About a year ago I wrote an editorial that absorbed and
explored the fallout of 2011’s biggest automotive test: McLaren MP4-12C versus
Ferrari 458 Italia, and why the quantifiably superior former was
comprehensively defeated by the esoteric latter. More sense of occasion, better
noise, more emotion, better looking – it’s exactly the subjective sort of
criteria that cars shouldn’t have verdicts based upon – and yet the Ferraris’
victory seemed to make perfect sense.
After all, in Britain, we’re always
harder on our own. We have a self-deprecating irony which far outweighs any
petty hostilities he hold against foreign nations, no matter how xenophobic the
media sometimes portrays us. That the international press agreed was hardly a
stop-press shock, however.
So why then, as a twenty-something lad who hasn't a hope in hell of getting his hands on a supercar in the near future, do I crave a drive in the MP4-12C over any other car, past or present? It’s seems curious, inexcusable even., In the face of the true greats, like the Ferrari F40 and E30 BMW M3, or one of the cars of the moment (Toyota GT86, Fisker Karma) that I’d choose to spend my fantasy ten minutes wheeltime in the unloved, supposedly clinical 12C.
I think it’d because cars maintain interest, for me, when they
remain controversial. A mkI Ford Focus is still an enigma, still relevant,
because there are those who proclaim it an all-time benchmark, and those who
rate its front differential abilities as a liability, impeding it on the very roads
it should have breakfasted on. Likewise the E60 BMW M5, a car blessed with a magnificent
V10 engine, but now condemned to do-you-dare bargain status, thanks to its Flintoff-shaming
thirst and mood swing-prone transmission. As likely to provoke furious debate
as they are a spontaneous Sunday morning drive, these are the cars that, like
it or not, still matter. Even though they’re outdated.
The MP4-12C then. At the root of my fascination is the
almost rehearsed two-pronged approach I’d have to experiencing it: the drive,
and the understanding. The driving is simple: educate myself on the adaptive
modes for powertrain and chassis, sample the twin-turbo engine, and bend my
head around the concept of its Active Chassis Control as the hydraulic talent
tackles bends itself. Meanwhile: does the car excite, entertain, and leave an
impression, beyond its numbers? To see if the MP4-12C got under my skin as an
experience, as a sensation, rather than simply a very rapid motor vehicle, is
the crux of its charm – the charm that so many branded it desperately free of.
Interesting debate, the wider ‘technology in cars’ one. The
obvious Ferrari rival is too loaded to the gunwales with systems to keep the
driver safe, comfortable, and allow him to drive the Maranello machine faster
than contemporary GT racing cars of the previous decade.
So, the presence of
technology itself is not the factor that decides if a car can be successful. It
does move at such a relentless space though – faster even than the cars whose
potential it unlocks, that it dates those cars quickly, long before inclement weather
and frayed seat bolsters ever could. That means the new generation of
supercars, 12C included, will be irrelevant sooner than say, the 512 Boxer or
Enzo were.
On the one hand, a young lad lusting after a drive in a
super sports car is nothing original or surprising. But desiring a taste of a
car’s abilities and putting them in context is the core reason any of us want
to be a motoring hack, or simply like cars at all. Roll on the second opinion.
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