Woking Class Hero

I've been waiting to write this one for some time. Reactions to the biggest, most important, most influential sports car test of the decade.

The dust has settled now on the majority of group tests in UK magazines featuring the McLaren MP4-12C. The general consensus, as played out in Car, Evo,  Autocar, Top Gear (magazine) et cetera all arrive at uncomfortably similar conclusions: that the McLaren MP4-12C is an unengaging super sports car, and therefore, by sidestepping its very raison d'etre, is a disappointment. Moreover, it loses to its arch enemy and main rival: the Ferrari 458 Italia. Let the post mortem begin. (I'll try to keep the Latin and French to a minimum now, apologies.)

Firstly, there's the infinitely contentious and thoroughly subjective business of the styling, which I will largely ignore, as most magazine testers promised to do also. Granted, the McLaren is not as dramatic, or as beautiful, or as memorable, as the 458, inside or (more importantly) out. But it may age more gracefully, just as the McLaren F1 looks far fresher a similarly elderly Ferrari, like the 512 TR. Time will tell if McLaren cannily played the long game aesthetically, but I couldn't help thinking, as I digested the musings of Britain's finest motoring journalists in the aforementioned tests, that the relatively plain styling, versus the more extrovert, esoteric, and downright sexy Italian, didn't get the machine from Woking off to a flyer in any of their perceptions, subconsciously or otherwise.

Never has any car needed butterfly doors more.

The central hub, for me, of why the 12C was second-bested in its hour of reckoning, was summed up best by Henry Catchpole of Evo, who concluded:

"It seems to do up to five-tenths pace brilliantly and we've found that it does ten-tenths pace round a track phenomenally well, but at the moment I'm not sure if it's capable of being really satisfying in that crucial seven- to eight-tenths where so much fast road driving is done. So it'd be fantastic on the long boring journey to a European circuit cruising all over the horrible Belgian motorways with all the serenity of an A8. And you know that with the push of a button it could drive straight out of the pitlane at Spa and nail the braking point into Les Coombes, but it seems they've completely missed the middle ground."

It's that last clause that seals the McLaren's lacklustre fate. In trying to create an all-conquering car, the talent of the 12C was stretched to such an extent that it wears thin in the most crucial area, the usable, playtime area, when the driver wants to engage with the road and process of driving, and therefore the car itself.

At that point the driver isn't thinking about how the car looks from the outside, the comparative heritage of its badge, or any of the other factors that might put of an armchair pundit. But according to the best hacks around, the MP4-12C is another car whose absolutism, its sheer competence, renders it an ultimately incomplete device, because although it performs the functions of a sports car better than any other on the planet, it fails to garnish them with involvement, and de facto (sorry) enjoyment.

You might be thinking, at this point, that I've got no right to comment on the car like this as I'm not an experienced road tester, and I haven't driven either car. I've not even seen a 458 in the metal, though I have studied a 12C at McLaren's new Hyde Park showroom, where it did look miles better than in any pictures I've come across.

It's a fair criticism, since my sources are basically other people's perceptions of the car, translated into a digestible magazine format. What I'm trying to do is just study and appreciate where these verdicts have arisen from, and I reckon I've nailed it down. The McLaren MP4-12C is a victim of its own success, slaughtered by the sum of its parts. In short, it is a device detrimentally ahead of its time.

There's a lot under the 12C's skin. But it'll struggle to get under yours.

There are two ways in which a car can be ahead of its time, and two reflections that can emerge from this. The first is a favourable one, where a car's construction and features elevate it above the competition to an untouchable dominance. Some examples?

The Ferrari F40, the first carbon fibre bodied road car. The McLaren F1, the first carbon tub in a road car. The Citroen DS, with its adaptive headlamps and hydro-pneumatic self levelling suspension.
All things not unusual today, some even mainstream. But all these features, the former adapted from racing, the latter from original designs, elevated their respective cars to greatness, both in their own era, and in automotive history.

McLaren, by their own admission, developed the MP4-12C as a direct competitor to the 430 Scuderia. The 458 may have arrived earlier than expected. and have possessed a far greater leap forward over its forbearer than predicted, but the McLaren still has all the right numbers.
The 12C is more powerful, more torquey, lighter, faster to 60, 125, and 186mph, has a higher top speed, shorter stopping distances, lower fuel consumption, and produces less CO2. It is a stunning engineering achievement, giving more than the Ferrari, and using less.

But it's with these higher figures that the McLaren's rich tapestry of talent begins to unravel. The 3.8l, 592bhp V8 outpokes the 562bhp Ferrari, but in being turbocharged, it suffers from the old adages of (incredibly slight, but still perceptible) turbo lag, and a more muted noise than the 458's flat plane crank howl. The 458 may have an active exhaust and electric engine management for which it has been bemoaned for sounding synthetic, but it still blares a more tuneful, more special tone that the softly-spoken Brit.

Meanwhile, it's the chassis that is the game-changer, both for and against the McLaren's favour. If I were to tell you (and this is true) that McLaren bought another performance car with which to compare, challenge and beat with the 12C, you'd immediately be able to predict what sort of experience it would turn out to provide. So did the Woking boys get hold of a Gallardo, or F430? Maybe a GT3RS, or a Lotus Exige?

They actually bought the giant-killing, technological powerhouse that is: the Nissan GT-R. With that in mind, here's the handling side of the coin.

It's the chassis 'advances' that have really set the tongues wagging and pens scribbling. In short, the 12C shuns anti-roll bars and a limited-slip differential, two inefficient 'necessary evils' of chassis construction, in order to forge its own path and create an all conquering, all road machine. And McLaren dideth create it, and world's motoring journalists saw it, and they saw that it was good.

Both systems are beautifully simple principles. Instead of rigid anti roll bars connecting adjacent suspension systems, the 12C is suspended on hydraulic shock absorbers, and when the car's ECU detects roll into a corner, it forces more fluid into the stressed damper to pump the car back up level, to a calculated point, and keep it flat. Flat cornering means faster corning, and therefore faster progress (and lap times.) So when in track mode, the suspension can be 'pretensioned' to a very firm setting, yet unlike stiff dampers on conventional sports cars, the 12C isn't saddled with the same harsh characteristics on the road. The hydraulics actually do make it more compliant.

Other systems, such as the adaptive magnetorheological in Ferraris and Audis, aim to deliver similar 'have your cake and eat it' benefits, but the presences of ARBs and the lack of flexibility in the settings available leave them as a halfway house next to the McLaren, which has a ride to embarrass a purpose-built luxury saloon. Look out for similar systems on all the next generation S Class and 7 Series barges.

So McLaren are way ahead of the game, pats on the back all round? Not according to our journalists. All have noted that in the fraction of a second it takes for a swift turn to be recognised and reacted to by the suspension, there's a small dead phase to the steering, an unnerving lack of feel before the 'wheel weights up and pushes through the curve. Unlike the engine criticisms, this isn't simply a foible you'd work around over time, like turbo lag, its a confidence-denting admission. The 12C's case isn't helped by the fact its sworn enemy, the 458, boasts hyper-sensitized steering, with only two turns lock-to-lock, so instant response is very much the order of the day, like it or not.

The other revelation is more theatrical, and probably less 'relevant', but it contributes to the entertainment a mini-supercar should deliver. The Brake-Steer System, which independently slows the inside rear wheel in a turn to force a tighter line, (just like the XDS differential on a Seat Ibiza Cupra!) doesn't allow for the big oversteer moments and controlled slides that motoring types love. I told you it was a largely irrelevant point.

Can't help feeling though that the McLaren seems to want to get you to your destination as quickly as possible. The Ferrari, with its five-way manettino and flamboyant fandango ways, is more of a willing companion to play in/with.

 It's not irresponsible unless you are, but given that turning off the traction control in the McLaren requires a secret button code from the Woking factory, whereas on the Ferrari you simply twist a convenient switch, it's the Ferrari that wins the heart of the inner child.

All of these features do indeed make the McLaren perform better than the Ferrari, but perform seems the wrong word, because it's not really 'performing', it's simply 'doing'. It possesses the same party trick as a Veyron, in that its real quality comes not from the outside of its talent envelope, but how politely it conducts itself at the opposite end, during the mundanities of driving. But who honestly buys a supercar on the basis it will be more co-operative in traffic, and more comfortable when not on maximum attack?

Of course the Veyron has its ridiculous top speed trump card to fall back, whereas the 12C, although a royal flush to the Ferrari's two pairs in terms of numbers, has to succeed as a driver's machine, and purely because of its technological advancements, it doesn't.
Ironically, the very promising MP4-12C GT3 race car, which has an LSD and ARBs to comply with FIA regulations, would arguably prove a better platform for a true Modena beater.

Where next for the 12C? McLaren have reported strong pre-orders, and there'll be new versions to come. A convertible will add drama, at the expense of dynamic focus (perhaps no bad things, for once in a supercar?) and inevitably there'll be a slightly lighter, slightly more powerful version in a few years in the Superleggera/Challenge Stradale vein. I don't expect McLaren to pull any kind of u-turn to the extent of using conventional ARBs and an LSD to really stick it to the triumphant 458 Italia though.

I do feel for McLaren, because to see their brainchild, their baby, beaten up by the same subjective issues in every test must be heartbreaking, after all the investment, time, and effort that's gone into the car. Whether it's anyone's 'fault' is debatable, because although McLaren did lose sight of why we love supercars, they never lost sight of their philosophy for the 12C.


Its attention to detail is exquisite; my favourite snippet is that rather than embossing the 'McLaren' motif onto every component, it was engraved, to minimise added material, and save weight. That's a fabulously intricate idea. But it does betray the idea of how every aspect of its construction and performance has been pre-planned, whereas I get the impression the Ferrari will always surprise its driver. The McLaren is a great deal of finely honed parts working in a unison never seen before. The Ferrari is, well, a Ferrari. It's the greatest sports car on Earth.

Both can be beaten. Taking Evo's test as an example, neither are as demanding as a Noble M600, as theatrical as Mercedes SLS, and both are more impractical than a Porsche 911 Turbo.

There's so much more to say on these two. The ergonomics and titillation of their respective cabins. The track performance. It's interesting that following Chris Harris' infamous Jalopnik blog, there is great suspicion over the dominance of the 458's lap times. Both Ferrari and McLaren used pit crews in all comparisons, the McLaren with Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres for the headline grabbing 3.1s to 60mph, while the Evo Ferrari was Italian registered, nurturing conspiracies it may have received last minute special factory treatment. Until a customer model is tested, this remains unconstituted rumour.

Both cars also carried obscene amounts of cost options and garnish, something which needs to be addressed The 12C and 458 press cars were well over £200,00 worth, heading for hypercar, Aventador money. There's a very interesting, and somewhat shocking Car Magazine blog here on that very subject: 'How to blow £70k on options'.

Let's not also forget that this is McLaren's first attempt at a series production car, and its first road model since 1994. Given the amount of legislative and technological evolution since then, that McLaren can run the Ferrari so close at all is a triumph for the marque. Despite this, the car itself has been soundly defeated.

The irony is that the performance car world is moving to McLaren. It's already very efficient, very usable, very advanced. But it is ahead of its time, and simply, while we can get away with objects like the Ferrari 458 Italia, they'll always come out on top. Now, let the ageing process begin.

Here's a link to the 5th Gear twin test, which plays out many of the things I've explored here. 5th Gear clip.

I've deliberately written this prior to the Top Gear television review, since I feel that programme no longer does justice to any car featured within it. I'll predict Jeremy Clarkson will, amidst the shouting and metaphor-ing, come to the same conclusion in the 12C as his peers, but it'll be dummed down to a sickening level. It will, importantly however, likely discredit the McLaren to a much wider audience, and if the technical causes of this are not covered properly, it'll be a huge disservice to McLaren. But that's the way of Top Gear these days. McLaren more than anyone else, will be hoping for a refreshing verdict.

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