2015 McLaren P1 - Jay Leno's Garage

welcome to the episode of Jay Leno's Garage well it's finally here the first McLaren the u.s. McLaren I was really excited about this if you've watched this website you know we went to England last year and test drove the car just fantastic well it arrived about a week and a half ago and we put some my well I put almost a thousand miles on it actually and I'm quite fortunate have the CEO of McLaren here gentleman by the name of Mike fluid he's going to talk us through the car a little bit tell us some facts and then we'll go for a ride we'll take you for a ride and we'll show you what it's like on actual roads you've all seen this at Abu Dhabi and a Nurburgring but to see it on the street and drive it on the street is a whole different experience let's meet Mike Mike come on in how are you congratulations good great to see you thank you McLaren is a new car company and with car companies going out of business or merging all across the globe literally this is one of the few companies to be successful and turn a profit it normally takes 8 to 10 years for car company to turn a profit you guys have done it in what four four and a half years four and a half years well just by making terrific products the 12c I was been thrilled with that I've taken into South had a two years it's been to two services that's all it's all I've done is change the oil it's fantastic it's really good and of course the legendary f1 yeah and let's hope but the the p1 holds its value was it as the f1 is done which I need I think it will we've been worried that maybe 375 might be too high go because they were going to sell three hundred of these when we sold including the race cars just over a hundred and round five I think the number is well you aren't pins and needles in a little bit it was it was fascinating when we when we launched this and we had to define a number you know an exclusive car buyers want to know how many cars is going to be and I'd love to claim there was this perfect science to working up 375 we looked at the people expressed interest we took a judgment call we said it at 375 and after showing this at Paris there was interest a lot of interest came in and then that interest slowly started convert but I think what what sealed him was in in the middle of last year you came over you drove it right and it was it was publicized we took it up the hill Goodwood right we brought it over to Pebble Beach and in the space of three months we went from 80 deposits to sold out Wow and now there's people on waiting lists waiting to get old car so you know I guess you could look at this and criticize me die set the number too low no actually I think the exclusivity is important it's fascinating to watch some of the greatest motoring journalists just gush over the star like school children you know the things that makes it differ from other supercars look at this with of the tires they're big but then I do not see they're not goofy big you know you can dance and ballet slippers you can't dance and work shoes I know you're a big load of salon fire I haven't so I like delicacy I like supposed to be agile not feel and the beautiful thing about this I mean is that there's there's a few things but you're right we said we wanted to do the best drivers car and rolling track that was the goal right and it's how we achieve the goal so the chassis feels light and agile and feels phenomenal to drive the powertrain you could almost be daunted by the idea of a fairly low capacity 3.8 - huge turbochargers on it we had over 730 horsepower as petrol engine you think that's going to be difficult to drive and then you make it hybrid and you put a you know an electric motor in there and the battery pack but actually when you drive this the only analogy I can give people is it feels like you've got a huge old-fashioned v8 behind you right because you've got so much torque and seamless acceleration and that's just you know that's just a credit to the engineers and the way they were able to calibrate and integrate that powertrain so whilst it's a masterpiece of Technology it actually just feels like a wonderfully fun when I touch the brake they're instant this has a thing called brake fill and what that means is it means you take your foot off the gas the brake pads move in and they are there ready don't quite grasp the rotor so minute you touch that brake boom your I have never seen a vehicle that stops like this it is I mean it is unbelievable the fact that I put 880 miles on it in the first five days I can't stop driving it and very light very nimble everybody else's answer to hybrid is to go electric motor drives a front wheel album I think of this not so much as a hybrid imagine the car with a supercharger but a supercharger is run by electricity rather than robbing engine power and that's that's what you have here you have essentially electric supercharger just and not connect to the wheels get to the tray literally suspending the crank and tricking the motor into thinking turbos are in full boost so there's no there's no such thing as turbo lag if you got in this car you think oh it's normally aspirated cuz I put my foot in it and boom it went just like that hey it's really it's really amazing it's really a mental decisions which even by the way we wanted the car to feel so you know we we could have gone with regenerative braking and created a little bit more but actually you lose a little bit on brake field so you lose right over to the purity so we've we there were a set of objectives put in place by the team and you've met some of the team formed by NZ and dumped Ollie Williams the guys who did this and then they worked out the solutions and that's completely different than most car programs most car programs you work out what you're doing you go to a three or four year development plan right and you get the end result here it was this is what we want to achieve and now we got to work on how to use technology to deliver that and the nice thing about this car is someone like myself I am NOT a race car driver not by any extent but I enjoy driving and enjoy the feel of driving in the fact that I can notice it because I'm the type of guy I take a car on the track what's that thumping you got a flat oh geez and realize that where is this I mean every you can you can run over a dime and go that was heads that's how it lets heads because of did just the Brits it literally dances down the road and the Vice thing is it's a road car that's also a race car a lot of other manufacturers have the stake of taking the racecar and turning it into a road car this suspension which is I guess similar to the 12c similar the four that suddenly the front is different with the kdump is right right but but you know in the sense that it's a kinetic hydraulic suspension system so you're right I live for Road use you've got a beautifully compliant ride but the nice thing about this is the duality you know you can pull it right set it to race the whole thing drops down you're in a you're in a road condition then there would be illegal for road using varieties right but you've got a chassis and that's optimized for track but I know riding it in sport which is where you'd ride most of the time I have other supercars and I'll go down a particular road I know and then there's a bump and it literally hop to the other lane but just because the chassis is so stiff it's too hard this I'm not even aware of the bump this is the most dramatic change from road to track of any vehicle ever seen it literally it's like the movie Transformers there something changes and oops come up and it's just fantastic well and really nice things is we're stood here talking about driving it what we didn't want is for these girls to be bought go sit in collections and not be banned if we're going to produce a driver's car we want people to drive them and we've got guys we've got guys now with P ones and Barry man we've only delivered 80 at the 375 before we've got two three four thousand miles on the clock so they're not preserving them as a right a work of art that never gets used they're driving and enjoying the car all you should take it out and drive it right now sounds perfect okay we know it's fads it does a quarter-mile at 97 149 miles an hour but let's take it up the hills and you see what it's like just to drive just to experience what it's like to feel the road it's just a fantastic driving car come on let's go up in the hills now if someone had purchased every McLaren the company has built and wanted to know the actual dirt but I swore an oath that he would never repeat it to anyone would that be possible no I'm never going to find out do you know the time yeah oh but this is using hybrid technology for car enthusiasts right not just environmentalists you know it does make it more efficient powertrain this car has no gas guzzler tax right it's amazing so it is a more efficient engine for fundamentally was done yeah and you're looking at 34 you drive through the countryside with you know as a hybrid 1945 you come to a little village hit that we drive sort of silently through the village right you come out the other side you hit again and you you power out it's a blend of Science and Technology it just so seamless because a lot of people don't high / cars with just big motors and make a lot of noises but it's not this seamless in this smooth be that's funny although the clearance I have the one that has the most miles on it until this came along was the SLR I have a friend who runs one of these schools where you take rich guys that want to go 200 miles an hour up to Barack he's got Porsches I'm Lamborghini the only car that consistently runs honestly over 200 205 206 is he SLR yeah because the others go 196 and then the guys want that money back down so that's the only car that constantly does it time after time it's just a fantastic I think the development team that the miles the week's the months that Chris could receive spend we are affecting the feel the brain affecting the set of the dampers infecting the develop the tires with Pirelli to get there and easy for us to take you for granted when we drive the finished result or is good when it's fantastic you know I was with him both times and knows the vehicle inside out loves the vehicle I mean that's what's fun about McLaren it's it it's still small enough so you kind of know the individual players and everybody is extremely proud of the role they play but Chris has done more miles it people need wheels well I'll tell them I'm going to try and meet him so we'll say this is a company of enthusiasts building what we believe the best sports cars to the world could you see the size a battery that goes behind so yeah it'll probably be a fraction out size by the time you come come and replace it Tata Tata company do a good job for us building our engine you know it's a great it's a great engine what they need to do now is put on a nice book like they did on the f1 back on the f1 yes because what you want to stand the car then you can really bond with it I believe this cars as iconic as the f1 I think everyone's around for 20 years with this this really is the modern age version the f1 is a wonderful car but there is no margin for error where this will save you you know you've got the brake steer again disability control and you can drive quickly without skiing it's out to death or killing anybody and you never get the sense that you're over the double line I've driven some of the big Italian exotics and some of the other cars you always feel as if you've got one wheel over there because you're so why you know but this feels like a small car yeah but good visibility is part of it good drivers person I mean it sounds fantastic we're on Dennis tell you McClaren is a technology company Rises technology to lead in motorsport uses technology to build the best sports cars and I think people appreciate it this is a this isn't a fashion accessory but this is for people who love driving we're gonna say goodbye to Mike right now he's got to get back to work but you and I go out and drive some more and I'll show you the dashboard and how everything works on this car Mike thank you so much Jay Thank You pusher say hi to Ron Dennis tell him congratulations I was like Dave thank you come on let's go drive some more I want to thank Mike fluid for stopping by that's kind of cool the head guy from McLaren coming by the garage cause now that he's gone we can talk freely Chris Harris takes this car to Abu Dhabi to that racetrack they're just flogs the heck out of it does an incredible job I I enjoy this video so so much but and I've seen other people take it out at various tracks Newburg ring what I haven't seen is anybody drive this car in the street and since I don't have access to a racetrack and I'm not racecar driver I I just want to show you what it's like to drive in the real world how comfortable it is how small it is how the car kind of envelopes around you you know we're driving along here at a pretty good pace not crazy fast but faster than I would go in perhaps a stock automobile from another manufacturer just because I feel so confident in this car and you hear these turbos behind you make it also it's a turbo noises you know it sounds like some animal breathing down your neck once when I was on The Tonight Show we had an album called the liger which was half lion half tiger it's an 11 feet tall and it weighed 900 pounds and it put its book it's put a paw on my shoulder and went and it sounded just like this turbo breathing down the back of my neck you know might talk about racing as Lotus Elan on the weekends and that's what this makes me feel like if you've been to my website you've seen the load as we built which is just the epitome of lightweight small car great handling and this feels like that in some ways except with 903 horsepower this steering is a not electric it is a combination of it's hydraulic and it's the fluid is being pumped through the steering rack and I think it is also through the suspension as well so you get a wonderful sense of Road feel in this car steering wheels not filled with all sorts of buttons and things I like having a clear steering and of course this is brilliant this keeps you up getting clashed a phobic these two kind of moon roof panels for lack of a better word in the in the ceiling here I love that sound it's fantastic see this is not a car you have to diet drive or ridiculously high speeds to get a lot of enjoyment out of we talked about the tires the tires are just the right size for this car to get the job done you can bring the tail end out a little bit if you want the nothing big giant wide things that will hydroplane a little way to be a little bit of water it's like a go-kart it's just you know those old movies where the guy would have picked a ball of the angel of each shoulder that's kind of what this is life angel is the traction control and the suspension because it always will save you it just seems to catch you I've never been frightened in this car I've scared myself to death in the f1 but in this one I always feel no no you're alright it's going to save you'll be fine that engine sounds like I'm dry pucelli a couple have asked me hey every time I see a video of the McLaren did it seems to be shooting fire out the back why is it shooting fire well I'm explaining why that is essentially makes a lot of heat your temperature going into the turbo was about just about 1,800 degrees exiting the turbo it was 1,600 something like that so what happens is when you get off the throttle it's still pumping fuel through the turbos and the fuel is cooling the turbo the liquid fuel helps to cool the turbo bring the temperature down then this the fuel goes to the turbo hits the catalytic converter and then it becomes a blue flame coming out the back so that's that sexy blue flame you see there's a reason for that that's why it doesn't makes a lot of heat got to get rid of a bad machi you've got about I think 13 heat exchanges on this car which is pretty amazing but consequently it's well over 100 degrees today here in Los Angeles and oil water temperature dead in the center it's something I really find fascinating about this car you're on the freeway you've got a VA with twin turbos you can't really speed here so what do you do you put it in a mode like this that just sees you the dashboard engine has stopped and we're coasting and electric now people go why what deficit you know why buy gas when you don't have to that's kind of the cool thing about it the electric engine is now driving the car so I'm not an save all my gas for the fun stuff you have what five modes in this thing you have a hybrid mode which is the standard mode you have electric mode you have sport you have track and then you have race here you can set like for now I haven't said for sport handling for the road sport for handling track for performance for shifting point when this car is in normal mode it's just very nicely it's just like a torque converter automatic when you go into sport or track or race boom this shift becoming extremely sharp extremely fast much faster than you could ever shift by hand there's absolutely no reason to use gasoline when you're in traffic around the freeway just use the electric power the other cool thing about this I love about this engine is there's no belt drives to anything even your air conditioning is driven off the electric motor so it's all gear driven there's no belts to replace as none of that maintenance actually quite low okay okay I have zero miles on my electric now okay now in about another mile when the electricity has been depleted you'll hear the engine start okay okay now see I have zero miles there it's the engine about to start see okay engine just kicked in now I'm using gasoline and I'm charging the battery and five or six when that says five miles the engine will get cut off and we will go back to electric power charlie quite Fleming we'll talk about I pass and the drag reduction system you don't really need this on the street there's no real call for it I'm not quite sure you need it at all because you have full boost when you go into race mode race mode you've got what 727 horsepower then when you want the extra boost Yvette your motor like on a straightaway you hit that button and boom you get an extra one close to 200 horsepower a little kick in the pants there yeah I mean it's a lot of fun you're helmeted guy there that's your your air conditioning right there then of course you have your phone Media all that you have apps and if you need a homework and you study Frank Steffensen and run Dennis and all these guys you realize they're really dedicated to what they do you know I think Frank Steffensen was about as excited as I was about me getting me this car in fact when my car came off the line he sent me a picture of himself see that's what you know guys every new their work when they go down the line and they see their creation being built you know a lot of people find the styling of this car controversial to me I think it's controversial because it looks like the future it doesn't look like any other car and it looks the way it does for a reason airflow design there's logic behind everything in this car there's nothing superfluous on here you know it's not like your 50 is where they put wings and fins and all kinds of stuff there's nothing on this car that doesn't need to be here before we sign off I got to put in race mode for you that's kind of cool let me show you that works to get into race mode have it in neutral parking brake on press active press race okay now a lot of things not happening wing goes up car gets lowered about a little over 2 inches feel the car medially getting stiffer you feel it tighten up and boom now you're in race mode your DRS system is powering up you got your I pass as well that all comes into play when you're in race mode as you see the wing is fully deployed well that about does it I have not had a chance to use race mode because you haven't taken this to track yet but hopefully one day we'll take this out to Willow Springs and you can come with us on that we'll film it and we'll show you what it's like but I have to say this is one of the most amazing vehicles have ever encountered my entire life the fact that it works is amazing the fact that works seamlessly and you know I'm almost at 2,000 miles in about 13 or 14 days as neat as any oral hasn't gotten hot nothing's broken everything seems to work it's it's it's pretty amazing I want to thank Ron Dennis and the team at McLaren for being that for building such an amazing amazing product so pretty cool you see you guys again next week bye bye

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 3,197,635

Keywords: Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, Cars, Jay, Leno, mods, custom car, Speed, Fast, modded cars, mechanic, fastest car, exotic cars, interview, custom, Leno car, funny, Leno funny, car show, Rare, Motorcycles, racing, jay leno interview, auto, drive, power, fast, amazing, vehicle

Id: wqOLMtZufsI

Length: 24min 23sec (1463 seconds)

Published: Mon May 12 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/jasonbordeaux]

I think it's cool that he acknowledges Chris Harris' P1 video (and his other videos) that are on /DRIVE.

[u/MeltingDog]

You know it must be something special when Jay ditches the double denim

[u/newtothelyte]

Leno could single handedly make Top Gear: US a very good show. He would be perfect for it.

One can only dream...

[u/KSerge]

I love watching videos from passionate enthusiasts like Leno and Chris Harris. I also really enjoy the different perspectives from the two of them, Chris is a guy who critiques objectively, but still gushes with desire for good cars. Leno is the proud owner who knows you've seen the reviews, and just wants to tell you what he feels about his car.

Would gladly get a beer with 'em both and just shoot the shit about cars all day.

[u/Future_Lawyer]

Weird seeing him outside of his Jean suit.

[u/[deleted]]

This look sums it up.

http://imgur.com/5qkDuVp

[u/Michelanvalo]

Leno should have given up the Tonight Show a decade ago and moved onto a car show. He's about 1000x better at this than he was on late night TV.

[u/HodorFirstOfHisHodor]

Great video, he really loves that car.

[u/melp]

This was very interesting. I hadn't realized they're keeping the Nurburgring lap time such a closely-guarded secret. Any idea why they're doing that? Maybe they're ashamed it didn't beat the 918's time?