Ferrari LaFerrari vs Mclaren P1 vs Porsche 918

Very nice!

 

nice 918 shape car key there. much less literate than the huayra's one.

 

Look forward to seeing you there!!

Now all you need is to come play the F1 game😜😜😜😜

 

Actually an F1 car is remarkably comfortable...

 

On the simulator on tv it is

 

Very nice! I hope you're enjoying them.

 

Congrats Whoopsy! Cars looking good! Enjoy!

 

Uh, that's what all P keys look like?

 

Actually that's a standard Porsche key, it is actually shaped more like a 911 in profile.

 

haha i have never paid attention to one i apologize for my ignorance.

 

Whoopsy, from your side how does the 918 compare to the F12? Is it more involving?

 

Power-wise? They feel very close when I am driving in Sports mode in the 918, where the 608HP engine is the primary motivator with the 2 e-motors on standby. In Race mode the extra kick from the e-motor just blows the F12 away.

Comfort-wise, of course it's a no contest, F12 wins by a country mile. The 918 is bare, like the Speciale, it is raw but with a lot of luxurious items, with no noise insulation all sorts of noises comes into the cabin like the Speciale. The seats are comfortable when compared with other race buckets, not as comfortable as the seats in the P1 though, those are like living room sofas compared with the 918 ones.

The F12 has quick steering, makes it feels more 'direct' than it really is, the 918 is direct, it steers like it's an extension of your brain, point and go and say bye bye to everything else.

The closest Ferrari to the 918 is the Speciale, drives and feels like they are siblings. The F12 comes close because of the sheer power advantage but it really is a different kind of animal.

As for the complete driver involvement question, it's not a fair question. The 918 involuntarily wins that one simply because every time I go out, I am hyper aware that I am driving a million dollar irreplaceable car. Of course I am super involved in driving it just because of that fact.

 

If I said: 918 is fun ("because of the sheer power advantage"), but Speciale is more fun to DRIVE (approx 350 lbs lighter), agree/disagree? I know, different animals.
A 2,800 lb Speciale or a 918 minus batteries would be more fun. Not a fanboy, all are beyond awesome, but I think they are all too big and heavy. Necessary evil to handle power/safety.
Nothing like real owner feedback and comparison, thanks.

 

I rode both back to back yesterday. Speciale is more comfortable and definitely more nimble.
However something I didn't expect was that the 918 sounds better. From the inside atleast. I never expected a Porsche v8 to sound better than a Ferrari.

 

Nothing this side of a Ferrari V12 sounds better than the 918 at full bore

 

The weight is a non-issue.

The press was focused on that and that cause the lemmings to think the same way.

Had Porsche not disclosed the weight at 3700lb before, no one is gonna give a fuss about it. Most will likely guess it at 3300-3400lb after driving it.

918 has wide rubber at the front, it really bites on turn ins so it will change directions just as quickly as any cars, the extra low centre of gravity of the car also makes it roll less.

But the Speciale is really a special car, it is the closest thing to a non-hybrid 918. More comfortable too. Had I not have a 918, I would have kept mine.

 

Lol the 918 key looks like my jetta key with a colored case on the edges...

 

I disagree with you on this. I drove the 918 on track and it felt heavy to me. They made a mistake putting me in a Turbo S for learn-the-track laps because, after driving my 458 a whole bunch for the weeks leading up to this, I could really feel how much the Turbo pushed into the corners and was pushed around by its own weight. Well, consider me shocked, when the 918 felt like it was doing the same thing. Granted this was at faster speeds (it's incredibly fast!) but it still did the same thing. The instructor at my side even called it out and said you had to be careful because it's very heavy car. This guys was hired by Porsche to demonstrate the car and even he admitted it. It couldn't be denied.

In my view you're completely wrong calling the journalists lemmings on this issue because most of the reviews I've read had the journalists have bending over backward to form the perception that it handles it weight better than it actually does. BTW, I wasn't the only person I know who came away feeling it was heavy. If it had felt as light and nimble at the P1 I probably would have bought one.

 

More like journalists bent over backwards more on dissing the weight of the 918 and praising the P1 because of it's so called much lighter weight.

They only changed their tunes when the 918 proved faster than they think and the P1 slower than they think.

Mark, your allegiance to the P1 is well known, so is your distaste to the 918.

Anyway, I wouldn't have canceled my P1 order if it's not a souped up 12C. Cramming the heaviest piece of equipment at the highest possible spot to raise the centre of gravity is not good design Porsche and Ferrari certainly didn't do that. Mclaren try to mask that defect with stiffer suspension and then had to made them stiffer still to account for the higher downforce it generates.

We are certainly not seeing eye to eye on the respective choice of purchase, we can agree to disagree.

 

At the end of the day, the weight difference b/w the two is around 130 kg.

 

If you have 4ws pivoting the car better and giving it more stability at high speeds, better brakes, lower centre of gravity, more torque, less lag, 4wd and better traction, what advantage has a more traditional but lighter car got on you? All areas are already covered and you couldn't tell the difference from the inside IMO.

 

True, you CAN feel the 918s weight on track. The difference of the two can even be felt on the road. Any want to guess the real weights of the two cars on scales?

Im willing to bet that its a lot more than 100kgs

 

Have enjoyed reading your "real world" insights about the 918, far more valuable reading these than many of the journalist impressions.

I think weight is an old story when it comes to cars, yes excessive weight is bad but properly packaged weight can have traction and other advantages if the chassis is correctly set up.

 

Highest possible spot would be the roof lol.
The battery is at the center of the car for better polar moment/handling.

 

I'm talking about the reviews of the car. Most of the comparative reviews I read didn't talk about the heavy feeling of the car that objective people, with some experience driving supercars, can easily feel. Of the people I know who've driven both I've yet to find any who couldn't feel the weight difference and who didn't come away with the same impression I did. This isn't a criticism of the car but rather a criticism of your statement that the car feels as light as a car weighing 400 pounds less - it just plain doesn't. The heavier feel of the car was, by far, the biggest contributing factor in my choosing not to buy one.

Bull****. I like the 918 plenty. I've said countless times that if I had unlimited money I would have bought one (in addition to P1) and I've even considered selling one or two of the other exotics and picking one up. That being said I would have bought LaFerrari (in addition to P1) in a heartbeat if I had been offered a slot to order one. That's a no-brainer due to its amazingness as a car combined with it's unquestionable investment value.

However given having to choose between the 918 and P1 I found the P1 to be a more exciting car for me. If I had found the Porsche to be more to my taste I would have bought it instead. Back when I drove it there were still plenty of order slots available. I liked it so much I was certain it would sell out and soon be commanding a price above list. Go back and look at what I said the week I drove it and please stop implying I don't like the car. I have plenty of room in my heart to love lots of cars.

Why would you have ordered something you considered to be a "souped up 12C" in the first place? What were you expecting it was? I get the gist of the argument that the 918 is special for being more "bespoke" than the P1 or LaFerrari. It is and it's wonderful that Porsche has made such a special car but criticizing P1 or LaFerrari for taking components from their sister cars seems pointless and in some ways hypocritical given the other cars that you own (I'm looking at you F12, son of FF).

It is not the heaviest piece of equipment in the car and saying it sits at the highest place possible seems unfair when it is mounted vertically such that the majority of it isn't sitting at the "highest place possible". So there's that. Are you also saying that more downforce and a better suspension aren't positive things? They had to add a battery somewhere and I still maintain the P1 feels more nimble on track than the 918 so how they went about distributing the weight doesn't seem to be an actual issue and there's less of it to worry about in the P1. I've never heard anyone come away from diving the P1 complaining that the center of gravity is too high. Did you feel that when you drove the P1? You did drive the P1, right? Did you drive it at speed on a track?

Absolutely but when you state something that offends my sense of objectivity I feel a duty to correct you. When you say "most will likely guess it at 3300-3400lb after driving it" I have to disagree because nobody I know who drove both came away thinking the 918 felt anywhere near as light and nimble as the P1. My daily driver for the weeks leading up to the 918 event was a car in that weight range (458 Spider) and at most of the turns on the track it was obvious to me that 918 weighed much more. If you say they've managed to hide it then what I really think has happened is that you've managed to overlook it. That's fine but don't say "most" people would do that.

A very small number of people in the world will ever get to drive these cars which is why I feel a duty, as someone who has driven them both, to talk about them. I'm sorry if this came off sounding confrontational. If someone said something I knew to be wrong about the 918 I'd defend it too. You bought the 918 and I bought the P1. I'm loving my P1 and I'm sure you're loving the 918 as well. I'd love to own a 918 as well. Congrats on yours and use it safely and in good health!