Once inside you find yourself in a seat that is fixed to the bulkhead, with a pedal box and steering column that move to accommodate the driver. Oh, and if you’re wondering how to start the car, select reverse or put the (small) windows down, look up; the buttons are on the roof. Very jet plane.
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The different drive modes are selected by the rocker switches on the instrument binnacle and if you put the car in Sport for both the Handling and Powertrain, you have a hypercar that is incredibly involving and also very characterful on a good bit of road. The steering remains hydraulically power-assisted and as a result you get superb feel and feedback through the new, slightly square, wheel.
The V8 provides a range of entertainment for your ears with all sorts of turbocharged chuffs and whooshes in the muscular mid-range, and then a really hardcore naturally aspirated sound as you close in on the 9,200rpm limiter.
The wheelbase is 70mm shorter than in the P1’s and as a result the car feels more agile, particularly through tighter corners. McLarens have always been great for giving the driver a really good view of the road ahead, and the W1 is no exception, with the tops of the front arches clearly visible, making the car easy to place.
Sometimes hypercars can feel skewed towards one arena or area of expertise, but the overwhelming feeling with the W1 is that it is fantastically well rounded and capable of adapting to a huge range of situations. If you were only going to have one hypercar to do it all, this might just be it.
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Model:McLaren W1Price:£2millionPowertrain:4.0-litre V8 turbo/radial-flux e-motorPower/torque:1,257bhp/1,340NmTransmission:Eight-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive0-62mph:2.7 secondsTop speed:217mphEconomy/CO2:16.8mpg/<310g/kmSize (L/W/H):4,635/2,191/1,182mmOn sale:Now
