EXCLUSIVE: Big Mac WILL Beat Big Bug (..?)

I've a mate, a thoroughly nice petrolhead mate, who now works for McLaren Automotive. He was in my year at school, and now he works on the MP4-12C assembly line in Woking. Jealousy abound.

Anyhow, after a chance meeting on New Year's Eve, I got to talking with him about his fantastic job, and tried, via the dirty trick of buying several too many rounds for us, to get him to spill the beans on some upcoming McLaren projects. Dishonourable and downright dastardly I know, but journalism is my priority. What with work commitments around the festive period, I've only just got round to sharing this on TyreRoar.

To be fair to the chap in question, he was steadfast in his silence. I wasn't able to prise anything out of him about the MP4-12C 'Superlegerra Scuderia' style model - the powered up, lightened version that'll no doubt be on the way towards the end of this year. Thankfully, a helpful video popped up on YouTube this week appearing to show a 12C 'HS' (High Sport) with a dealer-confirmed 675bhp and GT3 aping aero. Tantalising stuff.

A grainy shot says the soft top will be a hard top - eh?

My jovial interrogation also failed to bear fruit on the 12C convertible subject. Will the car have a folding carbon fibre or aluminium panel, a targa or a cloth roof? Will it be at Frankfurt or Geneva this year? Not a sausage was let on. And of course, Formula One titbits were a dead end too. The Offical Secrets Act has got nothing on Ron's minions.

I did get something though. It might be complete bobbins, a red herring to throw me off the scent or satisfy my pestering, or it could be rumour mill speculation from inside McLaren itself, but what I was told is this. The super, mega-McLaren, the F1-successor hypercar in development currently, will be faster, in terms of acceleration and top speed, than the Bugatti Veyron - while producing less power.

This is far less clear cut than it initially appears. Although the mega-McLaren will apparently accelerate faster, we don't know in what discipline this is. 0-60? Will it be slower to 60mph but faster to 100, or 125? And unless McLaren go for all-wheel drive, how are they going to transmit such power onto the road to gain a sub 2.5 0-60 dash? Very trick launch control, and KERS? The lightweight route also beckons - with a Veyron being the porky side of two tonnes, beating the bulge could be half the battle won.

And so to top speed top trumps. A Bugatti Veyron (notice we're not talking SuperSport here, I was explicitly referred to the 'standard' Veyron 16.4 by the lad) tops out at 253mph. As we know, going incrementally faster at very high speeds requires exponentially more oomph, hence why a SuperSport gets 196bhp more than a normal Veyron, to achieve a further 15mph. But as I've said, I was told the halo McLaren will produce less brake horsepower than the Veyron. Surely then, given mass is a negligible factor at double ton speeds, a ridiculously slippery body shape is the only way to achieve such high velocity? And how will such a design mesh with McLaren's legendary packaging, usability and downforce requirements? I'm baffled.

I suspect the reason that I'm baffled is that my tipsy mate got thoroughly fed up of me badgering him for a story on what Macca are up to, and said something ludicrous enough to make me think, but far enough away from the truth to protect Ron Dennis' brainchild.

Just remember, if the Big Mac does see off the Bugatti, you know where you heard it first.


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