The article was originally produced on August 21, 2012, some facts and prices may have changed since then.

McLaren MP4 C12

Making a sequel to the charismatic McLaren F1 was no easy task for the English company. Now shall Cars Collection attempt to describe the newcomer MP4-C12, a seemingly impossible task when it comes to this hyped model that motor journalists have raised to the skies. If you uncritically lick all the superlatives, the MP4-C12 becomes almost boring... Or?

The story of McLaren began in the mid-60s in England, to be precise in Woking, Surrey. New Zealander Bruce McLaren had then, after a series of successes in F1, started McLaren Motor Racing. After McLaren's death, the company ended up in the ownership of Ron Dennis and they formed the McLaren Group, which in 1992 resulted in the legendary F1 model, which in 1998 set an absolute speed record for series-produced cars with 391 km/h. A record that was later broken by the Bugatti Veyron with its 408 km/h.

What was quite unique about the F1 model was the seating configuration, the driver sat in the middle and each had their passenger diagonally behind them. The engine, which was a 6.1-liter V12 from BMW, delivered 618 horsepower to the rear tires and 0-200 was completed in 9.4 seconds. With these numbers, the McLaren F1 stood out as one of the fastest production cars well into the 2000s.

One of the first things one reacts to when comparing the F1 to the MP4-C12 is the fact that the car has become more user-friendly, something you can perhaps understand given the difference of around twenty years between them. If you wanted to take your F1 for a spin, you kindly had to wait about ten minutes after starting up before you could roll away, with the MP4-C12 a simple push of a button is all it takes and the car is up and ready to go. Now, however, it should be added that the MP4-C12 is precisely a "user-friendly" McLaren and a worst model is said to be in the works. But with today's development, you can still make a comparison between the cars. The time and effort put in by the engineers at McLaren to get the MP4-C12 rolling out of the factory is so incredibly impressive that it makes many other car brands' engineering teams pale. For McLaren, the customer's word has always been the most important thing, so when the first prototypes rolled for a while and some of the early "test pilots" had their say, the start of sales was quickly moved forward so that another million test kilometers would be driven. 

At the heart of the MP4-C12 is a V8 (McLaren's first own engine) with twin turbochargers. The power of 625 horsepower and 600 Newton meters of torque is delivered to the rear tires via a lightning-fast seven-speed double clutch box. The top speed is not in the areas of F1, but still 333 km/h. 0-100 is achieved in just 3.3 seconds and 200 in just 8.9 seconds, i.e. 0.2 seconds faster than the F1, thanks in large part to the rapid gearbox that shortens the times between shifts. At full throttle, this is something that is experienced in a way that is difficult to describe without resorting to bloated expressions of power that are not suitable for print. From a standstill with full throttle and the "sport" mode set to full, you are hurled away. With the paddles behind the steering wheel, each gear is sent one by one when the red mark on the tachometer is reached which is at 8500 rpm. Unlike many other cars with paddle shifters behind the steering wheel, those on the MP4-C12 are in one piece, which in turn gives a more solid mechanical feel. With the engine right behind the back, the car's cabin is filled with a fantastic sound carpet that raises the adrenaline experience even more. The acceleration is incredibly powerful but at the same time very stable, a certain trackiness is however experienced on the Swedish roads available today. Sure, it's impressive to drive a car this fast from a standstill and straight ahead but it's when it starts turning that this car really starts to show its colors and like its rather eye-catching orange tone, cornering is anything but shy. Although the drive starts to approach the upper limits, it's easy to experience the car's area of competence that is not even halfway achieved. The McLaren MP4-C12 is built for exactly this, hard driving at the limit but doing it manageable and safe. In the same way as with BMW, you have a button that can be pre-programmed, with a couple of knobs you can choose Neutral, Sport and Track, these set a number of parameters of the car such as e.g. throttle response, dampers, gearbox, and anti-skid to name a few. Nothing happens with these knobs until you press the Active button in the middle. Then all settings on the car change – from a quiet autobahn glider to a full-fledged track marauder. One thing that sets the MP4-C12 apart from many other cars is the brakes, not just the fact that it comes standard with 394mm carbon fiber ceramic discs at the front and 380mm at the rear, but the rear wing is also a large active airbrake. The first time a powerful braking is done, the whole wing flies up into the rear view mirror, something that feels quite different and somewhat unpleasant before you get used to it. However, there is no doubt that it is effective!

The reason why this car is allowed to live with descriptions so good that it seems boring must be largely due to the fact that it is so surgically well built that there is nothing to complain about. Therefore, the experiences become so overwhelming that you have to find something to complain about. No car can be so good that it's almost boring. In other words, a problem that can be considered very luxurious if we compare it to how it used to be, when you had to wait a full ten minutes before you could drive away with your McLaren F1 and which cost about five times as much as an MP4-C12. Time has moved on and the MP4-C12 is clear evidence of this change.

+ Engine, transmission, brakes, everything is good on this car!

- Everything is so good about this car that it's hard to grasp.