For the first time in a very long time, my palms were sweaty and my throat was dry. I’ve driven my share of pretty fast cars and it isn’t often I’m intimidated by utterly vicious speed. My first time breaking the 300km/h barrier was an unforgettable one – seated deep inside a manic 850hp GTR harpooning its way forward way past legal speeds. Recently however, I had those same sweaty palms, dry throat incident behind the wheel of McLaren Kuala Lumpur’s MP4-12C test car.
The MY2013 MP4-12C (let’s just call it the 12C in short) doesn’t look different from the earlier cars. I think many people would agree with me that the 12C lacks some visual aggression, especially when viewed from the front. It has clean design lines, pleasant demeanor, and no menacing protrusions or vents. There new car does however come with several notable revisions which include suspension lifters and a trick exhaust that allows the driver to deliver intake noise into the cabin (irrespective of driving mode). I also particularly liked the new door buttons; I’ve driven a pre-MY2013 car which had sensors, and was stuck in front of an amused crowd which saw me struggle to swing the doors open.
Looking at the hardware, everything looks pretty much unchanged. Motivation comes from the now familiar 3.8-litre twin blown V8 which is mated to McLaren’s seven-speed, dual-clutch SSG transmission. A new software tweak liberates some extra 25PS (now 625PS total), although torque remains unchanged at 600Nm. The good news to existing customers is that McLaren will offer these enhancements as a complimentary upgrade to bring their cars up to latest specifications. Very cool move indeed.
Weight-saving was clearly one of McLaren’s key-focuses on the 12C. It might not be immediately apparent, so let me elaborate a little – the 12C has a complete carbon-fiber tub. The brakes are cast iron, lighter than conventional iron rotors, with even lighter carbon ceramics an option. The car’s wiring is hexagonal cross section; McLaren says this shaves off several more pounds. McLaren engineers even decided to go with a smaller, lighter motor for the air-brake. There’s more to tell, but I think it’s clear at this point, just how serious McLaren takes weight reduction.
Swinging open the 12C’s dihedral doors, then strapping yourself in, is a painless process. You might think it weird I mentioned this, but the truth is I’ve had trouble with getting into low cars in the past; spraining my back and pulling muscles because the seatbelts were too far out of reach. Once inside, you’ll notice the seating position is straight, perfect, and comfortable. You sense that McLaren put a fair amount of consideration into the cockpit design – symmetrical yet functional, without overloading your senses. Switchgear layout is split to both sides of the driver, creating a sense of yin/yang balance.
Our time with the 12C is limited; we only have a couple of hours with the car and whilst our photographer scrambles for some ideas of where to head to for pictures, all I really wanted to do was head for a long stretch of highway and drove till the sun set. Unlike my daydream, we headed first towards the heart of Kuala Lumpur. While I dreaded having to head into the city, one littered with potholes and nasty traffic, I was surprised to find that the 12C handled both without breaking a sweat. Perhaps you’re wondering just how pliant the 12C can be. Put it this way, the 12C’s active damping soaks up surface pimples far better than my own Polo GTI. The gearbox shifts are calm and seamless, even in slow moving traffic, and it was right then when I realized that the 12C was literally the most comfortable supercar I’d ever driven.
Because our test car wasn’t fitted with the optional suspension lifters, I was more than a little surprised when I was given the OK to navigate our path up a multistory car park – and yes, we did not pick up any scrapes or dents. I wouldn’t usually have attempted this on my own; my wallet cannot handle the stresses of car damage. We did make some contact as we headed down the ramp, but it was shrugged off as it was just the flexible lower front lip which lightly grazed the floor.
Wrapping up our cityscape shoot with the 12C, I realized we were quickly running out of time with the car, so I decided the head for the closest highways where I could attempt to unleash more of the 12C’s potential. Flooring the throttle as soon as a bit of road cleared up, I watched the speedo climb rapidly as I was shoved deep into my seat. “Holy shit, this thing is fast”, was the first thought that came to my mind. Just how fast, you ask? Fitted with the P Zero rubbers, the 12C will complete the Zerotohundred sprint in 3.1 seconds. More impressively, it will obliterate the zerotwohundred in just 8.8 seconds! All that with nary a hint of turbo lag. Having chosen the highway route, we didn’t have many corners to properly test the car’s potential, but it was clear the 12C’s steering was quick to respond, and gave good, balanced feedback. Be careful with stomping hard on the brakes though – as soon as the air brake deploys, you get zero visibility of the rear, and this can be tricky, especially if there’s another car on your tail.
Simply put, the 12C is a near-perfect, everyday supercar. Unlike other supercars, the 12C copes well with normal speeds, but should you decide to put your foot down, it can be a downright riot. You don’t get the sort of spine-tingling shriek you would from a Ferrari V8, or the bassy scream from Lamborghini V10, but I barely noticed the lack of aural excitement as soon as the turbos kicked in. The real downside is in the car’s lacking menace – it looks a little too pretty, too sedate. This is quickly resolved with the right colour (we really like Volcano Red), or if you pick a Spider over the Coupe. Money no object, I’ve already placed the 12C in my dream garage – and yes, I already know exactly how I’d spec it.
McLaren’s new car, the 650S, has proved so popular that the sheer number of orders they’ve taken has sadly made the 12C obsolete. Not hard to imagine why; the 650S is basically a 12C turned up a notch, with proper supercar styling (that takes from the P1 hypercar). Still, I believe that the 12C will continue to remain relevant, and competitive against the upcoming crop of supercars, and for me, it is the one that set a new benchmark.
