McLaren MP4 12C, The Constructor’s Champion

McLaren takes a detour from racing line to road-ready supercar, with its new, F­1-influenced MP4 12C. Jason Barlow test drives the car that Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will be seen in on their days off

Let’s hear it for one of the world’s best old-school managers: McLaren’s Ron Dennis. Now, anybody with even a casual interest in Formula 1­ will know that Dennis rarely uses one word when ­10 will do, not all of which will be strictly relevant, and indeed that this policy has earned the soubriquet “Ronspeak”. But credit where it’s due. Since taking over the company in 1980, the man has turned McLaren into the most extraordinarily successful organization. Countless race wins, defining partnerships with the likes of Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and currently Lewis Hamilton, the realization of the epic McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) HQ in Woking – Dennis makes Sir Alex Ferguson look like the manager of the Old Trafford branch of McDonald’s.

And now there is McLaren Automotive, an all-new, cleansheet- of-paper car company funded entirely by shareholder investment and not a single penny of bank money. It’s Dennis’ vision, this, but he must have more front than Brighton promenade, having persuaded his super-rich investors to part with around 250 million  to kick-start a new car company in the teeth of the worst recession for 80 years. “I’d love my tombstone to read: ‘Here lies a successful entrepreneur,’” Dennis told GQ recently. “And I’d like people to get it in the end. Because they didn’t always get it in the beginning.”

Is that a hint of a chip on one of those Hugo Boss-clad shoulders? Perhaps. For, despite it all, Dennis is one of those people who needs validation. You and I would probably have disappeared on a private jet to our island in the Maldives some time ago, but not him. His drive is relentless. And on the day before our first drive in McLaren’s hugely anticipated new road car – the awkwardly named MP4-­12C – he talks us through it all personally. The business plan (group turnover of 1­bn by 2016), the model plan (a five-car range, including an off-the-scale new supercar), the new factory and, of course, the ­12C itself.

This is McLaren’s 592bhp, twin-turbocharged V8, 0-100 kph in 3.­1seconds, 330‑kph-top-speed, and F1­- influenced super-sports car. Precision-tooled to make grown men go weak in the knees, and arguably the most exciting thing to happen in the world of cars since ­1886 when Gottlieb Daimler invented the damn things in the first place.

Now back to Ron for the big sell. “We have always been passionate about measuring things scientifically,” he says. “And we can prove scientifically that ours is the best sports car in history.” Oh.

He’s right, of course. But I’m happy to report you don’t need a lab-coated boffin with an MBA to confirm this: just a fully functioning backside. Because the first time you push the ­12C hard through a difficult sequence of corners, important parts of your anatomy will be reporting to your brain that what you’re doing isn’t actually achievable in a road car. The ­12C uses an F­-derived system called brake steer to feed power to the road as efficiently as possible, and it has clever hydraulics instead of a mechanical rollbar to sweeten the balance between outright handling and ride comfort. Its steering is light, but linear and progressive. And its dual-shift transmission swoops through the gears with uncanny smoothness while keeping the driver fully engaged in the process. This is an astounding car.