{"id":182319,"date":"2012-10-02T09:04:46","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T08:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/opinion\/doubts-about-hybrid-supercars\/"},"modified":"2019-09-19T08:30:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T07:30:24","slug":"doubts-about-hybrid-supercars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/articles\/road-cars\/doubts-about-hybrid-supercars\/","title":{"rendered":"Doubts about hybrid supercars"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last week I speculated that McLaren would unveil the successor to the F1 at the Paris Motorshow so, of course, no sooner were the words up on the website than McLaren made them instantly redundant by showing a picture of the car, to be called P1.<\/p>\n
Although McLaren has not said as much, it is now clear the car will have a carbon body, an adapted version of the MP4-12C\u2019s carbon tub and some form of hybrid drive to boost the output of its twin turbo engine. So at least I got that bit right.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n As for its potential, McLaren makes a point of saying its goal is not to go chasing top speed records but, instead \u2018to be the quickest and most rewarding series production road car on a circuit\u2019. This is of course a highly commendable approach, though whether it also proves highly commercial is another matter. A car\u2019s top speed is a pretty irrelevant item of data for most machines, but none more so than hyper cars like this and the Bugatti Veyron. But, and as Bugatti has ably demonstrated, it sells cars.<\/p>\n What interests me most about the P1 is that McLaren has decided to make it a hybrid, such as has Porsche with its forthcoming 918 Spyder, as will Ferrari with its replacement for the Enzo. The question is why?<\/p>\n What will a hybrid drive bring to such cars that would not have been achievable through conventional means?<\/p>\n First and foremost, it gets your attention. A 210mph Porsche with 580bhp capable of 94mpg is a dream for headline writers regardless of the fact that this says everything about the increasingly farcical way in which consumption figures are calculated and nothing whatever about how the car will behave in the real world.<\/p>\n