Top-Tier Shootout: McLaren P1 Vs. Porsche 918 Spyder, One Track, One Driver, And One Missing Ferrari


Top-Tier Shootout: McLaren P1 Vs. Porsche 918 Spyder, One Track, One Driver, And One Missing Ferrari

The McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder and LaFerrari are currently the ultimate end of street-legal production cars. All three sport a combination of gas and electric power, all are expensive enough to warrant a string of expletives when hearing the price for the first time, all are extremely low production, and all are blisteringly fast. Truthfully, the only time any of these cars are going to be pushed to their limits once sold by the factory will be by a minuscule handful of owners who have the big brass ones to hit the loud pedal and the kids of millionaires who will wind up on the news after stuffing a million-dollar technological tour de force into the nearest tree, but they are race cars with license plates, so they should be treated like a race car, right?

Motor Trend managed to get the Porsche and McLaren out to Laguna Seca and broke out their version of The Stig, pro racer Randy Pobst, to wring the hell out of them and see which one came away better. Both of these cars trap a quarter mile in nine seconds stock and accelerate like the devil himself is on their ass. Both corner like slot cars and both scream a V8 soundtrack worthy of any racing circuit anywhere in the world. This video is nothing more than motorsports porn, and it makes for some good watching, indeed.


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0

7 thoughts on “Top-Tier Shootout: McLaren P1 Vs. Porsche 918 Spyder, One Track, One Driver, And One Missing Ferrari

  1. mooseface

    When the chips are down, I’d go for the McLaren. They really invest a great deal of thought and effort into their vehicles and have a track record for machines that simply cannot be placed alongside any other types.
    I’m also very happy to witness this head-to-head since TG won’t be able to make it happen.
    As for Ferrari goes, I’d say it’s their loss, but it really doesn’t matter at all. They could honestly go around murdering people and pissing into the gas tanks of every car they manufacture and still folks will wait in lines like suckers at a new Apple product rollout for their cars.

  2. Nick D.

    Also a fan of the McLaren. Gotta applaud them for sticking to RWD to make it more of a driver’s car. Plus, while the P1 barely was slower here, it did beat the 918 on the Nurburgring by a solid amount. Plus, that styling: The P1 doesn’t look like it was built as much as grown from a weird alien metal. One of the best, most radical-looking cars out there.

    1. mooseface

      Yeah, I like that McLaren is keeping the P1 rwd, that’s how it should be, and I like your description of its looks.
      I also feel an affinity for them as being somewhat of an underdog. Porsche can outspend McLaren’s entire development budget on blingy trinkets for the Cayenne alone. Porsche has more money, a collection of some of the brightest automotive minds on the planet and some of the best manufacturing resources available.
      McLaren is David fighting Goliath in this battle, and I want them to succeed based on their passion alone.

    2. ColoradoKid

      Got to be honest here . After having driven an MP4-12C .. which was beyond any shadow of a doubt the most boring and uninspiring Supercar I’ve ever the displeasure of driving … any thoughts of the P1 only serve to turn my stomach .

      Whereas the Porsche ? Well … I could do without the fake KERS and the pretense of being a hybrid … but at least the damn thing is challenging to drive .. whereas the P1 as well as the LaFerrari can be driven by your aging great aunt at 85% of their potential without even so much as breaking a sweat on her ancient greying brow

      As to Ferrari ? Heh .. yeah … Ferrari . Go ahead … loan a magazine etc your new Ferrari … any Ferrari for an unauthorized road test /comparison . See what happens . Heck … simply dare to criticize Ferrari in public and see what happens

      What will happen is Ferrari will never sell you another new Ferrari ever again and every Ferrari dealership / authorized repair / parts distributor will refuse to do business with you … for life … regardless of your bank account/status . Not to mention should Ferrari catch wind of you trying to sell off your Ferrari … they’ll do everything [almost ] legally possible to try and scupper the sale .

      Ferrari – The modern automotive reincarnation of Benito Mussolini

      Now if its a real Hyper/SuperCar you’re really wanting… real innovation etc . Leave these old dogs wagging their tails behind and …

      Buy either a Koenigseeg .. or a Pagani … the last two REAL Super/Hyper/Ultracars … built by men of vision .. rather than corporate greed .. left on the planet

      1. ColoradoKid

        By the way Nick ….. be it financially – resources wise etc … McLaren are anything BUT … the underdogs . Especially Ferrari that despite Marchionne’s rhetoric are deeply into the financial weeds . Which makes McLaren’s underperformance even more disappointing .

        Full discloser . I was a full blown Macca fan since the CanAm / F1 days and right up to the end of the F1 road car [ regardless of having owned a couple of F words ] And then I got the keys to that MP4-12C ..

        Suffice it to say … since that day ; Between the current raft of road cars and a flailing /failing F1 program … I’ve pretty much given up on McLaren of late … unfortunately … and I’m far from the only or most prominent one that has

        1. Nick D.

          I didn’t see that McLaren was an underdog. I know that anything with the McLaren name is likely a force to be reckoned with,

          1. mooseface

            Yep, that was me.
            For clarity’s sake, what I referred to was relative to each company’s development budgets for their projects.
            From what I know about McLaren, their engineering is amazing and their vehicles are fine-tuned and incredible machines, but they are still a small company.

Comments are closed.