Chris harris on cars - laferrari v porsche 918 v mclaren p1 at portimao.

Check out some of the other videos that Chris has done on the p1. He has had a tremendous amount of time with it over the past couple of years. The p1 has a sport mode and a race mode. When the car is in race mode, it lowers itself and the rear wing is fully extended. Because the car lowers itself, it is no longer legally able to drive on public roads. The thing about the p1 is Chris showed the versatility of what the car can achieve. It is an amazing package.

 

What's the point of this discussion? Which is fastest at Portimão, or which is best?
If I want to drive one for just one day I have to sell one of my expensive watches as well.

CH is a journo AND a very fast one, like Christian Gebhard. There are not many fast carjournos in this world.

Would be nice to see the TG team test them three, I think the outcome would not be very different from this one.

Cheers
Robin

 

Apples and Oranges
I hope that buying such expensives cars are just not a question of pure numbers, these three are in the same "Hypercar League".
If i was able to pay for onr of them, I trully know that in the end, my heart would be the only judge, not a stupid chrono

 

Onboard from P1 on Trofeo tyres. Looks decent to me.



There's an interesting discussion in this thread, would be pity to end it with a lock or turn it into complete mess because of argument - Chris Harris, journalist with too tight (really?) t-shirts or nearly F1 pace, almost race car driver?

 

@V8_KB , the latter.

Tiff was an F1 driver as well back in the days m though very shortly.

edit, back in 79 or 80, famous Procar races before F1 race. Here Tiff balancing behind Carlos Reutemann...




Cheers
Robin

 

Tiff raced Group C cars at LeMans as well...

 

Aston Nimrod wast 't it?

I have to google this one....
Edit Off course, the Listers (how could I forget) and some Porsches , but he started with the Nimrod

Cheers
Robin

 

He raced a bunch of different ones. Even finished 3rd in a 962C.

 

Yeah, I also recall Mansell's crash at Donington(?) in the BTCC cars with Tiff being the 'cause' of the accident...

But that's also about 20 years or so ago.

Cheers
robin

 

TBH Tiff and TG got me into drifting >20 years ago. I'll never forget him visiting the McLaren factory and driving/sliding the F1.

Also this got me hooked back then>15 years ago, 996Turbo, not exactly my dreamcar at that time, but with him at the wheel just awesome...

Go to 4: 01 ....


and this off course:


Cheers
Robin

 

Are you saying th Mclaren P1 is not road legal if you press race mode? I'm not sure I'm understanding the whole non-street-legal-rear-spoiler-and-ride-height thing Chriss Harris mentioned in the video.

 

Exactly that.

 

The Porsche doesn't excite me at all. I wouldn't be a big fan of Porsches designs anyway. I get what they're doing and appreciate it, but it just doesn't appeal to me. Maybe I'd have a different attitude if I could drive these cars in AC, it would give me some appreciation but from the outside they just seem like dull cars, were Porsche designers have pig headedly stuck to a daft concept of engine in the rear and refuse to accept it can be done a better way. Having said that Porsches new concept electric is one of the nicest cars I've ever seen.

So it's between the other two for me. It's really hard to choose between them. The P1 seems to have it all in that it can transform into something with GT performance through corners. But the Ferrari is so.... Ferrari. It can match the P1 even without the fancy aero and it's so, red, and sounds so, Ferrari. It does seem like the ultimate Ferrari. Impossible to pick one over the other.

 

The Porsche family wanted to drop the rear engine design and switch to midengine very long ago, but fortunatelly someone (to lazy for wiki check) convinced them that it would be a very bad idea to drop the rear engine model because it has grown so popular and iconic. A 911 is far from being a dull car, the rear engine design is one reason.
In this test it is very clear for me that Porsche made the better car of the three. It has less power and is heavier than the others but its the better car. Not sure which one of these was the first to be released/announced, but I doubt that the 918 was built with the intention to beat mclaren and ferrari. I really doubt that that "battle of hyercars (on the internet)" was a consideration for them, they just built a very quick car with high precision handling. While Ferrari added lots more power to their inferior handling car and McLaren simply added a road illegal mode to be on top. Not even sure if that P1 one would get past german TÜV?

 

Porsche fanboy much

 

They are fairly dull design wise in that they all look very similar. From what I can see Porsches evolution was simply making the rear engine design working to the point it wasn't dangerous anymore.

Meh, if it was simply down to putting in consistent lap times the porsche would be a clear winner, but it's not about lap times at all. These are hyper cars, they should make you feel like you're in the greatest car ever made. The Ferrari seems ideal for that, it's exactly what a Ferrari should be, it should make you feel great and it seem to do that job very well. I can appreciate that the Porsche is a fantastic technical achievement, but the Ferrari gives me goosebumps just looking at it, the Porsche just doesn't have that appeal, for me at least.

 

@Spinelli, Unfortunately F1 is more Cut-wallet than Cut-throat. Being an F1 driver doesn't automatically make you better than any other driver. Remember only about 6 of them are paid to be there the rest are paying for the privilige. Don't get me wrong, even a pay driver has to be good these days but given a money-no-object-choice there would be differant drivers in alot of the seats. On the contrary, GT racing and Touring Car racing at the highest levels are full of professional drivers there on merit. Look at Nick Tandy, factory Porsche GT driver who worked his way up the ranks of sportscar racing and his night stints with speed and consistancy was what swung this years Le Mans in the favour of that team, Hulk did a great job as well but wasn't automatically better than Tandy because of his F1 experience. If you can be at the sharp end of any high end grid (F1, GP2, WEC, FIA GT, WTCC, BTCC, Porsche Supercup, IRL, NASCAR, VLN, DSC, V8 Supercars etc) you are very, very good. The reason they are not in F1 is not down to lack of talent but a combination of money, opportunity, politics, preference, desire and pr appeal.

As for the video, the point of this thread afterall, I thought it was fantastic entertainment, marvellously shot and a great blend of techno-geekery and schoolboy enthusiasm. Although its not designed for the tyre it would be interesting to see the Porsche on the same tyre as the other two just to see how it compared in terms of driveability and laptime. All totally irrelevent in the real world but it would interest the competitive geek in me.

As for whats best? No one makes a bad car in any performance car segment these days so its always going to be an emotional decision, whichever appeals to you more. There is no right answer which is what makes it so great.

 

I take the LaF because it's best for doing this kind of ****

 

you mean almost driving into oncoming traffic?

 

Ya, I never said f1 drivers are all amazing and only they are the best. The top guys in most any high-end series is good. Open wheel racing is very cuthroat though. If you don't do good after a season or two of FR3.5 or GP2 then you can say bye bye to F1 (unless you're some pay driver for a bottom team). If you're at a top team in F1 and don't do too good then you can also find your F1 career end or spiral down fairly quickly.

Scott Speed was the only guy who could compete with Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen in GP2, and he did quite good in F1 in my opinion. Do you think a driver of his speed would have just been left out of the dust in some sportscar series like happened to him so quickly in F1? No chance. Same with Heikki and many others. Sato didn't last long and he's very good. Alguersuari and a whole host of drivers in Formula E are all very good drivers but didn't last long at all in F1. It's extremely cut-throat. Unless you buy a ride or are some of the best of the best, you aren't going to last long.


I bet if you put Hulk against Tandy in a 1 or 1.5 hour pure sprint race, especially with top-end open-wheel stuff like FR3.5, GP2, or F1, Tandy would get slaughtered. Of course I can't prove that though and it's just my opinion.

And I don't consider any BTCC or WTCC, or even WEC drivers to be Alonsos/Hamiltons/Vettels. Although the top guys in almost all series are very good, I definitely agree with you there.