I must say, Nick, that was a nice little piece and I'll take your sensible approach over a meaningless Tiff drift-fest any day of the week.
However, since you are asking for ideas, let's get down to brass tacks, then: Why don't you give the nice McLaren folks back their long-termer, since it is essentially still a press car being provided by the factory. Then go and borrow a customer's car (maybe RIC from this board will volunteer) and, likewise, hunt down a customer Aventador, Huayra, GT2 RS, 458 and may as well get a customer F12, too. If you can find board member KSA, please get his customer Lexus LFA, since we know it is fast.
Now, once you have gone and procured all of these
customer-spec cars (do I really need to bold that, yes, I do), go and drag race them or take them to the track. Or take them for a latte through the drive-through, whatever. Tell us how it is. THAT would be interesting and relevant automotive journalism.
I suspect there is a long list of reasons why this is not feasible. For sure, it is difficult to find owners willing to lend their cars. Also, you surely risk pissing off the empire, i.e. the hand that feeds your existence, otherwise known as car manufacturers. But, really, if we have journalists risking their lives in war-torn countries to bring us news, can we not ask the automotive media to put in a little bit of elbow grease and skin in the game, rather than continue to pass along these paid advertorials disguised as objective product reviews?