fair enough. apologies for my curt post, besides my inteligence is small so hard to hit. i am bored to death of the usual tired journo line that n/a is better than forced, end of subject, repeated ad-nausem until it is popular wisdom. my gt2 was every bit the 'drivers' car as my 911rs, despite the stonking 14 year old turbo's and lag. once you're in the zone at speed each cars foibles are what make the experience great. keeping the engine lit is fun, like changing gears with a stick. i'm pretty confident the babymac's response will be spectacular. we will see soon enough.

ps. i'm told its a bad kept secret at mclaren that its track times are spectacular

It was all going so well until I heard the automatic gear change. A raw drivers car with an auto. It just doesn't work! When will they get out of this phase

Lovely thing.

I'll have mine in metallic oxblood, please.

I voted a 10, but I'm a little confused by the comments above. Is this car really going to be a turbo?

edited to add: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLaren_MP4-12C#Engin... Yes, basically It seems like a strange decision for a ground up driver's car in the mould of the NSX, Mclaren F1 etc. Note that the F40, GT2 etc were not ground up designed cars, they're tuned and developed versions of other cars, thus the addition of turbos to a base engine. I can only assume Mclaren's decision is along the same lines as BMW's with their future engine direction, which is also hinted at in the Wikipedia article with the comment about emissions.

Sadly looks over styled and forgettable, too much going on, it might look like a Lotus Evora but i've forgotten what that looks like too.

The designers need to try to move the game forward, not build a mash up of an Ascari, a Ferrari & a Lotus.

Videos a bit nerdy too, wheres the aspiration?

First let’s consider the looks. Many on hear say that it is not dramatic enough, but lets consider the F1. Compared to its contemporys at the time you could say it was conservative. But look at it now nearly 20 years later and it still looks fresh, you can’t say that about its contempories.

I think the same will apply to the 12C. In 10 - 15 years time I think it will still look fresh but the 458 will look like a car designed in 2009. I think the same thing can be applied to most Ferrari’s; their designs place them in a very narrow time band.

Now to the twin turboed engine, yes a large capacity NA engine would have been great but that is not the world we live in now. McLaren are building a world car they can sell in all markets that will have the lowest emissions in its class and will outperform all the muted future emission standards. We can at least feel comforted that McLaren are thinking ahead with a good business model, and let’s not forget this thing will have 600BHP and a high torque figure due to the turbo's

Is that really a bad thing?
456s still look fantastic as do Daytonas and F40s yet they point to the period in which they were designed.

I should have said "a lot but not all of its contempories" As you say the 456 still looks good. I think good design has a timeless quality

I am really looking forward to seeing this car.

It could be fantastic ....

completely agree. its a 600bhp, 1300kg, 150k(ish), british engineered, british made supercar, from automotive engineering royalty. is this really PH? last week the 911 turbo pdk was generally derided as boring by the PH massive. depressing stuff.