What's the news?
The McLaren P1, the spiritual successor to the legendary F1 road car, is once again attempting to set new stands in supercar technology and performance. One such test that is still held in high regard is the lap time around Germany's Nordschleife circuit. The 20.8-kilometre track is one of the most famous in the world and also one of the most dangerous. For many it is seen as the ultimate test of true performance, and setting a record-breaking lap time there is what every sports car manufacturer dreams of.
As part of the McLaren P1's final development tests, a car was driven (not transported) from the factory in Woking in England to the Nürburgring in Germany where it would attempt to set its lap time. Using the car's 'Race' mode, it lowers itself by 50mm, stiffens the suspension by 300 per cent and fully extends its rear wing by 300mm.
In the hands of the car's very talented test driver, McLaren claims to have cracked the seven-minute barrier thanks to an average speed in excess of 178km/h. Crucially though, the company hasn't said exactly what time the car did set, leading to much speculation as to whether it has or hasn't beaten the Porsche 918 Spyder's lap time of 6 minutes 57 seconds. Although there's no way of telling the lap time from it, McLaren did produce this incredible video.
Anything else?
Despite the slow start to sales, all of the McLaren P1 production run has now been spoken for, which suggests that McLaren doesn't feel the need to publish the lap time as part of a marketing strategy in order to entice buyers. Perhaps now it is simply waiting to see how fast the LaFerrari is around the 'Green Hell' before revealing its time.