road test

When I got into the cockpit of the McLaren MP4-12C, I was suffering from a terrible sinus head-ache. It was turning winter, the air in Jozi was dry, and it was just something I lived with.

When I got out of the car, I didn’t have a sinus headache anymore. R4-million, but there’s no denying the results.

This should give you just a small idea of the brutal acceleration you’ll experience in this car. Remember when you were 16 and you took your first drag of a cigarette, the head-rush that kept you coming back for more. Identical experience here only this won’t give you cancer, it’ll straight up kill you if you get it wrong.

Happy “but” here. It’s implausibly hard to actually get it wrong in this car. So much so that it’s a criticism Pedro from Daytona is happy to share with me “people say this car is actually too perfect”.

The McLaren MP4-12C is the first production car from the British car manufacturer since the mesmerizing F1 set records in 1992. That’s almost 20 years without so much as a facelift, and this time around, instead of relying on the Germans at Mercedes to do it for them, the McLaren team hosted an all-British tea party and did it themselves.

The kudos would be showered on the Brits outright, but you must bear in mind that McLaren have one of the most successful Formula 1 teams ever. Some of that tech has been squeeze into this long awaited supercar to make it more exclusive and sought after. The inclusion of “brake steer” for example, tech which slows the inside/turning rear tire to reduce understeer when cornering hard.

Driving this car can actually be simulated by heading around a go-kart track on a Sunday morning with your buddies. Of course you won’t experience the speed or the longing looks from everyone you pass on the road, but my example is a lot more accessible.

The car is only 1.2m high when the gullwing doors are closed, so you can just picture your ass getting torn up the tar as you break laws on our nation’s highways. It’s this low center of gravity as well as the ProActive Chassis Control that make this car so easy to handle. The steering is actually quite heavy to the touch, but that’s mostly down to the thick tires you’re being carried around on. Once you’re at speed and actually driving, the steering is so responsive you have moments of nerves between lane changes.

When it comes to changing lanes, there is always the blind spot to think of in a coupe-like car such as the McLaren. And there pretty much isn’t one here. Of course you’ve got more than enough power to take on anyone coming up from behind you, but there is always that split-second of “did I check right before I moved?”

You would imagine driving a supercar to be a quite frightful experience. But in the McLaren, it isn’t at all. Sure there are moments of fear as you hit 220km/h through Woodmead, but robot-hopping in Sandton, even as you put-foot to get to that robot in time, just isn’t that scary. In fact the thing you’re worried about the majority of the time is scratching the body-paint, not totaling the car.

“It’s a car you can drive everyday” I’m told, “the kind of car you can really own and drive.” And they’re not lying. The drive of the car is far from uncomfortable; in fact, I’ve driven some hatchbacks that don’t take bumps as well. Inside they’ve gone for minimalism while still giving you most of the essentials you’ll need day-in and day-out, like a radio with a touchscreen control, and air-conditioner and the world’s smallest sun-visors. So minimal is the inside of the car in fact, that the unboxing video I did took all of 55 seconds.

So you’ve got a car you can (if you want) drive every day. But you’re not buying a McLaren for its convenience, you want to know about the performance.

In the corners this car is great, and I look forward to the track day they’ve promised us they’ll put together so we can really put it through its paces. But even at average speed, this car handles brilliantly. As I said above, the low-center of gravity makes it handle like a go-kart, and couple that in with the almost 50/50 weight distribution and the F1 inspired “brake steer” and you have a car that if anything will oversteer, and when that happens you rub yourself out of the corner with a bit of extra speed.

Get yourself a patch of open highway, and you’ll see the true meaning of McLaren. The acceleration in the MP4-12C (crap name, we all agree) comes almost immediately thanks to the twin-turbo set up. There’s no waiting around or anticipating like in a Ferrari. It’s just there and it’s efficient. You stick your foot into the floor board, grip your hands to the steering wheel and duck your head into your shoulders to avoid any whiplash. Soon you’ve run out of road, the back of your head is a bloody mess and your eyes are trying to find their way back to the front of your face.

Speed is addictive and we all love to go places quickly (well in Jozi we do anyway) but frankly the McLaren failed to scare me too much. Let me tell you what I mean.

My first car: a Toyota Corolla 1600. One of those box shaped ones. The perfect car to be handed down at age 17. “Off you go, crash it if you must but just learn to drive” my Dad said.

At 110km/h on the M1 to Pretoria that car became that house you always see getting lifted up into the eye of a tornado. The seats slid back at least 5-inches, the windows rolled down if they were up and if they were down the back windshield flew out, the radio just stopped working altogether and the engine started poking its head out of the bonnet.

Terrifying, yes. But at the same time, you knew you were pushing the limits of a machine, you knew you were tempting fate, you knew that you were glad you didn’t have any dependents and didn’t need an up to date will. You knew what it felt like to drive a stock car in the 50’s.

With the McLaren, you kind of hoped that they had created something that would let you feel what it’s like to drive a Formula 1 car. F1 drivers are after all the fittest athletes on the planet and their bodies can take up to 6 Gs and yada yada whatever else your mate said to you in the bar last week.

The McLaren isn’t like that though. It’s really calm and easy to drive inside. The seats are comfortable and the Meridian audio system is good enough for you to play your favorite song at full tilt. In all it’s a driver’s car, not a racing driver’s car.

As with any car capable of 130km/h or more, what’s the point though? Sure I get why we have speed limits, but spending this amount of cash on a car you can only ever drive sensibly is a complete waste of resources. I take the same stance with this car as I did with the Mini Roadster, a car made with a track in mind: take it out, as often as you can to a racetrack and remind yourself why you work so hard for your money (with apologies to the Grillhouse in Sandton).

SPECS
Engine – 3.8-litre V8 Twin Turbo
Redline – 8 500rpm
Power – 441kw and 600Nm
Top speed – 33-km/h
0-100 – 3.3 seconds
0-200 – 9.1 seconds
Consumption – 11.7L/100km
Cost – R4-million