Right.
Left foot on brake.
(ENGINE REVVING)
Push launch.
Full throttle.
Boost building, boost ready, we're gone.
0-60 in 2.7 seconds.
That's 120...150.
Jesus H Christ!
It'll actually do 186 in 18 seconds,
and flat out is 208.
And that's really alarming.
I'm gonna be sick. Ohh!
Whoa!
The thing is, though, that lots of supercars are as fast as the McLaren these days.
Some are even more powerful,
and even more dramatic to behold.
But this is called the Senna.
It's named after Ayrton Senna,
and Ayrton was not a man who spent his evenings
cruising around Harrods at nine miles an hour.
And nor was he a man who spent much time at drag strips,
doing the standing quarter.
No.
Ayrton was a man who made his name at places like this.
Racetracks.
This is what the Senna was built to do:
get round any track, anywhere,
faster than any other road car ever made.
To do this, they had to make it light.
And they have. The doors, for example.
Even though they have windows in them here,
so passers-by can see the driver's trousers,
they only weigh nine kilograms
and that's less than one of Kate Moss's arms.
And then there's the seats.
They only weigh eight kilograms.
I've eaten puddings that weigh more than that!
NASA: Go with throttle up.
JEREMY: Having got the weight out,
the Senna's nearly a quarter of a ton lighter than the P1.
They had to think about grip.
They started with a new type of Pirelli tyre
that clings on like a panicky child on a fairground ride.
And then there's this moving rear wing,
which is somehow road legal.
It actually hangs from these pylons,
rather than sits on top of them,
because that improves downforce.
I asked James May to explain why,
but I'm afraid, after three hours, I went into a deep sleep.
The next most import thing when it comes to lap times
is how well it slows down.
I was once in a 24-hour race at Silverstone,
driving a terrible old diesel BMW
and yet I could keep up with a supercharged Jaguar XKR
because I had better brakes.
I'd look at him getting to the end of the Hangar Straight,
thinking, "Why are you braking now, you idiot? You don't need to."
And that is this car's party piece.
To show you how well this car stops,
I've organised a little test.
Right, I'm currently driving alongside a Jaguar F Type...
...at 100 miles an hour.
When we get to that cone down there...
...we're both going to brake.
Ready?
(TYRES SCREECHING)
(CHUCKLES)
How can you stop from 100 miles an hour to nothing in that distance?