The McLaren P1 has become the latest addition to the exclusive sub-seven minute club at the Nurburgring Nordschleife ( View the video here. ).
The sold-out new supercar from McLaren has been developed with one clear goal – to be the ultimate driving car on both road and track. To achieve this, the development programme focussed on ensuring that the P1 pushed the boundaries in terms of performance, with testing taking place in some of the harshest conditions in the world.
The final task for the P1 in this rigorous testing schedule was to achieve a lap around the Nordschleife at an average speed of 110mph, made all the more difficult by the Nordschleife’s 150 plus corners.
“This final challenge for the McLaren P1 was very publicly set out earlier this year, and the result is true testament to the team in Woking,” said McLaren Automotive Chief Executive Officer, Mike Flewitt. “Not only in terms of what has been achieved in Germany, but in what has been achieved with this project. The McLaren P1 is a technical tour de force, and is truly a car that we at McLaren are very proud of. The desire to push the envelope of performance, and achieve the sub-seven minute lap time, shows the spirit of Bruce McLaren lives in the company 50 years on.”
The P1 is equipped with a dual powerplant drivetrain which generates 903bhp, coming from a 3.8-litre twin turbo V8 petrol engine producing 727bhp coupled to a lightweight electric motor offering 176bhp. The efficient drivetrain offers instant torque and throttle responses, resulting in a 0-62mph time of 2.8 seconds and 0-124mph in just 6.8 seconds.
The task was left in the hands of McLaren’s chief test driver, Chris Goodwin, who managed to take the car around the circuit in under seven minutes, managing an average lap speed in excess of 110mph.
“The sub-seven minute lap time of the Nürburgring was set as part of a list of targets the McLaren P1 had to meet and, as with other objectives within the programme, the team has more than achieved what we set out to do,” said Goodwin. “It is a fitting tribute to the company in its 50th year, and to Bruce, the founder, whose ideals we live every day.”
“The fact that the McLaren P1 has posted a sub-seven-minute lap at the Nürburgring is unbelievably impressive,” added McLaren Formula 1 driver Jenson Button. “I’ve been an F1 driver for 14 years, and I’ve driven more than 240 Grands Prix and, although I’ve never raced an F1 car on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife circuit, because the last time the German Grand Prix was held there was before I was born, I know exactly how challenging, and daunting, a racetrack it is.
“I’ve driven the McLaren P1 on a number of occasions – including up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it was sensational – and I think it’s a truly superb machine: unbelievably refined yet unbelievably quick,” he added. “But, as I say, for it to have recorded a sub-seven minute lap time around the Nürburgring is the icing on the cake: proof positive, backed by hard data, on the greatest racetrack of them all, that McLaren has created a genuine game-changer.’
