The rear-wheel-driven 1,258-hp hypercar is a worthy successor to the F1 and P1. How exactly does one decide which vehicles deserve the title “hypercar” and which should be wear the obviously totally humdrum moniker “supercar”? There is, of course, no established, agreed-upon dividing line between these two entirely made-up descriptors. Still, I have just driven the new $2.1 million McLaren W1 on road and track, and I have identified my own litmus test for categorization.
It is this: How quickly and how frequently during a lap on a racetrack do I transition from being a casual fan of the bluer side of the old Anglo-Saxon language to having full-blown sailor mouth? In the W1, that moment arrived after the first warm-up lap of the gorgeous, flowing Mugello Circuit near Florence, Italy, when I exited the final left-hand turn onto the front straight and let all the 1,258 hp flow to the now-warm rear Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS tires. My eyes wide, my brow furrowed, my right thumb crushing the Boost button on the steering-wheel spoke, I uttered my first “fuuuuuuuuuu!”
Had I carried more speed through the last corner and committed to the throttle earlier (in other words, “done it properly”), McLaren’s newest hypercar would have breached 200 mph at the blind kink on the front “straight.” A thrilling and slightly terrifying prospect. The hybrid powertrain—a newly designed 916-hp twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 and a fat electric motor fed by a tiny 1.4-kWh battery—might as well be a high-capacity pump flooding the driver’s brain with adrenaline, norepinephrine, and endorphins through a fire hose. Even by the increasingly outlandish standards of the mid-Twenties, this car is quick, is what I’m saying.
View Price on AmazonAll McLarens are quick, though. The company is well-known for its mainstay supercars, from the MP4-12C introduced 15 years ago, through the 650S, the 720S, and the 750S, plus the even-hotter LT variants. All of which were carbon-fiber-tubbed, twin-turbo V-8–powered speed machines.
But beyond these, with roughly the same frequency as a cicada’s life cycle, McLaren also births hypercars. The first of these pre-dates McLaren Automotive, with the F1 that was built between 1991 and ’98 being the godhead of hypercars. It pioneered carbon construction in a road car, had a central driving position, and, despite not being designed to race, won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Next, in 2013, new-era McLaren produced a hawk-nosed hybrid hypercar, the P1, a model that competed with the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 Spyder on equal terms. And now, timed closely with the arrival of Ferrari’s definitely-a-hypercar F80, McLaren has unleashed the gullwing-doored W1.
Add in the 2019 Speedtail, which didn’t get a “1” name but did have a central driving position, a $2 million–plus price, and a 250-mph top speed, and McLaren has made four hypercar models over 30 years. So these are very special moments, and it’s no small thing to grow up with the P1 as your father and the F1 as grandpa.
And it was surely no small thing for McLaren Automotive to make this car happen in the financial rough waters and ownership changes the brand has encountered over the past few years. The W1 has a unique carbon-fiber monocoque. It uses an all-new V-8 (code-named MHP-8, for those keeping track). It is the only current McLaren road car to use full race-style inboard front suspension with 3D-printed front control arms and a stunningly effective lowered “race mode.” It carries an ironing-board-sized wing that, on its complex and beautifully rendered linkage, can extend nearly a foot rearward and flip up when needed. The term “active aero” barely does justice to its balletic moves. That wing, the big underbody diffuser, and active front aero generate a maximum of about 2200 pounds of downforce.
The W1 is defined as much by what it does not have as what it does. For example, all-wheel drive or electric power steering. Like other McLarens, the W1 uses hydraulically assisted steering, al
Source: roadandtrack.com
