My car has been ready since Wednesday but business commitments prevented me from taking it until this evening.
I wanted to collect the car from the dealership because it's only about 5 miles away, so David at McLaren Birmingham kindly kept the dealership open late and arranged for my wife Alison and I to be collected from home (in no less than a Rolls-Royce Ghost!) so that we could both enjoy the experience of the first drive in the MP4-12C together.
The handover was great, David really knows the car inside-out and would probably have willingly spent all night taking us through every detail of the car if we'd wanted, but as you can probably imagine I was itching to get it out on the open road, so we'll fast forward to the moment of truth...
The car fired up with an assertive roar, 1st gear selected, handbrake released, a light queeze of the throttle and the McLaren pulled of beautifully (infinitely smoother than my M3's often snatchy M-DCT transmission). For me the position of the indicator stalks and all controls is pretty much perfect, visibility is good, we're off! (Note: Contrary to rumour, McLaren do recommend that the car is run in for the first 650 miles and that involves keeping the revs below 5,500 and above 2,000 wherever possible, not using engine braking or full throttle). I'm going to stick to this in order to ensure the maximum longevity and performance thereafter.
I have driven a demonstrator with the optional inconel sports exhaust. I elected to retain the standard exhaust on my car because there was no performance advantage in the optional unit - If there had been an extra 20 BHP I would have had to have it but there isn't so I didn't - I was a bit concerned that the standard exhaust might sound less sporty but I have to be honest, without comparing the cars almost side by side I really can't tell the difference. For me, the soundtrack is great in normal powertrain mode, you can hear the exhaust note, the turbos spinning up and on over-run the engine discretely pops and crackles. Forget what you've heard before, the M838T is characterful and fantastic. It's a noise you can live with all-day, every day on long and short journeys, on the road and on the track. Far more vocal than a 911 turbo but without the constant speed drone of some of the more boy-racer focused supercars. In my humble opinion the Sport and Track mode noise is too much for all but the occasional blast. Even in light-footed 'running in' mode the power delivery is very impressive.
The suspension system is unlike anything I've ever experienced on a road car. Even in Normal mode, when driving over lumps and bumps (and especially cats' eyes) you hear the noise you'd expect from a car with near solid tyres and track-ready suspension (because that's what the MP4-2C has), however you're almost completely isolated from the physical effects you'd normally expect. As you switch the handling mode to Sport and then Track settings, the amount of noise stays constant but the physical transmission of the road surface progressively increases: It's a very alien experience at first but after 1/2 an hour or so at the wheel you get used to it.
Handling. WOW. Corner at what would be near the limit of a 997 turbo and the McLaren is unruffled. I'm going to need a lot more miles at the helm before I'll dare explore its real capabilities on the road and to be honest a McLaren track day with an experienced MP4-12C pilot like Chris Goodwin is what's really in order! It's worth noting that on the road the MP4-12C is wider and lower than I'd realised, so you need to be very cautious over speed humps!
So I've now driven over 100 miles on motorways, country lanes, through towns and villages. The McLaren is awesome and so far I have not experienced any 'beta test' gremlins. I suspect that at some point I will encounter some because that's the potential trade off for being one of the first real-world customers to own an MP4-12C. My only hope is that in the event of any issues they and I am dealt with in a manner that lives up to the McLaren reputation.
Note: Iris is not fully functional at the moment because McLaren have allegedly had some issues with their development partners. For me this is no big deal because if given the choice of a 3 month delay or having the car now with Iris to follow then I would absolutely have taken the car now!
I wanted to collect the car from the dealership because it's only about 5 miles away, so David at McLaren Birmingham kindly kept the dealership open late and arranged for my wife Alison and I to be collected from home (in no less than a Rolls-Royce Ghost!) so that we could both enjoy the experience of the first drive in the MP4-12C together.
The handover was great, David really knows the car inside-out and would probably have willingly spent all night taking us through every detail of the car if we'd wanted, but as you can probably imagine I was itching to get it out on the open road, so we'll fast forward to the moment of truth...
The car fired up with an assertive roar, 1st gear selected, handbrake released, a light queeze of the throttle and the McLaren pulled of beautifully (infinitely smoother than my M3's often snatchy M-DCT transmission). For me the position of the indicator stalks and all controls is pretty much perfect, visibility is good, we're off! (Note: Contrary to rumour, McLaren do recommend that the car is run in for the first 650 miles and that involves keeping the revs below 5,500 and above 2,000 wherever possible, not using engine braking or full throttle). I'm going to stick to this in order to ensure the maximum longevity and performance thereafter.
I have driven a demonstrator with the optional inconel sports exhaust. I elected to retain the standard exhaust on my car because there was no performance advantage in the optional unit - If there had been an extra 20 BHP I would have had to have it but there isn't so I didn't - I was a bit concerned that the standard exhaust might sound less sporty but I have to be honest, without comparing the cars almost side by side I really can't tell the difference. For me, the soundtrack is great in normal powertrain mode, you can hear the exhaust note, the turbos spinning up and on over-run the engine discretely pops and crackles. Forget what you've heard before, the M838T is characterful and fantastic. It's a noise you can live with all-day, every day on long and short journeys, on the road and on the track. Far more vocal than a 911 turbo but without the constant speed drone of some of the more boy-racer focused supercars. In my humble opinion the Sport and Track mode noise is too much for all but the occasional blast. Even in light-footed 'running in' mode the power delivery is very impressive.
The suspension system is unlike anything I've ever experienced on a road car. Even in Normal mode, when driving over lumps and bumps (and especially cats' eyes) you hear the noise you'd expect from a car with near solid tyres and track-ready suspension (because that's what the MP4-2C has), however you're almost completely isolated from the physical effects you'd normally expect. As you switch the handling mode to Sport and then Track settings, the amount of noise stays constant but the physical transmission of the road surface progressively increases: It's a very alien experience at first but after 1/2 an hour or so at the wheel you get used to it.
Handling. WOW. Corner at what would be near the limit of a 997 turbo and the McLaren is unruffled. I'm going to need a lot more miles at the helm before I'll dare explore its real capabilities on the road and to be honest a McLaren track day with an experienced MP4-12C pilot like Chris Goodwin is what's really in order! It's worth noting that on the road the MP4-12C is wider and lower than I'd realised, so you need to be very cautious over speed humps!
So I've now driven over 100 miles on motorways, country lanes, through towns and villages. The McLaren is awesome and so far I have not experienced any 'beta test' gremlins. I suspect that at some point I will encounter some because that's the potential trade off for being one of the first real-world customers to own an MP4-12C. My only hope is that in the event of any issues they and I am dealt with in a manner that lives up to the McLaren reputation.
Note: Iris is not fully functional at the moment because McLaren have allegedly had some issues with their development partners. For me this is no big deal because if given the choice of a 3 month delay or having the car now with Iris to follow then I would absolutely have taken the car now!
! btw did they give you an Ipod or iphone because the IRIS wasnt ready ?
