Simply Abu Dhabi XI

2 4 0 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I E ver dreamt of owning two of the most exciting, exclusive and iconic cars that money could buy? One for cruising down the boulevards and blasting along the Autobahn, another that was perfectly set up for the track? Well, maybe you could save yourself a little garage space, (and a few hundred thousand pounds), by investing in just one. That’s because the latest offering from the McLaren workshops claims to do both of those jobs. And, fromwhat I’ve seen, it does them both incredibly well. In McLaren’s words, the P1 is a ‘transformer’. A dynamic road car that can change into a true track machine at the press of a button. The manufacturer promises that this car will not only be completely without compromise either on road or track, but also as rewarding for normal drivers like you and me as it is to the pro racers. "It will be neutral to the novice and exhilarating to the expert," promises programme director Paul MacKenzie. That’s a pretty bold claim, but then again he also describes the P1 as “a real Jekyll and Hyde car”. Exciting words for what really is a highly exciting car. Amajor factor in achieving this dramatically split personality is McLaren’s active suspension - giving the P1 350 per cent more roll stiffness in ‘race' mode compared to ‘road' mode - and its incredibly complex aero package, which completely avoids the usual trade-off between low drag and high downforce, with a host of active technology.