2014 McLaren P1: The Worldâs Quickest Production Car! - Ignition Ep. 108 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

This week on Ignition

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:10 [LAUGH]

00:13 [MUSIC]

00:23 [SOUND]

00:33 McLaren's goal for the P1 is simple,

00:48 to be the best driver's car in the world on road and track.

00:53 To that end, you have a carbon fiber chassis, active suspension and

00:57 aerodynamics, and power from a V8 that's assisted by two turbos and

01:01 an electric motor.

01:03 In use are the most advanced technologies from McLaren,

01:06 many of which are inspired by its Formula 1 efforts.

01:09 The combined horsepower is 904, cost 1 million,

01:14 and all 375 examples have been sold.

01:18 Our brief opportunity to drive the P1 took place at a damp,

01:22 empty airport in England that you might recognize from a popular British TV show.

01:27 So here we are, behind the wheel of a prototype version of a 904 horsepower,

01:33 $1 million hyper car on an unfamiliar track with just a handful of laps to drive.

01:38 [SOUND]

01:39 Let's go.

01:40 All right, so this we got ignition.

01:44 We find out what it's like to do three laps in a McLaren P1.

01:50 [MUSIC]

02:00 The acceleration is phenomenal.

02:04 But we know that already.

02:06 It has 900 horsepower thereabouts.

02:08 [MUSIC]

02:12 The sound is ridiculous as the acceleration.

02:15 [MUSIC]

02:17 And the car, it's just, the experience is overwhelming.

02:23 [MUSIC]

02:31 We're in race mode.

02:32 We have traction control off.

02:34 It's a little greasy, it's a little wet, so things are a little slippery.

02:38 But this is what it's like to do a British car test, of a British car, I guess.

02:42 [MUSIC]

02:44 This corner, this corner's a lot of fun.

02:46 [MUSIC]

02:53 [LAUGH]

02:54 [MUSIC]

02:56 The level of acceleration, the level of de-acceleration,

03:00 the G-forces all together are otherworldly.

03:03 I mean, it's insane.

03:09 The car is stiff in race mode, it's very stiff.

03:12 But the front end feels light, easy to direct.

03:17 The stability control is helping out quite a bit, even in race mode.

03:21 Helping the brakes, you can feel them working a little bit to dial you in.

03:26 But it's only when you need some help, it seems.

03:29 [MUSIC]

03:32 It's not extremely forgiving, but surprisingly easy to drive.

03:38 It's tough to focus, and talk, and think, and drive fast at the same time.

03:43 [MUSIC]

03:49 [LAUGH]

03:52 Let's not forget that the car generating this overwhelming power is a plug-in

03:57 hybrid that isn't penalized by a gas guzzler tax.

04:00 Hit the E-mode button, and the engine turns off.

04:04 From there, you have around six miles of range, and acceleration like a Civic Si.

04:08 That, of course, isn't the point of the car.

04:12 When the engine is off, the motor acts like a 177 horsepower power-app, and

04:17 recharges when you're at partial throttle, and when you lift.

04:21 It's like a boost in video games, refilling after each lap.

04:24 Power isn't the center point, though.

04:27 It's the sophistication in the aerodynamics and chassis.

04:31 The bodywork is aggressive, not very pretty.

04:34 And that's because, aside from a few design flourishes,

04:37 it's designed around airflow.

04:39 A massive wing and two underbody flaps continually adjust depending on what

04:43 the car's doing, adding drag to help braking, or

04:46 reducing drag to help with top end speed.

04:48 In race mode, the ride height drops two inches, and

04:53 the wheel raises nearly a foot higher.

04:55 The result is 1,323 pounds of downforce at 160 miles an hour.

05:02 You can only describe the P1's monumental acceleration in so many ways, but

05:07 I wanted to find out just how fast it was.

05:10 So when no one was looking, I grabbed our data acquisition hardware,

05:13 took the car down the runway out of view, and hit the launch control button.

05:17 Presenting a world exclusive acceleration run in the McLaren P1.

05:21 [MUSIC]

05:31 At 9.8 seconds to the quarter mile,

05:44 the P1 is the quickest production car tested in Motor Trend's 65 year history.

05:49 [MUSIC]

05:56 I'm gonna go around one more time because screw the rules.

05:57 [MUSIC]

06:07 How can you not enjoy that?

06:10 How can you not enjoy power sliding this far?

06:14 That's a fantastic achievement in itself, but

06:17 then you start realizing that there's more.

06:19 That it's passed all the safety tests, that it isn't penalized by a gas guzzler

06:22 tax, that it can run briefly as a zero emissions electric car.

06:26 And then there's the lateral limit.

06:28 In my brief time there, the trouble wasn't with driving it, but

06:31 comprehending what was happening.

06:34 With the P1, you simply have to forget what you know about the capabilities of

06:38 modern performance cars.

06:39 The P1 changes everything.

06:43 We've reached a new threshold, a new level, a new performance benchmark.

06:49 We've reached this new echelon of cars, this new area.

06:53 And it's wild.

06:57 It is absolutely wild.

06:59 Is it too much?

07:01 It starts to beg the question, is it too much?

07:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

2014 McLaren P1: The Worldâs Quickest Production Car! - Ignition Ep. 108

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2014 McLaren P1: The Worldâs Quickest Production Car! - Ignition Ep. 108

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2014 McLaren P1: The Worldâs Quickest Production Car! - Ignition Ep. 108