I love the seating position (much better than the too-upright seats in the P1 or especially the Porsche), I‘m keen on the ultra-fast steering, the gearbox, the throttle response and again the noise. I love the fact that it’s such a linear response to every situation. Engine. After all, the world is waiting…For me, it’s LaFerrari that’s the best to drive of these three, and by some margin. Ferrari - despite being wonderfully helpful in setting up the whole thing - unsurprisingly weren’t keen to lend us their facility for running around in the other two…First up, the McLaren P1, probably the car I’m most familiar with. The roads were mixed: a bit of town, lots of long-flowing A-roads and tighter Italian B-roads, often with a lot of bumps, bad surfaces and hairpins. But it never completely manages to hide its weight and bottoms out on some more extreme cambers, which is jarring and expensive.
The front is delicate, light and accurate with super-sensitive steering that actually needs more weight. They’re all the pinnacle of their companies’ technological prowess, ultimate automotive performance statements, and quite simply the three greatest cars in the world right now. 5 years ago. And as a component, the P1 asks much of the driver, but if you’re on your game it’ll give you greater thrills, richer memories, deeper exhilaration. But it’s also not completely bonkers. Though the hybrid system helps infill the torque curve, this is a car that totally celebrates its turbocharging, and yes, it still gives you a slap of boost when everything gets spinning. McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918? Is this the moment EVs go mainstream?Everything you need to know about the McLaren F1 successor from the man behind itBBC Studios is a commercial company that is owned by the BBC (and just the BBC).No money from the licence fee was used to create this website. This is thrilling - and sounds like a technological apocalypse in the cabin, but out here, on the real roads and with real bumps and cambers and grease and oil, the McLaren makes you concentrate a bit too much. These vehicles may be masterpieces of engineering and design. The LaFerrari’s cloaked electrics mean it is more natural on the road, and the chassis is sweet as honey. It feels like a groundbreaking moment. Stupid name and all.Which means, if the verdicts go the way I expect, Ollie may have picked the McLaren, I’ve nominated the Ferrari, and CT has either picked the Ferrari or the Porsche.
share. And there are all those noises going on too, the turbo whoosh and chatter, the electric flickerings, the exhaust and suspension chatter.But if it’s the McLaren that stays with me, it’s the Ferrari that feels so much richer as an experience when you’re behind the wheel. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Mounted in the middle is a twin-turbo, 3.8-liter, V-8 flamethrower with an electric motor playing backup. "Top Gear" always wanted to get the Porsche 918, McLaren P1, and Ferrari LaFerrari together on one track, but "The Grand Tour" got it done in the very first episode. In reality, it only goes to highlight how well-developed LaFerrari is: while the McLaren feels frustrated by pitch and surface changes and the 918 feels heavy and bottoms out, LaFerrari rides above it all. Driving through towns is as easy and effortless as it would be in a 650S. And that’s why I’d have it. But you have to show respect: hard shift from second to third, and the P1 will break traction on the damp roads and focus the mind. The only issue I have with the interior being the ridiculously upright positioning of the seat backs, but I guess it’s Porsche’s way of making sure you’re sitting up and paying attention to its ultimate creation. It feels like it’s pushing into new territory, with a slab of swipeable touchscreen glass, configurable TFT dials and the potential for proper EV-mode usage. Quite right too, most would say, and I’m tempted to agree, but just as the BMW i8 feels as if it’s moved the sports-car game on, I’m tempted to think the LaFerrari looks backwards rather than forwards, pines for the old days, is an end rather than a beginning.
If I wanted an everyday car and had this kind of money, I’d drive a Range Rover or S-Class Merc daily and have something a bit more… wild for the weekend. In the P1 and 918, you choose your mode of attack through a number of different strategies. Of all the cars here it’s the one that challenges you the most, but mastering that challenge is what makes the P1 so appealing.It’s a car whose potential you would never grow tired of exploring, and which would offer ever-greater rewards as you did.The 918 feels like it answers a wider brief: an all-wheel drive hybrid Spyder that you could genuinely use everyday, in pretty much any conditions.I love the quality of the interior and the peerless connectivity. It feels complex, and deep. I adore it: it’s wheeled proof that the future of the sports car is in good hands.Mastering the P1 would be occasionally alarming, but hugely rewardingBut benchmarks are there to be challenged. This thread is archived. You’ll get out of it with an inexplicable thirst and a desire to call your relatives to reassure them you’re OK. You won’t be able to, because you’ll be trembling. But what you can’t deny, is that beyond all the Ferrari-branded tat and faint air of arrogance, Ferrari makes some pretty astonishing cars. It understeered for the cornering unless you got very tricksy with it, riding the brakes and building up boost against them. These hard-won road manners will translate the world over. The profits we make from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. And the P1 simply… disappears up the road.