► Up close with McLaren’s next engine
► Deployed in the W1 hypercar
► Will be used elsewhere, too
It’s suddenly a far less tempting career, though, and for that we can blame the McLaren W1. Fancy not merely driving the 1258bhp, 988lb ft supercar (small fry in this world of Pininfarina Battistas and Bugatti Chirons, but you’ll recall the Woking car is exclusively rear-wheel drive) but spanking it sufficiently hard, on the regular, that your tepid telemetry doesn’t get you sacked and you’re able to proffer meaningful feedback? Me either.
The new MHP-8 engine – the internal-combustion element of the W1’s hybrid powertrain – will, McLaren hopes, punch the W1 into the public consciousness in the same way the P1 did all those years ago. And it will – in various states of tune and as part of Woking’s new-generation modular hybrid toolkit – power a new generation of McLarens, including the replacement for the 720S/750S. ‘A considerable amount of work and investment has gone into developing this new powertrain,’ explains a McLaren spokesperson. ‘We are introducing it on the W1, but we would not be investing in this engine for just 399 cars. This high-performance hybrid V8 will power the next generation of McLaren supercars.’
In development for four years, it doesn’t arrive with any headline gimmicks but instead tantalisingly blurs the line between production road engineering and high-performance motorsport technologies. It then squeezes those ideas harder that might be thought possible and, just when you thought it quite powerful enough (the 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8, with a flat-plane crank and all-aluminium architecture, the engine alone is good for 915bhp and 664lb ft on its own), teams it with a battery and e-motor so potent and yet so hushed you can, if you listen hard enough, hear McLaren’s test drivers wincing.
Part of their problem’s going to be the remorselessness of the violence. McLaren talks of ‘expanding the performance envelope’, and it’s not kidding – the new engine makes more torque than the most powerful version of the previous unit everywhere, and by a hefty 30 per cent margin. But it’ll also rev to 9200rpm (the Lamborghini Temerario’s V8, with its hot-in-vee architecture, spins faster but makes less power and torque than the McLaren unit, with its outboard turbos) thanks to ruthless programme of component lightweighting, including hollow valves and camshafts.
And then there’s the hybrid system. It can throw another 342bhp and 325lb ft into the mix, spinning at up to 24,000rpm and delivering a comparable specific output (23bhp per kg; the motor weighs just 15kg) as an F1 e-motor), McLaren claims. And that’s because it’s cut from comparable cloth, being derived from the motor used in IndyCar.
Shuffle the W1 into the right mode, get clear of any built-up areas and we’re talking 0-124mph in 5.8sec, 0-186mph in under 12.7 seconds and a top speed limited to 217mph, together with a soundtrack to banish forever the sometimes lacklustre vocals of McLaren’s previous V8, plus so much torque you’ll be able to rotate the thing mid-corner with the merest tensioning of your right ankle.
And if you were hoping you might get break once you’ve exhausted the very modest 1.3kWh battery, no dice. Of the two Race modes, GP (which offers consistent electrical power over the course of a tank of fuel) does reduce overall performance very slightly when compared with Sprint, but not so as you’d notice.
‘In a 0-186mph sprint, we’ve still got 50% of the battery left by the time we get to 186mph,’ explains powertrain chief engineer Richard Jackson. ‘We can get to that 217mph top speed and maintain it without full EV support – you will get there and still have surplus power available. And of course, the moment you lift you’re regenerating again…’ Truly there’s no rest for the wicked.
As editor, Ben leads CAR magazine and its content strategy. One of the team who's just as happy on two wheels as four.
By Ben Miller
The editor of CAR magazine, story-teller, average wheel count of three