Published:
8 May 2014There is not a great deal to the P1’s interior, and that is entirely deliberate. There are no carpets, there is precious little soundproofing and there are fixed-back carbonfibre seats with as little cushioning as McLaren dared. As a result, each is only 10.5kg.
Yet they proved particularly comfortable for our testers, all of whom could find an excellent driving position. Customers can choose their preferred seat height at the factory, and the steering wheel (only ever fitted to the left of the cabin) is widely adjustable – manually, of course, like the seat runner, to reduce weight.
Driver and passenger sit a little further inboard than in a 12C but are not cramped for shoulder room. The brake pedal is sited dead ahead of the driver, making braking with either foot easy, and visibility is good forwards because the scuttle is low (the screen is deeper than it is wide), and fine elsewhere for a hypercar.
Fit and finish are exceptional. What little furniture there is in here looks breathtakingly well assembled and the carbonfibre on display (shorn of a top layer of lacquer to reduce reflections and save 1.5kg) is exquisitely contoured, with perfectly aligned weave.
Within the carbonfibre centre console are driving controls and an infotainment system that’ll look familiar to 12C owners. Handling and powertrain delivery are adjustable, and the communications array is easy enough to use, although slow to respond, especially on initialisation.
