliant. Think about the disadvantages in terms of R&D and buying purchase, among others, compared to Porsche and Lambo that belong to VW and F that used to belong to Chrysler. They did not have earlier platforms to incrementally add when they created the 12C. No fires like the early 458s either (to the best of my knowledge). Transmission might have been their weak point, since the Iris imbroglio doesn't count much. They have done a good job in penetrating the F and Lambo market with their super series and now the Porsche market with Sport series.
CAlexio, thanks for post, which somehow confirms my perception about the strategy behind the creation of the brand. And really cool pants.
CAlexio, thanks for post, which somehow confirms my perception about the strategy behind the creation of the brand. And really cool pants.
the whole post was actually about my python shoes, damn those loud pants, no pants next time I'm photographing myself inside an F1 GTR Longtail. NO.MORE.PANTS. (goes to get another beer)
I loved the pants, however they clearly identify you as an Italian male.
No straight American male would dare wear them, however most American males are lazy or just plain ignorant with fashion by comparison, and so they just wear jeans with everything.
If or when I finally decide to get my first entry-level super/sports car.... my top 3 choices includes the 570S although I'd like to see how the new NSX will also fare. A 991.2 GT3 with a manual though is what's still making me practice patience.
I did see this 570S earlier today.... in black, it's stunning indeed!
The LT in black is even more sinister but it's also double the coin... beautiful supercars!
Gorgeous pics. As I said before. the 570S in black looks simply beautiful, without being over the top or screaming look at me. The dihedral doors are really the icing on the cake and awesome. The lines and proportions are just about perfect afaic.
I'm near the top of the list for the next GT3/RS, and I would never pass up the chance of owning what may be the last NA 911 GT3 as I've been a Porsche guy my whole life Still, the 570S is first new car that you can actually buy that I find really tempting. It's also something of a bargain in the realm of Supercars
Mclaren has always made cars that at once feel completely planted even at incredibly high speeds yet do so without the heaviness or twitchiness you get from some vehicles. I thought The MP4 -12C was in many ways brilliant, great on the road yet sacrificing nothing in the way of ultimate perfomance. A true multimode modern supercar. A car that can dance with you like a ballerina while keeping you completely at ease is really magic. It would appear the 570S retains and maybe improves on that performance while providing a drop dead gorgeous wrapper. The latest GT3 has this type of performance too which is remarkable considering the 911 design has been around for over 50 years. It's nice to see as we reach what may be the twilight of the age of the internal combustion engine that certain marques continue to keep the faith
Originally Posted by Bossing
If or when I finally decide to get my first entry-level super/sports car.... my top 3 choices includes the 570S although I'd like to see how the new NSX will also fare. A 991.2 GT3 with a manual though is what's still making me practice patience.
I did see this 570S earlier today.... in black, it's stunning indeed!
The LT in black is even more sinister but it's also double the coin... beautiful supercars!
I got to spend some time looking at a 570S at a cars n coffee this morning. I have to say I was very impressed with the car inside and out. It seems like a good option vs my 991TTS.
Will for sure consider when lease is up at the end of year.
The only thing that bothers me about McLaren's is the depreciation and the stream of models they come out with. Love the 570S and am thinking of purchasing one vs the LP-580-2 that I have been looking at as well.
The only thing that bothers me about McLaren's is the depreciation and the stream of models they come out with. Love the 570S and am thinking of purchasing one vs the LP-580-2 that I have been looking at as well.
leases are all pretty much the same price, the advantage that the mclarens and porsches have over the lambos is the crowd they attract
08-27-2016, 12:08 PM
