Is the McLaren Mp4-12c fundimentally flawed?

I'll let you know after I drive it. Couldn't make it last week, unfortunately.

Of any tester, I respect Plato's opinion, but I wonder if it isn't a case of the Brits dumping on one of their own.

 

one reviewer's comments about "instability under braking" are particularly troublesome. I don't remember if it was essentially straight-line braking, or trail-braking .. ?? Could this be a case of pretty simple adjustments to hydraulic suspension control, or something more fundamental?

And the brake-steer choice, instead of more conventional LSD, or EDIFF, may prove to be a fundamental error ... at its most benign, it will cause drivers to drive this car very differently than others. But worst-case, it's back to the drawing board

The turbo choice is not a fundamentally bad one, in my view ... although we are hearing complaints of turbo lag, which other manufacturers (Porsche, Nissan) have all but eliminated.

 

If you read Georg Kacher's opinion on Car Mag online, it appears that there are differences between every car he has tested. So what i suggest is that the car suffers from lack of development and/or production.

You bdelp, have criticized Ron Dennis for being invisible after the reviews. As i know the guy he is probably sitting in his office, fuming at the reviews.

Ferrari has won the first round, but believe me, The fight is not over yet.

I am just waiting for the sequel to this car, its called "Ron is back, and this time he is pissed"

 

Georg favored the pre-production cars. This does not suggest a random production variation in the vehicles tested, but rather a "production reality" that can't match the "pre-production hype"

And i'll bet that Ferrari isn't standing still either

 

With the exception of the engine, and differential, McLaren made the same mistakes on the mighty F1. Poor handling characteristics, weak brakes, low handling threshold, no power steering (if its as bad as an F40, then its not so bad).

They know how to engineer a racecar, but are largely clueless about road cars... and make all the wrong trade-offs, even with the SLR.

 

So we agree that the problem is development/manufacture.

Funny, i had this idea that Ron did the slr only, so he could copy Mercedes down to the last letter on testing, development and manufacture.

Still, McLaren is still a relatively young manufacturer. Give them 2 years, Ron Dennis is stubborn enough to get it right.

 

What has disappointed me the most is that the car itself is lacking. I have never had any faith in small scale British made cars. The customer was always the tester. They say that you can now buy a "fully sorted DB5"

So, you get a floaty suspension at anything short of full song, and a brake assist that can throw you into the weeds.

 

The car is fugly, imo!

 

The car does need to be driven differently. All turbos have some lag, none have the throttle response of an N/A engine. LSDs are not perfect they induce understeer and offset it by slipping the outside wheel. That is why they are so easy to drive sideways. Look at the other cars it is competing with, rear engine, AWD, dual clutch trannys, active diffs, etc.

I wouldnt call it flawed I would say different. No one likes the lack of control a paddle shift car provides but there are very few 6 speeds on the market and no one can argue they are faster around a track or strait line.

Me perception is that the 12C requires smooth inputs and the reward is utterly quick laptimes.

Dont forget that this is a street car. It is not a race car. The race car is $500k to start and is only available to european based GT teams.

I wish I could do my own back to back tests.

 

DB5

If i may, the 'small scale' production Bentley CGT is well sorted, but then again it started life as the parent company (VW) as their main name brand model Phaeton automobile. So the CGT is more like a tweaked Phaeton. Frankly, VW is really doing a lot right nowadays (including the Bugatti ).

As for the McLaren, could be early teething pains. You early adopters will be paying the price of course. If they stay in business, i'd expect 3 or 4 years from now to see a newer, far better car with better performance and improved handling.

Side story: One of the best automobile decisions of my life was to get back my downpayment on the then new Maserati a few years back. As everyone now knows, the first year of the Maserati/Ferrari story tells the tale. i mean, even a 14 yr old child could feel the major flaw of lack of body/chassis stiffness of the convertible.

Persoanlly, get your downpayment back guys and wait a few years for them to sort out the problems and release V2 of the car.