British car enthusiasts Evo had driver and commentator Jethro Bovingdon put both cars through their paces at the Anglesey Circuit in Northern Wales, UK. The response of both vehicles was absolutely amazing, and both put up some seriously fast track numbers, yet ultimately Bovingdon's reactions made it clear which vehicle came out on top.
The McLaren P1 was up first (and because McLaren refuses to be beaten, also last), but Bovingdon seemed non-plussed. He described the sensations using rather embellished vocabulary, but it seems to me that his heart just wasn't in it. This became clear when he started discussing the negatives. The industrialised sound and feeling. How he felt that the P1 ached to go faster, round quicker, be both meaner and yet nimbler, but just couldn't. All those embellishments aside, I feel Bovingdon walked away less than impressed, and didn't have nearly as much fun as he had hoped he would have had.
His reaction to the Porsche 918 Spyder was entirely different. I would probably have been annoyed by the Spyder aspect of the Spyder (I'm not one for going 120MPH with the top open, but maybe that's just because even with clips, ties, and hairbands, my bangs always seem to fly directly into my face), but frankly it just looked more fun than the P1. It sounded more fun, and Bovingdon clearly appeared to be having more fun. It was far easier to believe his embellished language and literary flourishes about the 918 because the look on his face, his stance in the seat, the grip of the wheel... I could really tell he was living, breathing, existing in the 918 in a way he just well, wasn't, in the P1.
True, he came back with a new set of tires for the P1 and destroyed the lap time of the 918, and yet... and yet... Again, both in the video of the lap and the voiceover... I just didn't believe he'd had as much fun as he had clearly found in the 918.
So, lap time, schlap time. The winner is clearly the 918 because what's the point of hooning like a boss in a hypercar if it's not as absolutely as much fun as it possibly can be? Yeah, that's what I thought.