Ooo...going to be a nice one...
Source: LaFerrari vs McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918 - BBC Top Gear
Source: LaFerrari vs McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918 - BBC Top Gear
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This feels like a big one. Given that I've not been this excited since I discovered the little-known toffee-chocolate HobNob, there must be something in it. And it's a very specific set of circumstances. Each of these three cars has been driven by Top Gear magazine (and every other big motoring outlet on the planet), but all three have never been in the same place, at the same time, for dissection by the same minds. I say minds'. This might lead you to believe that somehow we're in the company of intellectual heavyweights - really its just Top Gear on tour, rank freshly pulled, meetings duly cancelled. We are hopelessly, joyously over-staffed. Nobody - I mean nobody wanted to miss this one. It's not been easy: Charlie has spent the last few weeks on the phone, and now that the time is nigh, just looks as if he's about to give birth. Literally give birth. Oliver is fretting about having to compete in the Wales Rally GB tomorrow, and I fell over putting my trousers on this morning. Dates have shifted several times. Flights have been booked, and cancelled, and re-booked. Private owners have offered their cars, but never - quite - at the same time. And yet they are here, together. The Big Three. Fully supported by the manufacturers involved, with full disclosure. I think McLaren, Ferrari and Porsche are as interested as we are ... Yes, pairings have been seen in the same room - not least the 918 and P1 on TG's own Speed Week 2014, but never this triumvirate, After all, both the McLaren and the Ferrari are both sold out - they have nothing to prove and all to lose. For this, we salute the manufacturers - to be truly proud of your product is to allow comparison with the best. And, to immediately ignore any assumed prejudice, these three really are teetering on the top tier. It's like having a lion, a tiger, and a leopard all prowling around the same territory: you're not sure which one might come out on top, but fairly convinced that it will involve a lot of roaring, and someone losing an eye. A bit of a baseline to explain why we're here, and why to see these three together is to gently electrify the tiny hairs on your nape. This is about each company throwing down a technological and ideological gauntlet to the rest of the World, inviting response, and awe. I'm just not sure anyone was expecting three companies to call each other's bluff so completely in the same 12 months. Yes, these are dream hypercars, and you're about as likely to pull up next to a P1 in a LaFerrari at the traffic light grand prix as you are to find unicorns giving free rides on Brighton beach, but that doesn't mean we can't create the improbable so that you don't have to. All three are hybrids. All three use an electric motor as a large part of their drivetrain make-up, albeit deploying said electrification in very different ways. All three are hysterically fast, probably worryingly in excess of the talents of ninety-percent of the individuals who can afford to buy them, and yes, all three cost enough to buy you a big house somewhere nice. Although as a great man once said: "You can sleep in your car, but you can't race your house". So which is best? We're going to do our damndest to find out. |