![]() ![]() On the straights it will do almost 200mph, yet will lose half that speed in the blink of an eye while crushing your body into the seat.īut then something curious happens: thanks to the wonders of the human mind, you adapt. You push the car hard, yet the way it sheds speed far faster than you’d anticipated and hits every apex, it appears not to be taxed at all. At first driving the P1 GTR can be quite demoralising. It’s the same in the corners and under braking. ![]() The acceleration doesn’t feel strong, so much as an act of violence. It not only has more power, it can use it too. But this isn’t necessary in the GTR, with its hot slicks. In the regular P1, the electronics have to intervene in the lower gears to stop you boiling the tyres with wheelspin. Is all that energy going to be containable for a mere mortal? There is but one way to find out. But while a P1 will idle quietly when you start it, the GTR blasts into life with so much noise that your first inclination is to duck, your second to hide. The interior is passingly familiar to what you get inside a P1, albeit with the major buttons relocated to the steering wheel. While “normal” P1s have a race mode that allows them to sink nearer to the ground, the GTR doesn’t have anything else, so with its shrink wrapped surfaces, minimal ground clearance, pumped out body work and vast front splitter, it appears to be not so much hugging the ground as sprouting from it. But unlike Ferrari, McLaren will also let you take it home and drive it at a local track day if you prefer. Like Ferrari with its FXX programme, McLaren will organise events all over the world for P1 GTR owners, where they will receive driver training as well as advice about fitness and nutrition. McLaren will organise events all over the world for P1 GTR owners to drive their cars It might be the most unhinged car based on a production design ever created. Its engine runs unrestricted to 986bhp, its rear wing is fixed in the most aerodynamically advantage place, and its tyres are race specification slicks with a life expectancy measurable in minutes. The McLaren P1 GTR is a P1 with no strings attached, save its £1.98 million price (a standard P1 costs £866,000) and its closed order book. But what would a P1 be like if its powertrain, aerodynamics and chassis were all tuned so that it was simply as fast and exhilarating as possible? The answer is before you. And its tyres must work in all weathers, provide reasonable ride comfort and last for months. The aerodynamics must provide downforce when needed, but not add too much drag when it’s not, and that’s a compromise too. Its petrol-electric hybrid powertrain might develop more than 900bhp, but it also has to pass global emissions tests, and that costs horsepower. And yet, the P1 is actually nothing like as fast as it could be. Andrew Frankel drives itĭriving a McLaren P1 hypercar is not something those lucky enough to have had the experience are likely to forget. Importantly, the engineers at Woking decided to use the same seven-speed dual-clutch transmission as that found in the road-going P1, which helps make the P1 GTR very approachable on the track even for the less experienced driver.The P1 GTR is the heir to the Le Mans-winning F1 GTR, and the most extreme McLaren you can buy. Where the Veyron and the GTR differ, though, is weight, the McLaren weighing 1,440 kg and the Bugatti near 1,900 kg, putting the GTR into a different league in terms of power-to-weight. In the road car, the power unit produces 903 bhp, but for the GTR, it was gently fettled and sprinkled with items like the bespoke straight-cut titanium and Inconel exhaust system to liberate an extra 83 bhp, bringing total power output to 986 bhp or 1,000 PS-a figure almost identical to a Bugatti Veyron. The engine is the same 3.8-litre V-8 featuring twin turbo chargers running at 2.4 bar, aided by an electric motor that itself produces in the region of 180 bhp, working its magic in a ‘torque-filling’ role to eliminate any form of lag whilst the turbos are off boost or spooling. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |