The mighty BMW motor is what this car is all about. There is no substitute for cubic inches, and there is no forced aspirated motor in the world that comes close to the sound and throttle response of the mighty 6.1 liter, normally-aspirated V12. In fact, among naturally-aspirated engines, the only one that comes close is the bonkers 7.3 liter AMG-built Mercedes V12 in the Pagani Zonda F.
Power-to-weight ratio is everything however, and the McLaren is 200 kg (440 lbs) lighter than even the Zonda, so its ability to pile on speed at the flexing of your right toe is awesome. The sound this engine makes when you lay into the throttle instantly has the hairs on the back of your neck standing to attention.
After the sound of 12 throttle bodies inhaling hard, the next thing that hits you is G-force and then the horizon reeling experience that you see on Star Trek when the USS Enterprise goes into warp drive.
The gearshift is firm but precise, the unassisted steering heavier than you would like at low speeds. But as the needle cracks on around the speedometer, the steering lightens up and becomes full of feel and sensation.
When a car brakes heavily, the center of pressure rushes forward, lightening the load on the rear and creating instability. On the McLaren, the pop-up rear spoiler takes on a 30-degree angle of attack to the horizontal during heavy braking that helps to keep the center of pressure central, spreading the braking loads equally across the four wheels. No surprise, then, to find this feature on the current Mercedes SLR McLaren.
When the wing is raised, it also exposes additional brake cooling ducts. This active cooling is said to obviate the need for ABS, which is felt to hurt driver feel and add complexity and weight due to their inefficiency. The brakes themselves are huge Brembo vented cross- drilled discs clamped by four pot calipers.
|
In isolation it is hard for anyone, even someone who regularly drives supercars, to fully appreciate the McLaren F1 with just a short drive on a track. Owners I know who are lucky enough to have an F1 in their private collections speak of it like an old friend rather than just another car. They describe weekends away and even longer trips across Europe, something hard to do in rivals that have comparatively little luggage room and excessive girth for negotiating small city streets.
This proves the point that when Gordon Murray and Peter Stevens were penning the McLaren F1 all those years ago, they were also thinking about a car that could really be used everyday rather than a toy that would be just taken out for a short blast.
So 14 years on, the beacon lit by the McLaren F1 still shines brightly. When you consider the size of the team and budget required to build this first all carbon-fiber supercar and project it safely to 240 mph back then, it seems small beer compared to the massive corporate effort required by Bugatti to mount its challenge.
The McLaren F1 may have hit the ground running eight years before the turn of the 20th century, but its concept and execution undoubtedly set the precedent for every major-league supercar to see the light of day since. On that basis, there is no doubt that the McLaren F1 is the seminal supercar that led its genre into the 21st century. 
Next page: Gallery
|
