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McLaren P1 throwing down the gauntlet with 6:30 Nurburgring lap time?

The magic mark at the Nurburgring once stood in the sevens. Anything that could lap the vaunted Nordschleife in less than eight minutes was considered biblically fast. But with all manner of vehicles clocking lap times that start with a seven, the goal post has moved below the seven-minute mark and into the sixes. Discounting barely-legal track cars from Radical, whose LMP-style pseudo-racers top the time charts, the Porsche 918 Spyder holds the record as the fastest street-legal production car ever to lap the Ring at 6:57. A blindingly fast lap time, to be sure, but the 918 isn't the only new hybrid hypercar in its class. According to official factory statements, the McLaren P1 has lapped the winding German circuit in under seven minutes. And rumor has it that its actual lap time, though not confirmed, was clocked at 6:47. That would already make it considerably faster than the Porsche, but that's not the end of the story. According to an unnamed inside source cited by Autocar, the P1 has actually lapped the Nurburgring in "six minutes 30 something." That would make it nearly half a minute faster than the Porsche, and a good ten seconds quicker even than the Radical SR8 LM. For its part, McLaren has yet to confirm the time, but we're sure it will in due course. For that matter, though Maranello has tested the new LaFerrari to the track, it has yet to announce any official time. But with the gauntlet thrown down, we wouldn't be surprised to see a scarlet-clad test team heading north to Germany in the near future. The last time they did, they clocked a 6:58 lap time with the 599XX, but while production-based, that car was never meant to drive on public streets. Featured Gallery McLaren P1 N?rburgring Run View 11 Photos News Source: Autocar McLaren Coupe Performance mclaren p1

2017 McLaren 570GT First Drive

The late, great LJK Setright used to rail at engineers who thought that "if you can't measure it, it doesn't exist." There's an element of that in McLaren's starter Sports Series, particularly the 570S, where spectacular performance doesn't quite fill the soul. What McLaren has so far failed to understand is that at this level ($198,950 before state and federal taxes) its products need to appeal to more than just number-obsessed track junkies. While incisive turn-in, roll-free handling ,and jet-fighter fast tick some boxes, others such as space and grace are left resolutely unticked. GT derives from The Grand Tour, a 17th-century European rite-of-passage cultural tour undertaken by well-heeled young blades anxious to see and hear the great works of art and music for themselves; food, wine, and other earthly pleasures might also have been involved. And while the name has been lifted by Clarkson, Hammond, and May for their forthcoming Amazon car show, true petrol heads will more properly associate Grand Tour with the Italian Gran Turismo, a car capable of high-speed, cross-continental peregrination in style, with space for expensive luggage. Whoops, did I mention Italy? Not something done lightly in the presence of McLaren, which has a culture of omerta when it comes to rivals: Ferrari, Lamborghini, and even Audi and Porsche. McLaren Cars might be passionate and fired with the winning spirit of its racing founder Bruce McLaren, the mercurial and talented Kiwi who died in a testing accident at Goodwood 46 years ago, but its clinical approach to the business of making cars leaves some cold. The new 570GT aims to change all that. It's basically a 570S with a glass rear hatchback that opens toward the according sidewalk for right- and left-hand-drive depending on the country of sale. Unlike the S owner cramming luggage behind the seats, the GT owner elegantly posts weekend bags into the leather-floored trunk. Actually the width of the rear fender means they'll likely be dragging them across the all-aluminum bodywork. At least McLaren offers a vinyl-coating service to protect the paint. Another advantage of space is a welcome simplicity to the coachwork. The GT transformation declutters chief designer Rob Melville's basically sound proportions, and they breathe a little better as a result. The hatchback gives an additional 7.8 cubic feet to add to the 5.3 cubic feet under the trunk lid, which added together is more room than in a Ford Focus.

McLaren P1 squares off against Porsche 918 in Evo track battle

Evo's side-by-side comparison of the McLaren P1 against the Porsche 918 Spyder isn't the first time we've seen England and Germany's ultimate automotive weapons sized up together; last month, Autocar tested them over the standing mile, with a Ducati 1199 Superleggera playing the joker. Evo throws a few curves at its test, though, taking the supercars to Anglesey Circuit in Wales to see which will lay down the fastest lap time with scribe Jethro Bovington at the wheel. In case the numbers haven't yet been seared into your memory, while both are assisted by electric motors, the 3,069-pound, rear-wheel drive P1 gets on with 903 horsepower and 664 pound-feet from a 3.8-liter, twin-turbocharged V8. The 3,750-pound, all-wheel-drive 918 Spyder does its job with 795 hp and 575 lb-ft surging out of a naturally aspirated, 4.6-liter V8. We're not told know which circuit layout he uses for the test, but both cars comfortably eclipse the mark set by the fastest coupe Evo's driven around it so far, the Ferrari 458 Speciale. Then, in an epilogue occasioned by a tire change, one of the supercars comfortably eclipses its own time again, before Bovington declares one the master of the track and the other the ruler of the street. Enjoy finding out which is which in the video above.