The Murderer McLaren P1

McLaren’s £866,000, 903 bhp hybrid hypercar that promises to be the most involving car to drive on road and track. That’s a big claim. The heart is the familiar 3.8-liter V8 bi-turbo that serves duty in the 12C and 650S, but with larger turbos to produce 727 bhp and 531 lb-ft. The ‘leccy bit pushes out 176 bhp and 192 lb ft (twice the KERS system on a 2013 F1 car), and handily fills in the torque hole left by turbo lag. It all drives exclusively to the rear wheels via McLaren’s seven-speed twin-clutch, achieving 0-62 mph in 2.8 seconds and a quarter mile in 9.8 seconds at 152 mph. That’s ruddy quick. And it’ll run in pure electric mode when you want to go quietly, and plug in to the mains, too.

It feels a bit like a beautifully crafted Lotus, light, agile, and transparent. The tech all works: press the EV-mode button and the motor shuts down, allowing you to drive around on just electric power (we managed seven miles on the motorway at 80mph in Europe and more in town). And when you let everything off the leash? It’ll shatter your idea of what fast really means—warp time.

In fact, driving the P1 on the road is an exercise in restraint. If we’re honest, you can’t really push the thing and remain legal, because it produces superbike-bashing acceleration and cornering G. The rest of the world just isn’t geared up to cope. Get to a racetrack, engage ‘Race mode’ – a process that takes 30 seconds, as the wing rises and the suspension drops 50mm. You can feel the active aero at all times, and the P1 is constantly feeding information to you through your hands, bottom, ears, and eyes. It’s flat, no body roll, but – weird word to use – sensual. It’s a thing of beauty, and fear. Utterly brilliant.

You can see out of it thanks to usable rear-view mirrors, and the view ahead is wide-screen. It feels surprisingly small. And unthreatening. And easy. The all-carbon ‘MonoCage’ is bare, and it’s a bit noisy and granular without the optional lightweight carpeting, but it’s ergonomic and comfy. The stereo works, there’s sat-nav, and you can bowl about on pure electric. And when that piston engine, electric motor and induction all chime in under heavy throttle, you get a noise that sounds like the Starship Enterprise being sucked through a jet engine. It’s incredible!

You’ll be lucky. Due to its limited production, with only 375 units built and all sold, the P1 is likely to remain a pipedream for all but the fortunate few. Saying that, it officially manages 34mpg, and you can drive it all day without breaking a sweat. It’ll even handle zero-emissions, electric-only running in city centers.

“McLaren P1 review: Terrifying, brilliant, devastatingly quick. There's nothing like the P1. McLaren has upped the hypercar stakes.”