It would be dishonest if I didn’t mention that I’m a huge McLaren fan. Not only is the iconic McLaren F1 supercar top of my fantasy garage list, but I’m also a serial supporter of the Formula One team. Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, David Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen, Juan Pablo Montoya, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button; I’ve cheered for them as long as they were behind the wheel of a Woking racing car. Although I’m not entirely sure why, I even think Ron Dennis is cool. Anyway, I think you get the point. Let’s just say I have very high expectations.
Before I get behind the wheel, McLaren insists that I have a full briefing to explain how everything works and ensure that I have a complete understanding of the mind-boggling technology I am about to experience. So far, so McLaren. On hand to educate me on the ways of the MP4-12C is Duncan Hill, McLaren’s aftersales manager for the Middle East region, who has travelled over from the regional headquarters in Bahrain (McLaren is part Bahraini-owned) for this very purpose.
He talks me round the exterior pointing out things like the fact that McLaren’s logo – styled very much like an upside down Nike swoosh – has been incorporated in the styling, most prominently in the headlights and the air-intakes behind the doors. He also highlights that the exhausts exit above the rear number-plates, which is much higher up than most cars so as not to interfere with and therefore influence the design of the rear-diffuser. Very F1. Very cool.
Once inside the clever touches continue. The minimalist interior could easily have been designed by Bang & Olufsen. It is clear and uncluttered with a surprising amount of space for a car of such compact proportions. They’ve achieved this by using a narrow centre console that houses a vertical touch-screen to control the multi-media system. Unusually the A/C controls are housed in the arm-rests in the door to minimize the clutter in the centre, while the controls for the side-mirrors utilize the same button that switches the parking-sensors on and off.
The only other buttons in the car are two rotary switches that control the powertrain and handling settings that can be separately adjusted to Normal, Sport or Track. The deeply sculpted steering wheel is apparently modelled on the grip of Lewis Hamilton, who coincidently drove this very car to the new Dubai showroom’s launch a few days earlier. Pull the door down and towards me and I am cocooned in what might just be the best cabin of any sports car.
I wish more cars had a steering wheel as adjustable as this, making it very easy to find an ideal driving position. The visibility ahead is perfect and it’s just as well, as I have to manoeuvre the car out the back of the delivery entrance of the showroom with very little space to spare on either side. I pull the right-hand gearshift paddle to select first gear.
The two paddles are actually one piece, which rocks on a central pivot. The action is unusually firm, enough to let you discern two stages to the movement, of which the first stage is ‘pre-cog’ which pre-loads the clutch to the next predicted gear so that the shift, when it comes, is ultra-rapid. The electric parking brake releases and, for the first time in my life, I’m driving a McLaren.
Moments later, I’m sitting in mild traffic on Emaar Boulevard in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa and my first impression is that the McLaren feels, well… normal. It shuffles along sedately in traffic, pulling away from lights with minimal fuss. The engine note is muted and as I move off the seven-speed dual-clutch auto-gearbox impatiently shuffles up towards the highest possible gear; all in the interest of fuel economy.
As I approach an elevated pedestrian walkway I am given the first sign that I am in anything but a normal car. I hit the bump ahead at what must have been roughly 60kph and the McLaren glides over it barely acknowledging its existence. The vertical rebound is so well controlled it feels like the wheels went up and down without the car changing elevation. If you did the same thing; even in something as supple as a Range Rover; you would be pitched out of your seat as you crested the bump. There’s not even a hint of that here. My attention is piqued.
It’s immediately obvious that the McLaren has got the city-slog nailed, which is just as well as I’ve no intention of wasting much time sitting in traffic. I am soon heading north on the Dubai Bypass Highway towards the Hajar Mountains via the epic Kalba road.
– www.crankandpiston.com