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AUGUST 2012
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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
be cramped, inefficient, confusingand intimidating todrive. And
perhaps most crucial, it must have a sexy name—Murciélago
(Spanish for “bat”), Carrera, Scuderia, Italia, Cobra—evoking
something thatmoves quicklyandwithmenace, or transporting
the mind from Cap Ferrat to Monaco, where a young Brigi e
Bardot just happens to be hitchhiking in capri pants.
These rules, which have served the automotive avant-garde
well for many years, are assumed inviolable. So what can you
say about a car with a name reminiscent of a deskjet printer
that’s actually comfortable to sit in and not all that unfriendly
to drive? Purists may call it an affront, but the fact is, the new
McLarenMP4-12C represents the biggest leap forward in super-
car technology in a generation. You could argue that it’s the
supercar, socialized. It certainly seemed so to me, when I was
out tooling around in one on the Jersey Turnpike, moments
before I got perhaps a li le too comfortable and stomped on
the gas. But more on that in a moment.
More than five years in the making,
this is the first road car
producedbyMcLarenAutomotive since the furiously fast—and
crudely powerful—F1 was unleashed 20 years ago. The 12Cwas
conceived by the small English company, headed by eccentric
multimillionaire Ron Dennis, as a direct a ack on the Porsche
911 GT2 RS and the Ferrari 458 Italia, cars that cost more than
$200,000 andflirt dangerouslywithwhat any supercar enthusi-
astwould call perfection. “In that pricebracket and segment, the
THERE ARE RULES TO
MAKINGASUPERCAR.
It must be laughably
impractical—not your
second car, but your
fi h, orninth. Itmust be
extraordinarily flashy
andunusuallybeautiful
or striking in appear-
ance (which helps to
convey an idea of its
ungodly price point to
the uninitiated). Itmust
be capable of carrying
its owner at speeds of
at least 200 mph, and
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