At 616 horsepower, the 2014 McLaren MP4-12C is fast ... really, really fast
616-hp V-8 hits 100 km/h in 3.1 seconds
BOWMANVILLE, Ont. — It could have all gone so terribly pear-shaped. Me, the mondo rapid McLaren and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Six hundred and sixteen horsepower, a back straight so humptybumpy that it threatens to launch you skyward, and pavement so new it still didn’t have its shine worn off.
But off-course excursions weren’t the source of my trepidation. What kept me up the night before was not the thought of too much speed for my meagre abilities, but too little.
No, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park hasn’t suddenly been emasculated, nor has McLaren followed in the footsteps of Aston Martin and produced a Toyota-sourced econo-car (the lamentable but impressively coiffed Cygnet). In fact, we autoscribes were the problem, hooning about where we patently didn’t belong: A customer appreciation day, which is one of those custard and foie gras events where a local dealer invites eager prospects to sample his fanciest cars and (hopefully) crank their wallets wide open.
Despite the fact that the car being tested is best described as a “supercar,” speed at these dealer-run affairs is minimal. In a nutshell, it’s typically not a situation conducive to the exhaustive testing that our readers expect from our evaluations.
Luckily, Chris Pfaff is not a typical dealer.
McLaren Toronto’s Mr. Enthusiasm was on hand to exhort we only-marginally- more-talented autojournalists to drive at straight-crushing speeds. All of which is to say that this evaluation of the MP4-12C has no we’re-afraidyou-might-break-it qualifiers. Like the R8 V10 Plus we’ve also tested, we have proof that the McLaren is really, really fast.
The official performance figures for the MP4 (3.1 seconds to 100 kilometres an hour and a top speed of some 326 km/h) mean even my previous road-based test didn’t prepare me for the sheer stomachchurning speed that McLaren’s twin-turbocharged 616-hp 3.8-litre V-8 can generate. Potter around on its swell of lowend torque (443 pound-feet as low as 3,000 rpm) or run the surprisingly smooth little V-8 to what sounds like an already fairly tortured 7,000 rpm midrange, and the MP4 feels fast but nothing extraordinary considering its genre.
But feed in the last 1,500 rpm — yes, the 12C boasts a high 8,500 rpm redline — and the McLaren grows wings. Until last week, I had never felt the queasy feeling I am used to generating in others as they quiver in the passenger seat. I could blame no extraordinary cornering or braking forces for my inner ear’s kinetosis, just pure, unadulterated straightline horsepower. Impressive, if a tad nauseating, stuff.
What we expect from McLaren, since it is the once and future king of Formula One, is a more dynamic package.
Like the SLR McLaren built for Mercedes-Benz, the MP4’s chassis is simple but amazingly ingenious. Essentially, the tub — the part of the chassis that forms the cabin — is made entirely of ultra-rigid carbon fibre. As numerous accidents in both F1 and on the road have indicated, the rigidity of a carbon fibre tub is incredible. McLaren claims the difference in structural rigidity between the hard-topped Coupe and the open-air Spider is immeasurable.
Stripped to its essence, the MP4-12C’s chassis is but a carbon fibre tub with aluminum beams bolted fore and aft.
Ah, but what is attached to those simple girders is wonderfully sophisticated. Of course, the MP4 rides on F1like double wishbones at all four wheels. But the magic of what controls those double wishbones — a combination of pneumatic, hydraulic and spring technology — is what sets the McLaren apart.
All that techno-wizardry pays dividends on the rollercoaster curves that pose Mosport’s greatest challenges. Roll is undetectable, grip is limpet-like and steering is responsive.
McLaren designed the MP4 first for maximum performance and then the company made what concessions it found necessary to make it livable as a street car. Such delineations may sound like pitiful justification to spend $258,700 (for the MP4-12C Coupe) or $287,200 (for the Spider version), but McLaren’s race breeding is worth it.