Which is the greatest supercar of all time? Simple, it is the McLaren F1. The F1 is a car steeped in automotive folklore and is remembered as one of the icons of the motoring world. In hindsight it was an expensive limited-edition supercar built for a few and made with little regard for the bean counters.
The V12 engine was paired to a manual gearbox while the central driving position was unique in design as well as execution. Owners included Elon Musk and it remains one of the most sought-after cars ever. McLaren though took its own sweet time to engineer a replacement as it was none other than the P1 which arrived many years later.
Icon of the motorworld
It was the first hybrid supercar which used electricity to propel its performance quotient even further. Unlike a Prius, the electric bit here in the P1 was designed to add a sharper edge to its performance while adding in a sense of drama. The aerodynamic inspired styling and the alien spaceship like proportions means that the P1 looks alluring even today and tops the drama quotient which a car in this class should have.
McLaren: Topping the 1000 horsepower mark
However, to top it further, McLaren has not taken that much time as it has released its most extreme hypercar ever, the W1. It pays homage to its illustrious predecessors but ramps up the power quotient further along with a ruthless dedication to aerodynamics and weight saving.
The W1 is not as classically beautiful as the F1 but is compact by today standards while follows the UFO like design language as seen on the P1. Only 399 have been built but that is still more than the F1 while its horsepower count breaches the 1000 horsepower mark. But what is more important is that the turbocharged V8 revs to 9200rpm and it weighs just 1399kgs.
$3.53 million price tag
All that is due to the engineering witchcraft being lavished on this car with 3D printed components, a race mode which brings in 1000kgs of downforce and an active rear wing. As a result, it is much faster than the wild Senna and goes much farther than the P1 or the F1 in terms of the raw performance.
Yet, the W1 possesses the same philosophy as the mighty F1 in terms of its ethos. Where the W1 is inspired by the F1 is the desire to shun needless electronics. The W1 is rear wheel drive only and it has a hydraulic steering wheel – something which is in stark contrast to the all-wheel drive set-ups used to safely transfer the prodigious amount of power that these cars have. In the W1, these factors are crucial analogue trinkets which separate it from the other hypercar clan.
There is a lot of Formula One know how being added in the W1 and yes, the doors open in the same theatrical fashion. That said, whether the W1 would be given icon status like its predecessors is yet to be seen but it is simply one of the fastest cars right now and pushes engineering to the extremes, which we guess is following what the P1 and F1 did.
The W1 costs a stratospheric $3.53 million but all have been spoken for as collectors have hungrily lapped them up since this is perhaps the last great internal combustion engined hypercar from McLaren – a moment to savour!
Images: McLaren
Somnath Chatterjee grew up around cars and most of his childhood was spent obsessing over supercars. Years later he decided to start writing about them and hasn’t looked back since. While he has had his fair share of cars, the world of automobiles never ceases to amaze him. Travelling all over the world to drive them along with sharing that experience is what ultimately keeps him going. He hopes to drive a Ferrari 288 GTO someday because, well, do you really need a reason?
