Published: Feb 12, 2013

McLaren P1 Opens its Doors

With its production debut scheduled for Geneva next month, McLaren has given us the first look inside the new P1 supercar.

McLaren gave us a good look at its new P1 hypercar when it lifted the veil in Paris last September. But with the windows blackened and the doors locked shut, one thing it did not show us was the interior. The P1's cockpit has, however, now been revealed for the first time in this trio of official images in advance of its final unveiling at the Geneva show next month. Opening the front-hinged, upward-swinging doors the P1's interior is a Spartan, no-nonsense business environment from which to control the car's assuredly time-bending capabilities.

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Those doors, incidentally, open the same way as every previous McLaren roadcar, from the F1 through the SLR to the 12C. And while arch-rival Ferrari packs its supercars with switches and gauges aplenty, McLaren takes a decidedly different approach. Although the P1 includes climate control, sat-nav and a Meridian sound system, the controls are minimal, and the steering wheel remains uncluttered. Despite the full amenities (or alternatively to offset them), McLaren has trimmed as much weight from the cabin. The dashboard floor, roofliner, doors, rockers and central console are all made of unvarnished, exposed carbon fiber. Cutting the glare has helped trim 1.5 kg from the curb weight.

The seat shells are also made of carbon fiber, and with minimal padding, weigh just 10.5 kg each. They're fixed in place but can be adjusted in the workshop. Carpeting can be fitted, but even that's low weight. Given this obsession with shaving weight, it strikes us as a bit odd that there's so much glass: the windshield is even deeper than it is wide, and the roof is made of glass, too. That does appear, however, to give the McLaren P1 a fighter jet-like canopy cockpit, and promises to improve outward visibility to help the driver muster all the P1 has to offer...and hopefully keep it on the straight and narrow in the process.

by Noah Joseph
McLaren P1 Opens its Doors

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McLaren P1 Opens its Doors

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