It’s no surprise to see McLaren focusing even more closely on performance for the P15. The Aston Martin Valkyrie and Mercedes-AMG Project One are in the process of redefining the hypercar market and, to compete, McLaren simply has to use a similar rulebook.
But here, I think the firm can afford to let its longstanding obsession with speed and lap times govern its approach. When creating cars with a broader dynamic brief, McLaren has learned that the concept of ‘how fast you go’ must be balanced against ‘how you go fast’. It’s important that the P15 is drivable and usable on the road, but most customers will expect it to be supremely singular of purpose.
Lightness will go a long way. The 250kg saving compared with a P1 should clearly be felt not just under acceleration but also under braking and during cornering — particularly if the car has a lower centre of gravity and even more downforce.
Knowing what the P1 was like to drive on the road, just the idea of a road car with even more grip and pace absolutely boggles the mind.
Read more:
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2017 McLaren P15 will eclipse performance of P1
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2300 lbs?
800 HP. Sounds as this unit could have better track performance than Porsche's Cup cars at 2018 spec? Interesting!
Woking's Finest
It is terrific to see McLaren producing a series of fantastic cars. If the P1 is anything to go by, it is a shame that so few will be made that they will never be seen on the road. Cars like these are designed to be financial assets rather than motor cars. Still, if that creates jobs and pays for new technology to be developed, I suppose that is a good thing.
By the way, does anyone else find McLaren model names as difficult to understand as me? I mean, where was the P14? I thought that Ferrari had confusing model names, but McLaren seem to have surpassed them.
p14
McLaren's cars are divided in 3 classes: Sports Series, Super Series, and Ultimate Series.
They are pretty straight forward. The numbers "as in 570s" indicate metric horsepower, and S stands for sport. If they use gt, as in "570GT" it means the car is more tuned for comfort. That is the naming scheme for the sport series and the super series.
For the ultimate series cars they create specific names and don't follow this naming structure. "metric horsepower followed by an S"
By the way, p14 was the codename for what became the 720S. This p15 is a codename as well, the car will have a different name once it comes to market. Hope that helps with McLaren's naming scheme
What is ultimate....?
Ultimate, every time some carmaker comes out with a new design they claim is the ultimate,but, could that be a good thing ?, does it spur others to better it, to advance Car design,or, is it just a sales pitch to make us think we need that new Car it's the ultimate!. If it's the best,and that's what the word ultimate suggests,why aren't Cars al the same....?