PH enjoyed the hospitality of McLaren earlier in the week at the preview
for Rush
. Given the amount of product placement in a mainstream Hollywood movie and focus on McLaren's racing history and long-standing on- and off-track rivalry with Ferrari it reinforces it was no wonder marketing boss Greg Levine was looking happy by the time the credits rolled.
Before the screening we were told the 3,000th 12C had just been produced the previous day in Woking as the first production P1s are close to delivery to customers. Test driver Chris Goodwin was on hand to share some testing anecdotes about the P1 too, saying it was faster and had more downforce than the GT3 racers and that Ron had seemingly plucked the seven-minute 'ring lap target out of thin air. He didn't say whether or not they'd achieved it but P1s have been busy at the Nordschleife of late...
Not a bad week in which to be celebrating a 50th birthday then.
McLaren won't be joining the fray at Frankfurt next week, preferring the more intimate surroundings of Geneva and most of the McLaren folk we spoke with glad to be able to attend as spectators rather than exhibitors. That hasn't stopped the P1 hype machine though, our complicity therewith displayed here with the latest in a series of testing videos McLaren has drip-fed via its YouTube channel over the past months. And though we've had a while to get used to the look of the thing it's losing none of its drama or impact as production of the 375 customer cars approaches.