Never underestimate the "Hype" in Hypercar.
07-11-2014, 03:06 AM
#1
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Thread Starter
Never underestimate the "Hype" in Hypercar.
Weeks ago I waited patiently in the hopes of seeing something special come out of the Goodwood Festival of Speed knowing all too well that 3 of the fastest production cars of all time would be there. After a little research I found this little gem of information:
LaFerrari vs McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918. Or not…
By Andrew Frankel on 1 July 2014 @Andrew_Frankel
At last it was going to happen. The answer to the most meaningless yet somehow important question of the modern motoring age was about to be provided. On Saturday afternoon at the Goodwood Festival of Speed the three fastest road cars of our or any other generation were to take part in the ‘Supercar Shootout’.
What’s more – and in my view highly courageously – it was going to be timed. For the first time, we were going to find out which was fastest. Best of all for me, I had a ringside seat as McLaren had been kind enough to enter me into the shootout in their special operations 650S.
Except that’s not what happened. First I learned that while there were LaFerraris at Goodwood, they were not Ferrari’s LaFerraris. When I asked why, I was told Ferrari didn’t have any LaFerraris. When I suggested this might be unfairly interpreted by some as Ferrari bottling out of the contest I was greeting with a knowing smile which suggested very clearly the man from Ferrari knew something I did not. And maybe he did. Maybe he knew that when it came to it, no LaFerrari would actually take part in the contest.
Next up was Gordon Robertson, Porsche’s chief driving instructor in then UK and the man entrusted with the 918 for most of the weekend. How fast did he think his car was going to go? “Very fast indeed,” he replied, “for a car running only on electricity…” Imaginatively but infuriatingly, Porsche had decided to do the run on battery power alone.
At least I could count on McLaren test driver Chris Goodwin to make a proper job of the hill in the P1. He was behind me in the queue so by the time I spoke to him we were both at the top and our runs completed. “How’d it go?” I asked eagerly. “Oh, very well. Amazing how fast this thing will go even without the engine running.”
In fact the McLaren only did part of the run on electricity so we can’t even compare the relative pace of the Porsche and McLaren in electric mode (a game the LaFerrari would have been unable to play even if it had wanted to).
The result was the two fastest cars in the supercar shootout were the two slowest cars up the hill and I was not alone in feeling robbed, nor suspecting that all three manufacturers were very happy to ensure the question on so many enthusiasts’ minds went unanswered at the weekend.
So allow me to speculate idly for a moment on their behalf. My money would be on the Porsche being quickest, despite a sizeably inferior power to weight ratio compared to its British and Italian rivals and the reason is simply traction. The four-wheel drive 918 has so much that on battery power alone it was quicker over the first 100 metres than the Lexus LFA that went on to come third over all.
Such is the advantage conferred by all-wheel drive on this bumpy, treacherous course I doubt that for all their extra firepower either the LaFerrari or P1 would have been back on terms by the top. But I really have no better idea than you.
As for me, I decided over 20 years ago that driving as fast as possible up that hill would always carry a level of risk unjustified by the reward. So I made as much noise as possible off the line in the 650S and then drove purposefully but cautiously to the top.
I wound up seventh out of 22 starters which says far more about how easy the McLaren was to drive on that hill than any heroics on my part, of which there were none. Over that weekend at least three of these supercars had substantial accidents, at least one being written off.
The winner of the shootout was Jann Mardenborough in a Nissan GT-R. To give you an idea of how fast was his time of 49.27sec, it would have been quick enough for sixth place in the Sunday shootout of the fastest competition cars, ahead of several F1 machines including a Jordan 191 and Benetton B192 and the six-wheeled March 2-4-0.
All this from a road legal production car on treaded tyres. And, of course, you’d have to bet that either one of the Porsche, Ferrari or McLaren hypercars would have gone significantly quicker even than this had they been allowed to run unrestrained.
Part of me is in awe of the engineering capabilities these achievements represent however irrelevant they may be. But the rest of me wonders more simply where it’s all going to end.
Source: http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/ro...vs-918-or-not/
And on a semi-related note, oh Ferrari:
Ferrari Refuses Video Track Test Of 458 Speciale VS. McLaren 650S
Say, do you like it when car magazines and websites compare one car to another car? The journalists love them, the readers love them, everybody loves them... except apparently Ferrari, who didn't want a UK magazine doing a video test of their 458 Speciale against the McLaren 650S. Bummer.
The magazine in question is Autocar, who recently did a "supercar shootout" article comparing the two cars. (Spoiler alert, the Ferrari won.) Autocar's readers wondered when they would follow up with a video of their test, as they often do.
But there isn't going to be one. Today Autocar editor Steve Sutcliffe said Ferrari asked them not to compare the two on video at the Castle Combe circuit they booked for the test. Basically, they wanted to see which could get around the circuit fastest. Simple enough question, right?
But when Ferrari got wind of what we were doing, they firmly but politely said no. We could film the cars together on the road, they said, but not on a track. And at that point we called a halt on the comparison video, chiefly because to make cars like these look and sound exciting, you need to drive them with a decent degree of enthusiasm. And to do that, you need to go to a track, not a public road.
Ferrari let them do a video review of the 458 Speciale, which you can see below, but they wouldn't budge on a video test of it against the McLaren. Sutcliffe called the mandate from Maranello "rather baffling," especially after they agreed to loan the Speciale to Autocar for a test in the first place.
Baffling, but maybe not surprising. Ferrari is infamous for heavy-handedness and tight control when it comes to where, when, how and who from the automotive press tests their vehicles. It's a habit that doesn't do them many favors. As Chris Harris said here years ago, it makes the brand look bad and it undermines the hard work of their own engineers.
Remember, the 458 Speciale won Autocar's test against the McLaren 650S. We just won't get to see it on video because the brand is so damn weird.
Source: http://jalopnik.com/ferrari-refuses-...-mc-1602578996
LaFerrari vs McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918. Or not…
By Andrew Frankel on 1 July 2014 @Andrew_Frankel
At last it was going to happen. The answer to the most meaningless yet somehow important question of the modern motoring age was about to be provided. On Saturday afternoon at the Goodwood Festival of Speed the three fastest road cars of our or any other generation were to take part in the ‘Supercar Shootout’.
What’s more – and in my view highly courageously – it was going to be timed. For the first time, we were going to find out which was fastest. Best of all for me, I had a ringside seat as McLaren had been kind enough to enter me into the shootout in their special operations 650S.
Except that’s not what happened. First I learned that while there were LaFerraris at Goodwood, they were not Ferrari’s LaFerraris. When I asked why, I was told Ferrari didn’t have any LaFerraris. When I suggested this might be unfairly interpreted by some as Ferrari bottling out of the contest I was greeting with a knowing smile which suggested very clearly the man from Ferrari knew something I did not. And maybe he did. Maybe he knew that when it came to it, no LaFerrari would actually take part in the contest.
Next up was Gordon Robertson, Porsche’s chief driving instructor in then UK and the man entrusted with the 918 for most of the weekend. How fast did he think his car was going to go? “Very fast indeed,” he replied, “for a car running only on electricity…” Imaginatively but infuriatingly, Porsche had decided to do the run on battery power alone.
At least I could count on McLaren test driver Chris Goodwin to make a proper job of the hill in the P1. He was behind me in the queue so by the time I spoke to him we were both at the top and our runs completed. “How’d it go?” I asked eagerly. “Oh, very well. Amazing how fast this thing will go even without the engine running.”
In fact the McLaren only did part of the run on electricity so we can’t even compare the relative pace of the Porsche and McLaren in electric mode (a game the LaFerrari would have been unable to play even if it had wanted to).
The result was the two fastest cars in the supercar shootout were the two slowest cars up the hill and I was not alone in feeling robbed, nor suspecting that all three manufacturers were very happy to ensure the question on so many enthusiasts’ minds went unanswered at the weekend.
So allow me to speculate idly for a moment on their behalf. My money would be on the Porsche being quickest, despite a sizeably inferior power to weight ratio compared to its British and Italian rivals and the reason is simply traction. The four-wheel drive 918 has so much that on battery power alone it was quicker over the first 100 metres than the Lexus LFA that went on to come third over all.
Such is the advantage conferred by all-wheel drive on this bumpy, treacherous course I doubt that for all their extra firepower either the LaFerrari or P1 would have been back on terms by the top. But I really have no better idea than you.
As for me, I decided over 20 years ago that driving as fast as possible up that hill would always carry a level of risk unjustified by the reward. So I made as much noise as possible off the line in the 650S and then drove purposefully but cautiously to the top.
I wound up seventh out of 22 starters which says far more about how easy the McLaren was to drive on that hill than any heroics on my part, of which there were none. Over that weekend at least three of these supercars had substantial accidents, at least one being written off.
The winner of the shootout was Jann Mardenborough in a Nissan GT-R. To give you an idea of how fast was his time of 49.27sec, it would have been quick enough for sixth place in the Sunday shootout of the fastest competition cars, ahead of several F1 machines including a Jordan 191 and Benetton B192 and the six-wheeled March 2-4-0.
All this from a road legal production car on treaded tyres. And, of course, you’d have to bet that either one of the Porsche, Ferrari or McLaren hypercars would have gone significantly quicker even than this had they been allowed to run unrestrained.
Part of me is in awe of the engineering capabilities these achievements represent however irrelevant they may be. But the rest of me wonders more simply where it’s all going to end.
Source: http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/ro...vs-918-or-not/
And on a semi-related note, oh Ferrari:
Ferrari Refuses Video Track Test Of 458 Speciale VS. McLaren 650S
Say, do you like it when car magazines and websites compare one car to another car? The journalists love them, the readers love them, everybody loves them... except apparently Ferrari, who didn't want a UK magazine doing a video test of their 458 Speciale against the McLaren 650S. Bummer.
The magazine in question is Autocar, who recently did a "supercar shootout" article comparing the two cars. (Spoiler alert, the Ferrari won.) Autocar's readers wondered when they would follow up with a video of their test, as they often do.
But there isn't going to be one. Today Autocar editor Steve Sutcliffe said Ferrari asked them not to compare the two on video at the Castle Combe circuit they booked for the test. Basically, they wanted to see which could get around the circuit fastest. Simple enough question, right?
But when Ferrari got wind of what we were doing, they firmly but politely said no. We could film the cars together on the road, they said, but not on a track. And at that point we called a halt on the comparison video, chiefly because to make cars like these look and sound exciting, you need to drive them with a decent degree of enthusiasm. And to do that, you need to go to a track, not a public road.
Ferrari let them do a video review of the 458 Speciale, which you can see below, but they wouldn't budge on a video test of it against the McLaren. Sutcliffe called the mandate from Maranello "rather baffling," especially after they agreed to loan the Speciale to Autocar for a test in the first place.
Baffling, but maybe not surprising. Ferrari is infamous for heavy-handedness and tight control when it comes to where, when, how and who from the automotive press tests their vehicles. It's a habit that doesn't do them many favors. As Chris Harris said here years ago, it makes the brand look bad and it undermines the hard work of their own engineers.
Remember, the 458 Speciale won Autocar's test against the McLaren 650S. We just won't get to see it on video because the brand is so damn weird.
Source: http://jalopnik.com/ferrari-refuses-...-mc-1602578996
07-11-2014, 07:41 AM
#2
Weeks ago I waited patiently in the hopes of seeing something special come out of the Goodwood Festival of Speed knowing all too well that 3 of the fastest production cars of all time would be there. After a little research I found this little gem of information:
LaFerrari vs McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918. Or not…
By Andrew Frankel on 1 July 2014 @Andrew_Frankel
At last it was going to happen. The answer to the most meaningless yet somehow important question of the modern motoring age was about to be provided. On Saturday afternoon at the Goodwood Festival of Speed the three fastest road cars of our or any other generation were to take part in the ‘Supercar Shootout’.
What’s more – and in my view highly courageously – it was going to be timed. For the first time, we were going to find out which was fastest. Best of all for me, I had a ringside seat as McLaren had been kind enough to enter me into the shootout in their special operations 650S.
Except that’s not what happened. First I learned that while there were LaFerraris at Goodwood, they were not Ferrari’s LaFerraris. When I asked why, I was told Ferrari didn’t have any LaFerraris. When I suggested this might be unfairly interpreted by some as Ferrari bottling out of the contest I was greeting with a knowing smile which suggested very clearly the man from Ferrari knew something I did not. And maybe he did. Maybe he knew that when it came to it, no LaFerrari would actually take part in the contest.
Next up was Gordon Robertson, Porsche’s chief driving instructor in then UK and the man entrusted with the 918 for most of the weekend. How fast did he think his car was going to go? “Very fast indeed,” he replied, “for a car running only on electricity…” Imaginatively but infuriatingly, Porsche had decided to do the run on battery power alone.
At least I could count on McLaren test driver Chris Goodwin to make a proper job of the hill in the P1. He was behind me in the queue so by the time I spoke to him we were both at the top and our runs completed. “How’d it go?” I asked eagerly. “Oh, very well. Amazing how fast this thing will go even without the engine running.”
In fact the McLaren only did part of the run on electricity so we can’t even compare the relative pace of the Porsche and McLaren in electric mode (a game the LaFerrari would have been unable to play even if it had wanted to).
The result was the two fastest cars in the supercar shootout were the two slowest cars up the hill and I was not alone in feeling robbed, nor suspecting that all three manufacturers were very happy to ensure the question on so many enthusiasts’ minds went unanswered at the weekend.
So allow me to speculate idly for a moment on their behalf. My money would be on the Porsche being quickest, despite a sizeably inferior power to weight ratio compared to its British and Italian rivals and the reason is simply traction. The four-wheel drive 918 has so much that on battery power alone it was quicker over the first 100 metres than the Lexus LFA that went on to come third over all.
Such is the advantage conferred by all-wheel drive on this bumpy, treacherous course I doubt that for all their extra firepower either the LaFerrari or P1 would have been back on terms by the top. But I really have no better idea than you.
As for me, I decided over 20 years ago that driving as fast as possible up that hill would always carry a level of risk unjustified by the reward. So I made as much noise as possible off the line in the 650S and then drove purposefully but cautiously to the top.
I wound up seventh out of 22 starters which says far more about how easy the McLaren was to drive on that hill than any heroics on my part, of which there were none. Over that weekend at least three of these supercars had substantial accidents, at least one being written off.
The winner of the shootout was Jann Mardenborough in a Nissan GT-R. To give you an idea of how fast was his time of 49.27sec, it would have been quick enough for sixth place in the Sunday shootout of the fastest competition cars, ahead of several F1 machines including a Jordan 191 and Benetton B192 and the six-wheeled March 2-4-0.
All this from a road legal production car on treaded tyres. And, of course, you’d have to bet that either one of the Porsche, Ferrari or McLaren hypercars would have gone significantly quicker even than this had they been allowed to run unrestrained.
Part of me is in awe of the engineering capabilities these achievements represent however irrelevant they may be. But the rest of me wonders more simply where it’s all going to end.
Source: http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/ro...vs-918-or-not/
LaFerrari vs McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918. Or not…
By Andrew Frankel on 1 July 2014 @Andrew_Frankel
At last it was going to happen. The answer to the most meaningless yet somehow important question of the modern motoring age was about to be provided. On Saturday afternoon at the Goodwood Festival of Speed the three fastest road cars of our or any other generation were to take part in the ‘Supercar Shootout’.
What’s more – and in my view highly courageously – it was going to be timed. For the first time, we were going to find out which was fastest. Best of all for me, I had a ringside seat as McLaren had been kind enough to enter me into the shootout in their special operations 650S.
Except that’s not what happened. First I learned that while there were LaFerraris at Goodwood, they were not Ferrari’s LaFerraris. When I asked why, I was told Ferrari didn’t have any LaFerraris. When I suggested this might be unfairly interpreted by some as Ferrari bottling out of the contest I was greeting with a knowing smile which suggested very clearly the man from Ferrari knew something I did not. And maybe he did. Maybe he knew that when it came to it, no LaFerrari would actually take part in the contest.
Next up was Gordon Robertson, Porsche’s chief driving instructor in then UK and the man entrusted with the 918 for most of the weekend. How fast did he think his car was going to go? “Very fast indeed,” he replied, “for a car running only on electricity…” Imaginatively but infuriatingly, Porsche had decided to do the run on battery power alone.
At least I could count on McLaren test driver Chris Goodwin to make a proper job of the hill in the P1. He was behind me in the queue so by the time I spoke to him we were both at the top and our runs completed. “How’d it go?” I asked eagerly. “Oh, very well. Amazing how fast this thing will go even without the engine running.”
In fact the McLaren only did part of the run on electricity so we can’t even compare the relative pace of the Porsche and McLaren in electric mode (a game the LaFerrari would have been unable to play even if it had wanted to).
The result was the two fastest cars in the supercar shootout were the two slowest cars up the hill and I was not alone in feeling robbed, nor suspecting that all three manufacturers were very happy to ensure the question on so many enthusiasts’ minds went unanswered at the weekend.
So allow me to speculate idly for a moment on their behalf. My money would be on the Porsche being quickest, despite a sizeably inferior power to weight ratio compared to its British and Italian rivals and the reason is simply traction. The four-wheel drive 918 has so much that on battery power alone it was quicker over the first 100 metres than the Lexus LFA that went on to come third over all.
Such is the advantage conferred by all-wheel drive on this bumpy, treacherous course I doubt that for all their extra firepower either the LaFerrari or P1 would have been back on terms by the top. But I really have no better idea than you.
As for me, I decided over 20 years ago that driving as fast as possible up that hill would always carry a level of risk unjustified by the reward. So I made as much noise as possible off the line in the 650S and then drove purposefully but cautiously to the top.
I wound up seventh out of 22 starters which says far more about how easy the McLaren was to drive on that hill than any heroics on my part, of which there were none. Over that weekend at least three of these supercars had substantial accidents, at least one being written off.
The winner of the shootout was Jann Mardenborough in a Nissan GT-R. To give you an idea of how fast was his time of 49.27sec, it would have been quick enough for sixth place in the Sunday shootout of the fastest competition cars, ahead of several F1 machines including a Jordan 191 and Benetton B192 and the six-wheeled March 2-4-0.
All this from a road legal production car on treaded tyres. And, of course, you’d have to bet that either one of the Porsche, Ferrari or McLaren hypercars would have gone significantly quicker even than this had they been allowed to run unrestrained.
Part of me is in awe of the engineering capabilities these achievements represent however irrelevant they may be. But the rest of me wonders more simply where it’s all going to end.
Source: http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/ro...vs-918-or-not/
07-14-2014, 03:37 PM
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Probably because the P1 can't hold all that much electricity in E mode compared to the 918. Besides the Electric Modes are designed to be driven at a Spartan's pace in comparison - so that's why I'm not surprised they turned on the gas engine. The capacity for the 918 batteries are much greater than the P1.
Besides driving someone else's car at Goodwood, especially those that are extremely rare is an exercise in how well the driver can control themselves and not let it get out of hand. Sure you can drive the cars like a bat out of hell but man, THERE IS NO ROOM FOR ERROR there! No wonder a GT-R would literally have a faster time than the historic cars. Because if you total a GT-R who cares they will just make more - as for grandad's old F1 car, now that is a different story
Besides driving someone else's car at Goodwood, especially those that are extremely rare is an exercise in how well the driver can control themselves and not let it get out of hand. Sure you can drive the cars like a bat out of hell but man, THERE IS NO ROOM FOR ERROR there! No wonder a GT-R would literally have a faster time than the historic cars. Because if you total a GT-R who cares they will just make more - as for grandad's old F1 car, now that is a different story
