12C- basic questions

[squirejo]

Hello peoples,

I have started a flirtation with acquiring a 12C. These things usually end with a lighter wallet and a wider garage.

To help my internet searches would you answer 3 questions for me?

1) I understand Iris 1 was rubbish but could be software upgraded (several Ads state upgraded w/ Satnav). But I understand Iris 2 was a hardware upgrade. Is it still possible to take an Iris 1 car and have a hardware upgrade to v2. And at what cost?

2) Carbon brakes. I am of the view these are a bit of a vanity project; nice but not necessary. Any strong views?

3) Power. Some cars speak of upgraded to 600+. Not sure it matters. Does it? Wasn't it a sofftware update from Mc and in which case why aren't they all done?

I see Alistair Bols has a good reputation on the forum so I will be in touch with him.

Thanks in advance.

[mrloudly]

squirejo said:

Hello peoples,

I have started a flirtation with acquiring a 12C. These things usually end with a lighter wallet and a wider garage.

To help my internet searches would you answer 3 questions for me?

1) I understand Iris 1 was rubbish but could be software upgraded (several Ads state upgraded w/ Satnav). But I understand Iris 2 was a hardware upgrade. Is it still possible to take an Iris 1 car and have a hardware upgrade to v2. And at what cost?

2) Carbon brakes. I am of the view these are a bit of a vanity project; nice but not necessary. Any strong views?

3) Power. Some cars speak of upgraded to 600+. Not sure it matters. Does it? Wasn't it a sofftware update from Mc and in which case why aren't they all done?

I see Alistair Bols has a good reputation on the forum so I will be in touch with him.

Thanks in advance.

Iris Mk1 was pretty naff with the Sat-Nav being particularly bad... I believe all Iris systems have included Navigation as standard. The Iris one up-grades appeared to make very little difference. Iris 2 is a hardware up-grade with a cost of around £4k Much better than Mk1 but still not perfect.

The 12C was criticised for slow speed brake feel. Not sure if the Carbons help with this, but they sure do create a lot less cr.p!

The power up-grades came very early on. I guess all cars would have received this by now. There were many other tweeks in later software "platforms" the last one performed on my 12C being number 13, active aero being the major change. (Creates a "DRS" effect with the rear wing under heavy acceleration and also deploys over hill crests etc)

They really are brilliant cars, go for it!

[TISPKJ]

Pretty much what he said really ...

Iris depends on what your going to use the car for, mine only has Iris 1 but I could have upgraded to Iris 2 for £3k (may have been plus vat) I am told it was not very good if you asked it to do Phone / Radio / sat nav all at the same time and would crash, I cant get my head around the sat nav in my Porsche or the gallardo both being the only cars I have had prior to the 12c with built in sat nav, they are all far to complicated compared to my 20 year old tom tom, I have not used or tried to use the 12c sat nav yet and unlikely too, i just prefer the simplicity of the tom tom plus you can sit indoors and set destination to see journey time etc.
I have used the radio (on all the time even if in the background)the ipod connector and bluetooth to the phone all works fine so far should I need to upgrade to Iris 2 in the future then it will still be the same price so dont let no Iris 2 put you off a great car.
If you are a rep and spend all day in the car I guess it could be an issue but as a fun car for sunday blasts I dont see it as an issue, maybe a euro trip more problematic but I would always take tom tom as back up anyway regardless of car.

I have carbon brakes and they look fabulous, in theory they should last forever unless I start doing some serious ammounts of track work, dont know how much std iron discs and pads are but you can bet not cheap.
Selling point for me was lack of brake dust all over the wheels and down the side of the car everytime you use it and having to wash wheels all the time, so far they only produce a very minimal ammount of dirt / dust.

All cars should have the power and aero upgrades as part of the service routine so should all be 616 bhp is it ? and with it assume other mapping tweeks the factory have seen fit to alter.

Only had mine 2 weeks but so far fabulous car, few little differences / annoyances to get used to but great car.

Alastair a great guy, and I was a bit dissapointed I couldnt put a deal together with him.

[isaldiri]

If you have any plans to track the car, would say you definitely want to avoid the carbon ceramic brakes as the pads cost a fortune and you are potentially going to be using a lot of rear brake discs as well with the brake steer/torque vectoring thing Mclaren use instead of a limited slip diff. Apart from that, IMO the cc brakes on the 12c are pretty grabby and definitely worse in brake feel vs the iron brakes (the 650 brakes which are CC as standard are awesome though).

625 PS upgrade was applied long ago (end of 2012), would be very surprised if any car that is properly serviced and all hasn't got that for years.

Alastair is a good guy.

[squirejo]

thanks for all your detailed and swift responses. That's highly appreciated. I am musing disposing iof a GT3 that is lovely but gets too little use as it is focussed on track days. And therefore not a weekend car. Additionally, time is not allowing as many trackdays as I might like so instead of 7 or 8 a year I am averaging only 3-4. Part of my thinking therefore is that the Mac would actually get more use and be more fun as an all ropunder - much better on road, less fun on track but a more suitable package.

Joe

[isaldiri]

squirejo said:

Part of my thinking therefore is that the Mac would actually get more use and be more fun as an all ropunder - much better on road, less fun on track but a more suitable package.

Don't think the 12c will disappoint in that case. It really is an awesomely capable road car (comfortable, easy to drive long distance GT cruiser when you want to be but also blisteringly quick to the point of being slightly scary when you want as well) but a very different one from the pre 991 GT3s.

[TISPKJ]

Fabulous road car I think we all agree.
Will be interesting to read comments from those that track there cars as I am told when both dials turned road to Track setting on track they are awesome bits of kit.
Looking forward to maybe one track day once the armourfend or xpel fitted just to say I have done it in the 12c.

[squirejo]

Another question. Luggage space spider vs coupe. Assume in the spider you loose a shelf behind the seats? If correct, is a front boot adequate for 2 bags or weekend away?

[gwp]

squirejo said:

Another question. Luggage space spider vs coupe. Assume in the spider you loose a shelf behind the seats? If correct, is a front boot adequate for 2 bags or weekend away?

Yes if you want the roof down then you lose some luggage space... although if you keep it up supposedly there's more available..
The front boot is larger than what my previous 997Turbo had.
As with the Porsche, if you can pack sensibly then a weekend away is easily catered for.
I easily had enough space for the adventure to Lemans as well as a couple of weeks into Norway with the other half..

[Buzz84]

You don't loose the parcel shelf behind the seats as such, with the spider you can open the tonneau on its own and use the space the roof folds into as storage.
I believe with this the spider actually has more storage space

[mrloudly]

squirejo said:

Another question. Luggage space spider vs coupe. Assume in the spider you loose a shelf behind the seats? If correct, is a front boot adequate for 2 bags or weekend away?

You do loose the luggage space behind the seats, you also have less legroom. You can store items under the rear tonneau covers but only when the roof is raised. It comes with two tailor made bags
designed to fit in this space. The front boot is actually quite large, much bigger than an R8 for example. There's quite a bit of useable volume in the front "bumper" area itself. When you have the boot open, look down at the front
where the warning triangle and first aid kit are stored. Have been on several trips in mine and never had a problem with luggage, just don't expect to get Samsonites in for an airport run with the wife ;-)

[squirejo]

Thanks again. I am in touch with Alistair Bols who is already living up to his reputation as helpful and communicative. If anyone else spots a car for sale. Spider or coupe. Low mileage NOT essential (weekend only car for me). Sober colour preferred.

[Wozza]

squirejo said:

Thanks again. I am in touch with Alistair Bols who is already living up to his reputation as helpful and communicative. If anyone else spots a car for sale. Spider or coupe. Low mileage NOT essential (weekend only car for me). Sober colour preferred.

Speak to Craig at McLaren Glasgow about the Storm Grey 12C Spider they have in stock. Great price and just prepped by McLaren themselves for sale. I was going to buy it but it doesn't have lift and I needed lift to get down my driveway.

[TISPKJ]

isaldiri said:

If you have any plans to track the car, would say you definitely want to avoid the carbon ceramic brakes as the pads cost a fortune and you are potentially going to be using a lot of rear brake discs as well with the brake steer/torque vectoring thing Mclaren use instead of a limited slip diff. Apart from that, IMO the cc brakes on the 12c are pretty grabby and definitely worse in brake feel vs the iron brakes (the 650 brakes which are CC as standard are awesome though).

625 PS upgrade was applied long ago (end of 2012), would be very surprised if any car that is properly serviced and all hasn't got that for years.

Alastair is a good guy.

Out of interest and probably concern how much is a fortune ?
And are the 650 and 12c carbons not the same ?

[RamboLambo]

TISPKJ said:

Out of interest and probably concern how much is a fortune ?
And are the 650 and 12c carbons not the same ?

Carbons on 650S are definitely different and far better. Steve Sutcliffe said they were as good if not better than those on the P1.
IMHO they are absolutely spot on for feel and the stopping power is just unbelieveable.
The missus thinks we are always going to rear end someone only to find we come up 10m short

[mrloudly]

RamboLambo said:

TISPKJ said:

Out of interest and probably concern how much is a fortune ?
And are the 650 and 12c carbons not the same ?

Carbons on 650S are definitely different and far better. Steve Sutcliffe said they were as good if not better than those on the P1.
IMHO they are absolutely spot on for feel and the stopping power is just unbelieveable.
The missus thinks we are always going to rear end someone only to find we come up 10m short

I find passengers are more shocked by the braking than the acceleration! Both carbons and steel stop extremely well!!!

[isaldiri]

TISPKJ said:

Out of interest and probably concern how much is a fortune ?
And are the 650 and 12c carbons not the same ?

Hah. ok I exaggerate a bit. Don't have the exact numbers anymore but the ceramic pads are AFAIK 2-3 times the cost of the steel ones and a friend who has ceramics says he gets maybe 3-4 trackdays out of them (compared to ~2 for the standards on his previous car). Don't worry the 12c ceramic pads are nothing like the cost of the P1 pads (now those are eyepopping expensive and really a fortune.... )

The hardware setup is the same between the 650 and 12c but something's been done with the calibration for the 650 that no one from Mclaren seems willing to tell me exactly what which IMO does make the 650 brake feel and modulation really remarkably (as in Porsche) good and without feeling quite as grabby/digital as I thought the 12c on ceramics did.

[squirejo]

Wozza said:

Speak to Craig at McLaren Glasgow about the Storm Grey 12C Spider they have in stock. Great price and just prepped by McLaren themselves for sale. I was going to buy it but it doesn't have lift and I needed lift to get down my driveway.

Thanks for this. Would you pm me with any "price discovery" info you have?

[TISPKJ]

isaldiri said:

The hardware setup is the same between the 650 and 12c but something's been done with the calibration for the 650 that no one from Mclaren seems willing to tell me exactly what which IMO does make the 650 brake feel and modulation really remarkably (as in Porsche) good and without feeling quite as grabby/digital as I thought the 12c on ceramics did.

I thought maybe just a change in Pad compound but sounds like a bit more than that behind the scene has gone on.

[SELON]

How do you find the "feel" of the ceramics on yours TISPKJ?
As Porsche were mentioned in comparison, i have to say that the 'feel' of the ceramics on the Aston's are also excellent. Good to hear that McLaren have done a good job on the 650. I am asking the question, curious to know whether it's another example of journo's only trying out early cars and McLaren having fixed the 'issue' mid life for the 12C.

Edited by SELON on Thursday 16th July 17:37