Ferrari LaFerrari vs Mclaren P1 vs Porsche 918

From an interview between CrankandPiston.com and the engineering Chief Designer of the P1, Dan Parry-Williams:

"McLaren’s aim for the P1 has been to create a road car that turns into a race car at the touch of the button (although you have to be stopped when you press it, and it takes about 30 seconds to readjust itself). The suspension, Dan said, is a key element to making that work.
“It turns out you need to do something clever with the suspension,” he said. “What we’ve done is instead of thinking about the suspension in terms of springs and dampers on each corner, you have to transform the thinking into modes. Instead of controlling the corners you’re controlling the modes – the roll, the warp [twist] and the heave [up and down].
“The reason for that is if you want to transform the suspension to be ideal for road use into something ideal for race use, you have to make some dramatic changes. It’s three-and-a-half times stiffer in roll, two times stiffer in heave and it’s lower by 55mm. Interestingly, the warp stiffness is zero. Even the 12C doesn’t have a zero warp stiffness. What that gives rise to is surprisingly refined driving in road and race mode.”
With the 12C particularly praised for its ride, how will the P1 compare, bearing in mind its hardcore performance intents?
“Our original goal was not to compromise the ride comfort that we achieved with the 12C. I think the road comfort is actually in some ways better than the 12C because of the zero warp stiffness. To all intents and purposes, when you drive the car on the road it’s as comfortable as the 12C. And even on track, it’s surprisingly comfortable. It doesn’t shake your fillings out.”"

 

Interesting.

The 918 HP new is not new or secret. I don't see any of these being anywhere near 6:30. I still see P1 being close to our 6:51, La Ferrari and 918 just under 7. It will be interesting to see how many laps at speed all three can run. I see 918 lap after lap, P1 next and La Ferrari last in that test. P1 will really impress me if it can run lap after lap in race mode and with the push of a button revert back to comfort. We can run 6:51's for 24 hours but on the Road which I've started doing P 4/5 C is very stiff.

This will give you an idea of what The Ring is like:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/special-projects-concept-cars/417448-meeting-napolis-p4-5-c-m-nurburgring.html

 

Metcalfe makes some great points in issue 183:

 

Designwise for me LaFer is a so so. Good concept with some proportion issues that should have been sorted.

Mclaren - Doesn't appeal to me at all. It's an end justifies the means car. I hope it performs to all its hype because the styling is weak for styling sake.

918 - Loved the design when revealed... but Porsche jumped the shark by not keeping it under wraps during post reveal development. It's become old hat already and unless they make some cosmetic changes there really isn't much more excitement to gotten from it visually.

Ready for some new cars to break cover now....

 

BINGO.

 

Yup. Applies to Fiorano, N'ring, and any other track you care to name. Nice to know if it's the record setter, but the car will be equally desirable whether it is or isn't.

 

right on! accurate un-bias comments

 

Metcalfe makes some great points in issue 183:
Quote:
By the end of [McLaren’s P1 presentation at Geneva], I had the distinct impression that the P1’s ability to occasionally be driven on public roads was more of an inconvenience than something at the core of its design ethos.

[...]

With all three 3million Venenos sold before the show even opened, Lamborghini must be doing something right [... the car] made me wonder whether Ferrari or McLaren would have bothered fitting hybrid drivetrains in their ultimate cars if the weren’t involved in Formula 1.

[...]

The 918 is starting to look decidedly off the pace, and that’s because Porsche made two fundamental mistakes with it: set the production number way too high, and it wrongly assumed buyers would leap at the chance of buying an eco-friendly supercar. As both Ferrari and Lamborghini can testify, all buyers want are supercars which deliver the ultimate in ‘driving emotion’, not the lowest CO2 figure or ultimate lap time. That’s why the old guard came out on top in Geneva: they understand the super-car game inside and out.

If I had to pick the winner, it would have to be the Ferrari. All 499 of it’s 1.04 million LaFerraris will have been sold by the time you read this, which is a mighty effort given Bugatti still hasn’t sold 450 Veyrons in seven years. The sound of the Ferrari’s screaming V12 closing in on a 9250rpm red line should be amazing, and for many customers, that’ll be even more seductive than a record breaking lap time around Fiorano. “Emotion” is a concept McLaren still seems to struggle with, and with the 12C often accused of being super-quick but unemotional, a blisteringly fast but one-dimensional P1 could offer a sense of deja vu. The P1 might be the fastest, Ron, but will it be fun?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


I do not agree with this Metcalfe.

Speaking about the first point, the new developed suspension for P1 must surely make it the superior machine for the road use. For some reason he does not consider its variability for road and track.

'Lamborghini is doing something right' because it has sold all 3 nonhybrid Lamborghini Venenos for 3 million euros? What kind of logic is this? I ask myself then, are they able to sell 400 or 500 of these?

Drivers want driving emotion and not ultimate lap time? From when is ultimate lap time not the same as driving emotion? What is driving emotion? Controling a machine that requires professional skill and one that make screaming at 9250 rpm red line? At this speed you are wearing a helmet or passing the cafe with the police behind you. Yes I agree with this, it MUST make my heart beat faster, but I believe that who drive a LaFerrari on a racetrack and is passed by a P1, his heart will beat faster in frustration.

Track time will prove which machine is the best hyper car.

 

Well, well. So, after almost 100 pages, you reduce all the debate to this?

It was easier than I thought then, we could have skipped all the previous chitchat.

 

Yes.

 

Then you should remember that a Radical can be as fast as any of these cars, and at a fraction of the cost.

But it´s not the same.

 

No. A Radical is not a hyper car to compare with LaFerrari, P1 or 918. Otherwise I would have said that we are including Formula 1 cars on the N'ring. They are a little bit faster than a Radical. But like you say, it's not the same. I am talking about cars that you can drive to other countries in the rain and still make the love in when you desire. Try that in a Radical.
But maybe you drive your Radical in the rain and make the love too? Good man!

 

When I was younger perhaps. Now? Probably not...

 

Everybody, no helmet jokes please.

 

So it seems like we may not get a comparison test until sometime next year huh?

 

Finding these cars on track together in the hands of people capable of extracting even 90% of their performance will be rarer than hen's teeth.

>8^)
ER

 

He is on fchat.

 

I just hope nobody gets injured in the attempt. Remember Toyota's test driver with the LFA at the ring? That's one of the reasons that track isn't the ultimate benchmark. Too dangerous.

 

Ummm - I think you misread the news...

No oncoming traffic on the Nurburgring itself - at least one would hope not.

>8^)
ER

 

Yes, sorry I had a few knocks, my memory is a bit random access

But I still think that chasing hypercars ring records is dangerous and sooner or later someone will find out at their expense

 

Well I know the discussion of late has focused on it, but I wasn't even referring to the Ring with my comment. It's very unlikely that in the real world - not talking magazine comparisons - that one will ever find these hypercars on track squaring off against each other with drivers who are capable of extracting max performance. The majority of people who buy these cars have a lot more money than talent and most of them are keenly aware of this as well.

>8^)
ER

 

True. I also wonder which one of the three will be the first to appear on wrecked exotics tnx to some incompetent owner.

 

Well it seems that customers will get their hands on P1s first, starting early next month. Not sure when 918 Spyder deliveries begin, but that must be soon too.

>8^)
ER

 

On the other hand P1's are fewer and Porsches are 4wd. No offence, but I think on average the worst drivers will be the LaFerrari ones. That's the real shame!

 

What do you mean? Ferrari owners don't even drive their cars.

THAT is the real shame.

>8^)
ER