An excellent vlog. Just one omission. It was subsequently learned that when Lando hit the back of Oscars car at the Canadian GP, Oscars car had slowed suddenly. Not by a lot but by enough to result in Lando crashing into Oscar's car as Lando pulled left to attempt a pass. Why did Oscar's car slow? He had depleted the battery staving off Lando down the previous straight where Lando had the DRS to help him get alongside before he had to brake entering the chicane. It ran out or energy just as Lando was about to attempt the pass. Andrea Stella reported this information the day following the GP but very few in the media picked up on it. All credit to Lando for accepting the blame but I have to believe that Oscar felt his car slow when the battery died. The electric motor adds around 150 bhp to the ICE engine. He must have known, and presumably thought he'd got away with it when Lando took the blame. It was his fault as he'd hit Oscar's car, but he wasn't stupid. He ...
The dynamic development programme for the fastest and most technically advanced McLaren ever has concluded in fitting fashion with McLaren chief test driver, Kenny Brack, taking the new Speedtail up to its maximum speed of 403 km/h (250mph) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
The final high-speed tests in the ground-breaking hypercar’s extensive engineering validation process saw Speedtail prototype ‘XP2’ reach its maximum speed more than 30 times on the space shuttle landing runway at the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds. The exercise concluded a programme of high-speed running carried out at multiple test facilities worldwide, including Idiada in Spain and Papenburg in Germany.
Build of the first of 106 Speedtails that will be hand-assembled to customer order has now commenced at the McLaren Production Centre in Woking, UK, with deliveries scheduled from February 2020.
“It’s fitting that the Speedtail’s high-speed test programme concluded with multiple maximum-speed runs at a location strongly associated with pushing the boundaries of extreme performance and engineering excellence,” commented McLaren Automotive CEO, Mike Flewitt.
“The Speedtail is a truly extraordinary car that epitomises McLaren’s pioneering spirit and perfectly illustrates our determination to continue to set new benchmarks for supercar and hypercar performance.”
Blending sleek and seamless beauty with pioneering technologies and truly remarkable performance, the Speedtail sits at the pinnacle of the McLaren Ultimate Series. At almost 5.2 metres long, the carbon-fibre-bodied three-seat Hyper GT is the most aerodynamically drag efficient McLaren ever and a showcase for the brand’s expertise in lightweight engineering.
The Speedtail’s petrol-electric hybrid powertrain delivers the greatest power and torque of any McLaren road car, with a combined 1,070PS (1,055bhp) and 1,150Nm (848lb ft). The straight-line acceleration and maximum speed of the car set new benchmarks for McLaren, with 0-300km/h (0-186mph) achieved in less than 13 seconds and the Speedtail able to reach 403km/h (250mph).
The McLaren-developed battery pack has a power density of 5.2kW/kg, which is the best power-to-weight ratio of any automotive high voltage battery system. The batteries constantly self-charge when the Speedtail is driven – there is no ‘plug-in’ element – however, a wireless charging pad that trickle-charges and maintains the battery’s status when the vehicle is not in use is also included as standard.
Further information about the Speedtail can be found on the McLaren Automotive website, at: https://cars.mclaren.com/en/latest/post/mclaren-speedtail-hits-250mph.
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