Over the last few months McLaren review videos and articles have been popping up left and right, only a select few people have managed to get their hands on a brand new MP4-12C... With the videos running around and the articles being read, motor trend managed to push out an amazing review on the new McLaren. Here's the video and a bit of verbiage from Motor trend! Enjoy!
Decades ago, it was easy to tell what a sports car was and what it wasn't. A sports car only had two seats, was commonly noisy and uncomfortable to drive, often had a poorly designed fabric roof that folded down much easier than it came back up, and was seldom as reliable, watertight, or economical to run as a more practical four-seat vehicle. If you bought one, your significant other wouldn't want to ride in it, your friends would think you nuts, and your parents would stay awake at night wondering how they had failed so badly. But all that changed with the Japanese Invasion in the 1970s, and small coupes like the Datsun 240Z and Mazda RX-7 showed the world that fun doesn't have to be foolish. The new breed was as practical and reliable as it was quick and fun to drive, and it forced the industry and enthusiasts to rethink the definition of a sports car.
It wasn't really until the 1990s and the introduction of the Acura NSX that the supercar was put on the same path. The NSX was proof that a fast, exotic performance car could be driven as an everyday car. Still, while rivals from Europe began to make supercars with far fewer compromises than before, they still weren't what you'd call suitable daily drivers. Sure, things have gotten better since the wedge-shaped '70s: New paddle-shift gearboxes allow a grandmother to drive a Lamborghini to her hair appointment without burning through a clutch or spraining her left leg, and rear back-up cameras mean she won't have to open the scissor door and sit on the sill in order to park the damn car.
But even though you could conceivably drive a modern supercar daily, there were a whole slew of reasons why you wouldn't want to. More often than not, your average supercar is still a noisy, uncomfortable, clunky device that's difficult-to-impossible to see out of and a bear to coax through rush hour traffic. For all the new user-friendliness, the supercar was still destined to be a weekend plaything, brought out only in the finest of weather on the rarest of occasions.
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