McLaren MP4-12C. Return Of The Mac. Part One, Through The City

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The only other buttons in the car are two rotary switches that control the powertrain and handling settings that can be separately adjusted to Normal, Sport or Track. The deeply sculpted steering wheel is apparently modelled on the grip of Lewis Hamilton, who coincidently drove this very car to the new Dubai showroom’s launch a few days earlier. Pull the door down and towards me and I am cocooned in what might just be the best cabin of any sports car.

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I wish more cars had a steering wheel as adjustable as this, making it very easy to find an ideal driving position. The visibility ahead is perfect and it’s just as well, as I have to manoeuvre the car out the back of the delivery entrance of the showroom with very little space to spare on either side. I pull the right-hand gearshift paddle to select first gear.

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The two paddles are actually one piece, which rocks on a central pivot. The action is unusually firm, enough to let you discern two stages to the movement, of which the first stage is ‘pre-cog’ which pre-loads the clutch to the next predicted gear so that the shift, when it comes, is ultra-rapid. The electric parking brake releases and, for the first time in my life, I’m driving a McLaren.

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Moments later, I’m sitting in mild traffic on Emaar Boulevard in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa and my first impression is that the McLaren feels, well… normal. It shuffles along sedately in traffic, pulling away from lights with minimal fuss. The engine note is muted and as I move off the seven-speed dual-clutch auto-gearbox impatiently shuffles up towards the highest possible gear; all in the interest of fuel economy.