I made it down to McLaren Greenwich yesterday (Merry Christmas to me!) and met with Peter. When we arrived, the roads were slick, it was raining, and traffic was a disaster. Given the conditions, and that I had been up front with Peter in saying I was not an immediate customer, I had resigned myself to a drive being out of the question, and a ride in one having odds somewhere between unlikely and not-going-to-happen.
The first part of of our meeting was really Peter explaining the history of McLaren and of Miller. He went into the evolution of the 12c and covered all the road car related bits in detail from the F1 to the P1. As an enthusiast and something of an information junky, I knew most of it already, but Peter did a great job of rolling through it and not having it sound like the millionth time he'd talked to these points!
For me, most of the questions centered around service. I live 3.5 hours away from Miller (4.5 if you time from how long it took to get home
) so getting the car there and back, turn around time, and everything related to that is one of my biggest concerns. After answering my questions, he offered to take my for a ride to the service center so I could see it in person and have the confidence that it really exists and is a top notch facility. So I said 'no'... Just kidding, of course I said yes!
The car we took over there was a Volcano Yellow Spider. In the dreariness of the day it looked like a patch of sun rolling down the road. As a passenger, I can echo a lot of the sentiment that has already been stated here; in 'normal' mode the ride is amazingly comfortable, the loud petal makes the car go from slow to fast very quickly, putting the rear window down in the spider makes for a glorious noise! On a patch of moderately bumpy road Peter switched the suspension setting from 'normal' to 'track' (it might have been 'sport', it was a lot to process) -- it truly is amazing what it does to the character of the car, how much more stiff and unforgiving it gets. Flip the other switch (again not sure if we went to track or sport) and the engine sounded meaner, everything seemed to happen quicker. Traffic and rain prevented any real demo of hooliganism, but it was pretty clear that those dials, turned to 'S' or 'T' are somehow related to the secret sauce that turns Bruce Banner into the Hulk.
Arriving at the service center, there was a beautiful old grey Ferrari. I think Peter said it was a 250, something... Regardless, it was beautiful and expensive. I kept my distance. For those who don't know, McLaren Greenwich is part of Miller Motorcars which runs dealerships for several high-end marques; Aston, Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls, Bugatti, Maserati, and Pagani. All of them are serviced at this one location. Walking through the service bay is a car guys dream. There was a Ferrari F50 up on a lift, an old Bentley from the 1930's, Astons, Rolls, Bentley... And the facility itself is spotless with plenty of room to store cars inside if not being actively worked on.
After the tour, it was time to head back to the dealership. Peter handed me the key fob, "You drive."
Wait, what?
My already overloaded brain struggled with the concept. Lucky for me the same bits that tend to allow the unintended blather to escape my mouth without proper processing came to the rescue, "Ok!"
My first experience behind the wheel was backing this ray of sunshine out of its parking spot. The space was not tight, but I wasn't taking any chances, so I turned the wheel hard and slowly backed up. What I didn't know is that turning the wheel hard puts the fronts on a bit of an angle, which causes some feedback in the steering wheel. 30 seconds after getting in the driver's seat, I thought I had broken the car. Come to find out I hadn't.
So, novice supercar driver painfully aware of the price tag of that which he is driving, rain, traffic, unfamiliar roads. As you may imagine, the next bit isn't going to read like an article in a car magazine. As a spoiler alert, I will say that the fastest I got the car was 71 and that it lasted for about 2 seconds and was in a straight line between the breakdown lane and a very large truck.
Most of the driving was done through town and at speeds less than 45 mph. The car was amazingly easy to drive. I left it in Auto and in Normal mode. At one light I was looking in the rearview mirror and the person behind me was snapping a picture of the car. I felt like a Kardashian with a useful skillset.
If I had to come up with negatives, there are only two, and both are exceptionally minor. First is the level of the seat. For me. it's a bit too high. This car had the fancy electric 77 way seats. Other threads have said the manual seats sit lower, and I'm sure that would address that concern. The other is room in the foot-well on the drivers side. I got me some big feet and when I would go from gas to brake I would always feel like I was at risk of catching the lip of my left shoe before landing on the brake... Some strategic replacement of said left foot addressed that though I feel the real solution is to properly learn how to left foot brake.
As you who are still reading may have gathered, it was a great day. The people; Peter, the receptionist, the guys in the service center, were all very friendly. The facilities were all very nice (they even had McLaren branded paper towel in the bathroom) and clean. The cars were amazing. There was no rush, Peter answered the questions as best he could, and I felt like I was treated very well given that I had been upfront about not currently being in a position to purchase.
If you guys have any questions or would like any more details, please let me know.
-Jamie.
