Thursday 24th April

Watch the McLaren W1 take to the Arctic

An electric Range Rover in the freezing cold is one thing - how does 1,275hp fare?

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‘Developing the real supercar’ is how McLaren titles its latest behind-the-scenes video of the W1 hypercar. Given a good amount of these will end up in climate controlled collections with zero miles, it’s great to see the new hybrid hypercar being pushed to its limits in all conditions. Those W1 customers who want to use their car all year round are certainly being encouraged to, if this is anything to go by. 

Check out the Pirelli winter tyres, for example, the new P Zero Winter 2 fitted onto wheels already seen on the W1. The McLaren won’t require another set of winter rims, basically, for those who want to use it in the colder months - just a tyre swap. Presumably getting winter tyres in W1 sizes must have required McLaren asking Pirelli very nicely to get them sorted. 

The winter testing in this video was for testing traction and stability control systems; if they work on the ice, they’re going to work when it’s a bit damp out and too much of 1,275hp is unleashed. Don’t forget the W1 is purely rear-wheel drive as well, so the assists are going to be busy. But they also can’t feel like the excitement is being extinguished; it’s a fine line between keeping you safe and spoiling the fun. Hence the hours slithering around on the ice where, of course, the W1 looks absolutely brilliant. Glides across the bumpy surface, too, in best McLaren tradition.

The time in the Arctic, which has recently concluded, also saw the powertrain put through its paces. ‘Stress testing of HV battery, gearbox and new MHP-V8 engine in extreme cold pushes durability and performance to the extremes’ reads the press release. So there’ll be no fear for customers, it would have to be assumed, in taking out a McLaren W1 even if the ambient temperature isn’t ideal. We look forward to those videos in due course… 

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• ‘World-beating’ McLaren W1 officially unveiled
• Jaw-dropping Ferrari F80 ‘spaceship’ gets 1,200hp

[GTRene]

looks well proportioned wise, even with a driver in it, that's good.

the front overhang is long though, I guess for speedbumps and sorts, bet it has a liftoption?

[asci.white]

Big hints of P1. That car is going to be nice to own and drive..

[The Pistonsdead]

Interesting car and it looks pretty good.

[Wayne95]

Fantastic they test like this - hope the owners don’t just put them in a garage and actually drive them

They should set a prize - first owner to 50k miles gets £1m

Cover the servicing cost at least 😀

[MDL111]

I don't think it is a particularly good looking car, but it does look a lot better than the Ferrari offering. Personally would go back a generation and pick a LaFerrari, P1 or 918 over either of the new ones (I know that "actual" buyers most likely do not have to make that choice)

[Terminator X]

This will be properly mental, well played McL.

TX.

[Sway]

Depressing this has had so few comments...

Looks amazing, and fair play for actually spending the time and effort doing things like developing winter tyres and such.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

The fact that Mark McCann got offered one of these supposedly sold out cars when he asked McLaren about them suggests to me that they are not as sold as out as McLaren are making out.

I suspect these are going to depreciate hard, especially with the current economic climate and I would not be surprised if more and more people are backing out of purchasing one.

[Its Just Adz]

100x less interesting than the Range Rover article.
At least those will actually get used.

[Gus265]

At least they are winter testing it. I know someone who’ would do to his Aston DB11 on a frosty morning and couldn’t open the door because the window couldn’t drop until it was unfrozen!