Despite his remarkable achievements in motorsports, Bruce McLaren’s dreams of building a road-legal sports car didn’t come to fruition in his lifetime. The racing impresario’s untimely passing meant his three M6GTs never got past the prototype stage; it would take another two decades for a McLaren road car to see the light of day.
Fast forward to 1992, and the McLaren F1 moonshot proved so monumental that it remains the world’s fastest naturally aspirated road car. The next McLaren “1” car was the P1, which debuted in 2013 and joined the Ferrari LaFerrari and Porsche 918 Spyder as the so-called Holy Trinity of Hypercars.
McLaren’s newest “1” is the W1, named as a hat tip to McLaren’s first F1 constructor’s world championship. The space between has seen twenty-three driver and constructor championships for the British brand.
The nearest competitor to McLaren’s $2.1 million flagship is the $3.9 million Ferrari F80, and to a lesser extent the million-dollar Aston Martin Valhalla and Mercedes-AMG One. Like past range-toppers from Woking, the W1’s reach toward greatness is, first and foremost, a story of radical design and engineering. Here’s how it comes together.
Photo by: McLaren
The One Formula
Don’t let the twin-turbocharger 4.0-liter V8 / hybrid arrangement fool you; McLaren’s W1’s engineering intricacies bear little resemblance to any hypercar before it. Pumping 1,258 horsepower and 988 pound-feet of torque, the W1 leverages a number of advances and innovations to become the most powerful McLaren to date. Other key figures: 0-60 miles per hour in 2.0 seconds flat, 0-124 in 5.8 clicks, 2,205 pounds of downforce, and an electronically limited top speed of 217 miles per hour.
The W1’s powerplant draws 342 hp from a radial flux electric motor weighing only 44 pounds, powered by a tiny 1.4 kilowatt-hour battery that can recharge quickly and drive the car for up to 1.6 miles solely on EV power. An innovative eight-speed dual-clutch can momentarily drive power through two gears simultaneously, and the engine spins at up to 9,200 rpm while the E-motor can reach 24,000 rpm.
While those numbers aren’t groundbreaking in this age of warp speed EVs, think of the W1 as an elevated union between hardware and EV tech, not unlike the electro-mechanical precision of a high-end Grand Seiko Spring Drive wristwatch. The W1’s hybrid components are 88 lbs lighter than the P1’s, and its overall dry weight is just 9 lbs heavier than the late, great range-topper, which is pretty remarkable given the span of 13 years. Tipping the scales at 3,084 lbs dry, the W1 is a relative featherweight against the 3,362-lb Ferrari F80, which packs three electric motors but a smaller 3.0-liter V6.
Beyond its wispy weight, the W1 stands apart in its drivetrain layout. In a world where the vast majority of exotics route big internal combustion power to the rear wheels and electrons to the front, McLaren dumps the entirety of its massive reserves to a pair of 335-30/20-inch Pirelli PZero Trofeo RSs.
It’s difficult to overstate the hugeness of the decision to stick with rear-wheel drive. Not only does that leave the purpose of the front wheels sacrosanct, creating more organic steering feel. But since power can’t be spread out among four wheels, routing all 988 lb-ft of torque to the rear presents serious challenges to maximizing acceleration.
Also critical is McLaren’s choice to stick with hydraulic steering and brakes. While EPS and brake-by-wire technology has become ubiquitous, the hydraulic solutions emphasize feel over clinicality and efficiency.
Photo by: McLaren
Highly Focused Track Theater
While every McLaren road car before it had dihedral doors, the W1 uses conventional fixed hinges with a simpler upward sweep, due to the complex aerodynamic surfacing on the lower side of the doors preventing them from opening and shutting at an angle. Release the driver’s door, and it sweeps up slowly, revealing a cabin that blends the seating surfaces into their surroundings.
The space age look is cool, but it’s also functional: when you plop into the driver’s seat, which is inset past a wide sill, the seat remains fixed, and you adjust the steering wheel and pedal box to meet you. The theatre of the experience is strong, as is the functionality of saving the weight and mechanical complexity of seat rails and motors.
The view from the driver’s seat feels pretty radical. Between the Aerocell monocoque’s visible carbon fiber and the cocooning effect of how the seats blend in with the door sills and the center compartment, the W1 feels closer to a race car than it does a road car.
The theatre of the experience is strong, as is the functionality of saving the weight and mechanical complexity of seat rails and motors.
A vertically oriented 8.0-inch touchscreen cants toward the driver on the center stack while a digital instrument screen sits straight ahead. A simple, squared-off steering wheel is free from controls apart from an ‘Aero’ button on the left that triggers a low-drag setting for the rear wing, and a ‘Boost’ button on the right which summons more electrons for stronger pulls. Handling and powertrain settings are controlled via toggles flanking the instrument panel.
While the W1 looks different enough in its standard mode, it turns more alien when the overhead button labeled ‘Race’ is held down for 5 seconds, triggering the suspension to lower 1.5 inches up front and 0.7 inches at the rear. It’s not a dramatic drop, à la Ford GT or Mustang GTD, but the hunkered stance is aggressive and substantial enough to limit the action to race tracks only, circa a GPS-controlled function.
Showboaters, don’t despair: You can still lower the W1 for display at, say, your local cars and coffee, though if it’s not at a track it won’t drive at that spoiler-scraping ride height.
Photo by: McLaren
Seat Of The Pants
Tap the big carbon paddle shifter on the right, and you’ll find the hydraulic steering and brake feel is immediately palpable. There’s a natural, lively feedback to the inputs that puts you in touch with exactly how the tires are in contact with tarmac.
The Mugello Circuit is a daunting 3.3-mile-long track that winds through the hills of Tuscany in a series of wide sweepers, tightening esses, and a 0.7-mile-long downhill straight that lifts just before the sharp San Donato right-hander. Race mode heightens the W1’s confidence-inspiring feel, as does the outstanding pedal and steering wheel feedback.
I accelerate out of the pits onto the track with a feeling of calculated precision. Power delivery feels urgent but not out of control, getting fiercer at high rpm with a strong push before the dual-clutch shifts to the next gear. The downforce is palpable at medium-to-high speeds, and as I gain confidence, my corner entries are met with sharper turn-in and crisp exits as my speed picks up.
Braking is uberpowerful, as evidenced by my preternaturally early stops. In fact, these six-piston front Brembos with their massive 15.4-inch rotors in concert with the rear spoiler remind me of my experience testing the Senna at Estoril in 2018. Try as I did to be-rake late, I inevitably managed to slow the car down to crawl before reaching the next apex.
Engaging Sprint mode dumps significantly more power toward the rear tires, livening up the proceedings in a way that feels more reflective of McLaren’s stated 1,258 hp output. I become a little spicier with my inputs, and I’m rewarded with pulse-quickening responsiveness that makes the W1 feel more lively and alive.
The ultimate wake-up call comes when the Dynamic handling button is pressed. By loosening the reins on stability control, I’m able to tap into far more power, which, when sent to the rear wheels, makes it easy to steer with the right pedal. Uncorked but not completely unconstrained, the W1 feels wild and irascible but still controllable at the limit.
Uncorked but not completely unconstrained, the W1 feels wild and irascible but still controllable at the limit.
Once I’m comfortable enough to push the limits with these looser settings it feels like a strange duality: on the one hand, nuclear levels of power in a lightweight package that leans on the driver to take control in a big way, and on the other, a finely calibrated track weapon whose transparent feedback puts the onus on the driver’s choices, not shortcomings like vehicle imbalance, traction issues, or suspension inadequacies. Au contraire, the W1’s inboard dampers, 3D-printed titanium components, and adaptive dampers further shrink the body to make it feel wrapped around the driver.
On my last lap while flogging the W1 through 90-degree ambient temps, I did receive a ‘Hybrid Fault’ message, which put the vehicle in limp mode. When I returned to the pits and spoke to an engineer, he explained that his team was still in the process of calibrating the thermal limits of the drivetrain, work that will be complete before deliveries start later this year. I didn’t have any such issues during my road drive, and believe any battery / E-motor system issues will be eliminated before they face primetime.
Photo by: McLaren
The Weight Of Greatness
The W1 is a rare and radical ground-up expression of bleeding-edge hypercar tech that comes along once every few decades or so. Only 106 F1s, 375 P1s, and 399 W1s will exist, putting the total number at less than a thousand. That’s rarified air for a select few, and all W1s were pre-ordered before anyone outside of McLaren was granted the opportunity to turn a wheel.
Time will tell how history pits the W1 against its antecedents, let alone its modern contenders. But as a hypercar that attempts extraordinary numbers while maintaining a stronghold on driver engagement, it gives me hope that the same greatness will trickle down to the rest of the lineup.
McLaren W1
Engine
Twin-Turbocharged 4.0-Liter V8 Hybrid
Motor
Radial-Flux Electric
Battery
1.4 Kilowatt-Hours
Output
1,258 Horsepower / 988 Pound-Feet
Transmission
Eight-Speed Dual-Clutch
Drive Type
Rear-Wheel Drive
Speed 0-60 MPH
2.0 Seconds
Maximum speed
217 Miles Per Hour
Weight
3,084 Pounds (Dry)
EV Range
1.6 Miles
Seating Capacity
2
Base Price
$2.1 Million
On Sale
Now
