458,Mp12,Boxer,GT3

Yesterday I had the opportunity to try the MP12 458 and GT3 as well as my old trusty boxer back to back.

Please bear in mind that I probably tend to be old school in terms of driving expectations, more of a tracker than an arriver, think of these cars for weekebnd pleasure as opposed to dalies.

The Maclaren was first. the cockpit has that tight fighter jet feel, and the car has a barrowness which makes it feel compact width wide which is a plus if you drive curvy roads. The Maclarten seats feel more like a BMW, no leather arooma or particularily great to the touch. At idle and slow speed the motor has a porche type sound and is quite appealing. The paddles are indeed to stiff and the wheel rim is an odd shape around the fingers, almost maybe like it was set up for thick racing gloves. I did like that the paddles were attached to the wheel. If you drive with two hads then you always know which fingers do what.

The suspemsion tranny controls are not exactly intuitive, but you would get used to them. At speed everything feels slightly disconected. I found the oly suspension setting that had good rebound damping was track. The paddles are Ok but frankly you can just leave it in auto. The acceleration is really fast, but did not feel epic like a zo6. There is some slight turbo lag and different rates of accleration here and there depending on what the turbos are doing. To really get driving pleasure out of it you would need to be at a track, where the epic handling and power could be used. So capable is the car that where is the fun below 9/10ths, which translates to a speed only achevable ont he autobahn. the brakes though, and these were the steels were the nicest and best of any car i have ever driven. afirm pedal with no slop and braking can be metered so precisely with pedal pressure.

You can see out of it grreat and use it as a daily easily. Lastly the motor sound, at any type of "speed" there is no motor muisic, just loud blare, its also not a particularily smooth unit. I remember the Jaguar XJ200 motor was described as powerful but sounding like a bucket of bolts, maybe not that bad but you get the idea.. There is also a bit of wind noise here and there and there sounded like some loose exhaust pannels at lower speeds. Its like if lotus had stayed in business and built a esprit. A very nice car, but not a seminal one.

The 458, i love the looks. Its wide, maybe too wide for windys, but this also makes a spacious more airy cockpit. the Italians do aromatic leather so well, it makes the interior feel.s special in away the maclaren does not. that being said plenty of cheap plasticky bits abound, especialy things like door handles and various dash pieces. The Steering wheel is busy, I gues you woudl learn it in time.

Steering Feel is even less than the Maclaren, its basicaly nonexistent, but the compensation is ultra sharp steering, maybe a bit too sharp. Even going slow you need two hands on the wheel to progress smoothly. The tranny is clearly better than the Malcaren especial doing paddle shift which are both faster and smoother. The ride is harder, but its relative, neither car has really soft intitail impact, the maclren maybe has more compliance. But the Ferrai feels more alive in terms of suspension on the road. the Motor is real smooth and very torquey till 3000 revs. After that its suprisingly flat till the last few thousand when it goes beserk. The result is that your either driving around town, or dropping three gears to go into manic mode. The motor sounds like an F! at full wail, truly epic. I thought the brakes sucked.

Hre is the thing with these cars. they are both designed to be traffic daily driveable, and they are superb at this. At the other end of the spectrum on a track say they would have truly epic performance. On the road though though tighter bends and twisties they are fast but just not really that much fun, both have weird steering in different ways. Its almost like both manufacturers were trying too hard to make a statement, instead of just building great driving cars.

I took both the Maclren and ferrari through some 120 ish bends, it was like a so what experience, almost like ti was tapping a keyboard and telling the car what to do.

Now for the GT3. It was a revelation. the Motor sounded almost as good as the ferrari and was the smoothest of the punch. The power delivery was consistent thought, building with revs, so you could nete out power through the pedal exactly. the steering was as it should be, not toto heavy, too light or too sharp. You could as a consequence place the car exatly where you wanted on the road, much like alotus only better. The stick allowed you to slot the exact gear how and when you wanted. Paddles are sequential. The stick also shifted like a Miata, even the knob fit the hand perfectly.

What the porche had, which the other two lacked was a man machine interface, the car spoke to you and you spoke to it, the man and the machine could meld into one. It also felt compact and narrow. As a result It was fin driving at all speeds, even if spec says its slower than the other two. If I could go get a new GT3 today I would, the other two would be fun if you had a lot of cars and wanted to try them as drive around cars, but are not must haves.

Now to the Boxer. Compared to the other three it felt slow, but in 4th gear could work thorugh traffic and blastes here and there better than all save the GT3. It had a sense of occasion, It feels bespoke, and also the smoothest motor. to go fast, you have to work it, and this provdes reward. The same 120ish bend in the boxer required concertration skill and work, it made for a rewarding driving experience.

If youre going to drive on public roads a GT3 is awsome, if you want exotic a Boxer provides a superior experience to the MP12 and 458. On the track the boxer would be dead last, the GT3 most fun, the Ferrari fastest and the Macca probably easiest.

But I cant help thinking that everything the 458 and Mp12 offer is avaialble in a Nissan GTR, except maybe badge and looks. When the boxer was new, there wqas vast performance and experience difference between it and mortal cars. Today with the moderns the performance difference is really not so huge, even a M5 is fast. What ferrari and Maclaren need to work on is the driving experience, something that rewards at all speeds. These cars today, are like video games you ride in, which is Ok but there is so much ore to a sports car than that, it should be a full imersion experience. Interestingly Ferrari says that they are going to be adding driving fun back to the equation, just as porche seems to be losing it. Is the new GT3 going to have electric steering a flappy paddles? so it will be faster, but so what.