It took McLaren 15 long years to roll out the successor of the radical McLaren F1, a car that redefined the hyper car concept. Yesterday, at the Goodwood FoS, the rightful heir to McLaren’s hyper car throne made its global street debut alongside other new and heritage models from McLaren.
McLaren’s Formula One ace Jenson Button rightly raced it up the event’s famous hill climb as part of the first drive and set a time of 53 seconds, 11.4 seconds behind the record time set by Nick Heidfeld back in 1999 in another McLaren, the MP4-13 F1 race car.
This plug-in hybrid hyper car is capable of accelerating to 100kmph from rest in under 3.0 seconds, and can reach an electronically limited top speed of 350kmph. Powered by primarily a twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V-8 the engine tuned to make 737PS and close to 900Nm of torque. The engine is also engaged to a KERS electric motor that produces an additional 179PS and ups the combined power output to a staggering 916PS. The engine is mated to a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission that sends power solely to the rear wheels.
McLaren had made only 106 examples of the F1 and has decided to make the P1 a little less exclusive with 375 of these hyper cars expected to be rolled out of the production line. Each of these will be priced from $1.15 million and will directly lock horns with the LaFerrari and the new 918 Spyder from Porsche which also made its dynamic debut at the festival.
