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Just finished running the car in the first Houston half mile top speed event. Lots of fabulous cars there (including a highly-modified, full race Ford GT that ran 212 in the half-mile!). Luckily for us, there was a white 458 Italia coupe running too. I made three passes, all within 2mph of each other. My best run was 157.5mph for the half mile - about what I expected. The best run the Italia made was 147.0! I think this pretty much puts to rest all the BS about Ferraris in the real world being different machines to the cars that are supplied to the journos - the McLaren was over 10mph faster every time.
I could never get launch to work, so all my runs were done in track-track with auto shifting. Maybe its a 160 car with launch? Using 'aero' (spolier up) gave me my slowest time of 155.5
For my last run, an on-line car blog called Gearheadflicks.com fitted two cameras plus a borrowed V-Box. I'll post the link when I get it.
Final comment about MP4 vs 458; there were crowds around the McLaren all day, no-one took any notice of the Italia. Crowd reaction was 100% positive, usually along the lines of "I never thought I'd see one of these" I'm consistently amazed by how much the car-loving public seems to know about the McLaren heritage and technical innovations.
This was a great day, the rumor is that the next one will be a full mile; what do you think - 190+?
I could never get launch to work, so all my runs were done in track-track with auto shifting. Maybe its a 160 car with launch? Using 'aero' (spolier up) gave me my slowest time of 155.5
For my last run, an on-line car blog called Gearheadflicks.com fitted two cameras plus a borrowed V-Box. I'll post the link when I get it.
Final comment about MP4 vs 458; there were crowds around the McLaren all day, no-one took any notice of the Italia. Crowd reaction was 100% positive, usually along the lines of "I never thought I'd see one of these" I'm consistently amazed by how much the car-loving public seems to know about the McLaren heritage and technical innovations.
This was a great day, the rumor is that the next one will be a full mile; what do you think - 190+?