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“There is no time when a car is in motion where weight is not counting against performance” #1: Gordon Murray

My design concept for the McLaren F! was formed around the basic principles behind vehicle dynamics" If #$ years in Formula One design teaches you nothing else% it highlights the supreme importance of the basics & rigidity% inertia and lightweight" At no stage during the design and prototyping phase of the F! programme did I announce or discuss targets" I merely said that we’re going to try to design the best driver’s car and the best 'engineered car we could"

The fact that the F! obliterated all existing supercar performance figures was down to the fact that the quest for light weight was rigorously followed" There is no time when a car is in motion where weight is not counting against performance% cornering% changing direction% accelerating and braking & even in steady state the losses from the rolling resistance are increased" This is surely understood by current supercar designers% but what seems to have been forgotten is that power to weight and weight to power ratio are two completely different things"

The current crop of supercars seem to be endlessly chasing performance figures% some of them top speed and some of them acceleration" Both are pretty futile for anything but bragging" Not many owners will ever experience the top speed of their supercar )The fastest I managed in an F! was ##*mph & !*mph off top speed+ and the difference between a $&,#mph time of% -"$secs and -"# is impossible to feel" The overall driving experience% including control feedback and engine noise% contributes much more towards satisfying our “need for speed” than a fraction of a second improvement in acceleration times"

Another nightmare for the car designer is the vicious circle that leads to a waterfall of weight increase" Most of the current supercars are moving to turbocharged engines in the race for power and top speed with the resultant turbo lag and uninspiring engine noise" The current move to battery' powered electrical assistance to fill the turbo lag has led to a massive increase in powertrain weight% which in turn leads to an increase in the weight of the cooling pack% the chassis% the suspension% the brakes… a spiral of weight increase and of course the resultant reduction in vehicle dynamic performance"

The cost of the top 'speed chase is interesting as it took the Bugatti Veyron an extra .*$kg and an extra *,*bhp to better the F!’s top speed% and most of today’s supercars are still sub' F! top speed% so maybe the emphasis has shifted to acceleration figures" Whichever way we look at the current trends% the pure driving experience seems to have been left behind as an ever 'increasing number of electronic aids% needed to control huge amounts of power and torque% dumb the feedback"

We should question progress when a Porsche /!0 has a lower power to weight ratio than a McLaren F! and an F! LM has an identical power to weight ratio as a McLaren P!" There is no doubt that performance figures are important for selling supercars% but I would like to see the focus moving from power to weight in the journey to achieve these figures"

So where does that leave the future of supercars? We still need them1 I still find supercars fascinating and exciting" We need them for inspiration and they experiment with new materials% tech and even architecture that can lead to advances in high 'volume cars" So% we still have our love affair with this breed% but perhaps we need to be reminded that

the laws of physics don’t change"