I had a Bugatti Veyron for a few months,' says Jenson Button. The Veyron is the world's fastest, most expensive car.

'But I wouldn't compare it to this. It just wouldn't be fair on the Veyron...'

The former world champion has joined Live and McLaren's engineers at the Portimao race circuit in Portugal for the final test of its new MP4-12C supercar. It won't be launched to the press until April, with the first customers taking delivery soon after.

But I'm about to test it, and we're the first to be able to tell you what this all-new British supercar from a new British supercar maker is like to drive on road and track.

Of course, you'd expect Button to be positive about the latest venture from the Formula 1 team that employs him. But his enthusiasm seems utterly genuine; uncontainable, even. He's already spent the morning driving the car and has had a long meeting with McLaren's engineers.

'The guys working on this project really know what they're doing, but for track use I think our input as racers has been useful. One thing I asked them to look at was the "click" action on the shifters and they've made it much more positive.'

We're sitting talking in one of the cars as another bright orange 12C streaks down the main straight at the circuit. Despite having spent all morning on track, Button plainly hasn't had enough.

'Let's go chasing,' he says, so we reach up, pull the gullwing doors shut and conduct the rest of the conversation at race pace.

It's hard to overestimate the importance of this new car. Ron Dennis, McLaren's famously detail-obsessed boss, has decided to create, from scratch, a British supercar maker to rival Ferrari.

Within five years, McLaren will have a range of three supercars, plus lightweight and open-top derivatives, and will make 4,000 of them each year in the Norman Foster-designed factory it is building next to the McLaren Technology Centre, Dennis's Bond-villain headquarters near Woking, Surrey.

It's a risky venture; the market for supercars is slowly recovering, but Dennis and his partners have no guarantee they'll see the £800 million they've invested in their road car project again.

McLaren has built road cars before. It made over 2,000 carbon-bodied, £300,000 SLRs for its partner Mercedes between 2003 and 2009. And most famously, it built just 107 examples of the McLaren F1, at the time easily the fastest, most expensive car in the world, and now acknowledged as one of the greatest cars ever made.

You'd have paid at least £540,000 if you'd had the foresight to buy one new; now, the best examples sell for £3 million, if you can find an owner willing to sell.

So will your 12C prove to be as good an investment?

It will be a lot cheaper, and McLaren will build a lot more of them; around 1,000 each year at £168,500, pitching it directly against Ferrari's sensational 458 Italia. But like the F1 and every McLaren Formula 1 racer since 1981, the 12C gets a carbon-fibre chassis, making it about 50kg lighter than the aluminium Ferrari. It has more power too; its all-new twin-turbocharged V8 engine, designed by McLaren and built in Shoreham-by-Sea, has a colossal 592hp to the Ferrari's 570hp.

So how fast is it?

McLaren has kept the numbers secret until today. When the McLaren F1 first appeared it redefined fast, but the 12C accelerates even faster, and for a third of the price.

It gets to 60mph in three seconds flat, shading the F1 by two tenths, and is half a second faster to the benchmark 200kph (124mph) at just 8.9 seconds. Less power means its top speed isn't as high, but 205mph is hardly slow, beating the Ferrari by just 3mph. Privately, McLaren's engineers say that number is conservative.

I'd agree. On test, a couple of miles of clear, straight road saw the 12C easily hit a genuine 192mph. It was still pulling like a freight train; there was plainly lots more to come. The brawny turbocharged V8 delivers its grunt lower down the rev range than the highly strung Italian, and the sensation under full acceleration is closer to the mighty Veyron.

The seven-speed, twinclutch gearbox works like a proper F1 shifter. Hinged around the wheel, you can pull with your right hand or push with the left to change up.

The gearbox has three modes; in maximum-attack track setting the shifts are incredible, each one virtually instantaneous but without being violent. The gearbox setting also controls the exhausts; in track mode you get the full hard, hollow howl as you home in on the 8,500rpm redline.

The McLaren is absurdly fast; you worry that you've crossed the line from fast to too fast, that your mind might not be able to keep up. And when you run out of nerve, the optional carbon-ceramic brakes stop you so hard you'll be hanging from your seat belt. But if you can steal a glance in the rear view mirror you'll see they're getting some help; a huge, near-vertical air-brake pops up under hard braking to help slow the car and put more weight over the rear tyres, keeping the 12C eerily flat and stable.

The way it stops is almost as impressive as the way it goes, and so is the way it corners. The radical new ProActive chassis control system delivers both near-flat cornering on fast roads or racetracks, and a limo-like ride on cratered urban Tarmac; they're usually mutually exclusive. And the handling is incredible, the 12C using the Brakesteer system, developed by McLaren for its F1 cars but banned by the sport's bosses, to gently brake the inside rear wheel through corners, sucking the nose tight into the apex.

It's even good as a daily driver. Supercars are usually a pain to get into, see out of and park. No such issues here; the gullwing doors look dramatic but make access easy, and the terrific visibility, comfortable ride and quiet (maybe too quiet in 'normal' mode) exhaust make the 12C a car you'd be happy to trundle around town in. Bet you never thought you'd read that about a McLaren.

The only real flaw we can find with the MP4-12C is its flawlessness. It's like a child prodigy; generally begotten by hyper-ambitious parents, staggering in its abilities, perfect in its behaviour, but oddly cool and aloof, and difficult to warm to.

The other kids seldom want to hang out with the 12-year old concert violinist. Criticising a car for being too perfect seems odd, but in a supercar, character and emotion and idiosyncracy and simple, fidgety excitement count for a lot, too.

Not that this is bothering Button, still out on the track and driving like his hair is on fire. When does he get his?

'They haven't given me a date yet. But I've ordered it. Black paint, black wheels, black cabin, red brake calipers and red stitching on the seats. It looks terrifying.'

If you see it behind you in London or Monaco or even Guernsey, where he lives, move over.

Here are some non-factory real world test times, all done by Euro mags (Sport Auto, Autobild, etc):

0-124MPH (200kph)
7.2 - Bugatti Veyron
8.9 - McLaren MP4-12C
9.3 - Koenigsuck CCX
9.6 - Porsche 997 GT2 RS
9.6 - McLaren F1
9.8 - Pagani Zonda F
10.3 - Ferrari Enzo
10.3 - Lamborghini LP670-4 SV
10.4 - Ferrari 458
10.7 - Porsche Carrera GT
11.1 - Mercedes SLS
12.4 - Lexus LF-A

Seventeen years after the iconic McLaren F1 made every other supercar redundant, McLaren is back with a new car: the long-awaited McLaren MP4-12C. Here’s a taste of what it’s like, but for our full review get yourself a copy of the March 2011 issue of CAR Magazine, which is on sale on Tuesday.

For the benefit of that one moon dweller reading, just remind us why the McLaren MP4-12C is so special

Where to start? The 12C is the first proper McLaren sports car since the seminal F1 of 1994 (the iffy SLR was Mercedes' idea); it costs an almost reasonable £168,500 yet is constructed around a carbon chassis that is normally reserved for cars costing twice as much; it runs on a sophisticated hydraulic suspension set-up and is powered by a brand new McLaren-designed V8 engine and dual-clutch gearbox.

Oh, and the McLaren MP4-12C's vital statistics are 592bhp, 443lb ft and 1434kg. Remember that the McLaren's target - the Ferrari 458 Italia - makes do with 562bhp, 398lb ft and weighs 1485kg.
So the 12C weighs less than a Ferrari 458, has more power and a stack more torque. I think I can guess where this is heading...

Into the distance in short order is where. The McLaren does 62mph in 3.3sec (or 3.1sec with the optional sticky Pirelli Corsa rubber) and the Ferrari 3.4sec. But by the time they get to 124mph (200km/h), the 12C has pulled out a 1.3sec (1.5sec on the Corsas) lead, claims McLaren.

On the road though, the gap feels even greater. Don’t get us wrong, the Ferrari 458 is a stupendously quick car, but the McLaren’s kick in the back comes in so much lower down that it feels more urgent on the road when you see a gap and just need to stomp on the right pedal.

Stomping on the middle pedal elicits a similar shock to the body, by the way. Both the standard cast iron stoppers and the optional (and even more deccelerative) carbon rotors feel great and help the 12C outbrake a 458.

But I’ll bet those twin blowers mean the new McLaren supercar sounds like a Lexus LS460, and has the throttle response and rev range of a black cab?

That’s exactly what we feared beforehand, but McLaren proved us wrong on both counts. The crisp throttle response, almost total absence of lag and incredible 8500rpm redline is all down to clever matching of the ECU mapping and turbo geometry, McLaren says.

The mixture of intake and exhaust noise is nigh on perfect: unobtrusive when cruising but capable of erecting those neck hairs as well as any naturally aspirated supercar. And unlike the Ferrari’s rather wearing quiet-LOUD-quiet-LOUD character, the transition from demure to demonic is more progressive on the McLaren. This is all on the standard exhaust too. Heaven knows how juicy the optional straight-though sports pipes must sound.

But what about the handling? The SLR wasn’t exactly praised for its dynamic abilities – is the McLaren 12C similarly disappointing? Does the hydraulic roll control work?

It works brilliantly. By tweaking a dash dial between Normal, Sport and Track you can alter the system pressure, so altering the amount of roll and ride comfort. Drive it in Normal on the road and the ride is better than some saloon cars’, thanks to a well controlled but loping gait. Track mode is too stiff for the road but, as its name suggests, is ideal for the circuit where it gives the car huge stability. Sport’s blend of suppleness and body control though, makes it the best all round mode.

Equally impressive is what McLaren calls Brake Steer, an ESP-based system inspired by a technology banned in F1 over a decade ago. It brakes the inside wheel when cornering to help the car turn into a bend, killing understeer. Steer into the corner using the ultra-precise electro-hydraulically-assisted steering and you can really feel the car pivot as the brake steer works. Its other purpose is to take the place of the heavy active differentials rivals like Ferrari are using.

There is really only one disappointment but you’ll have to be a pretty tasty driver, and probably on a track to experience it. And it’s that even in Track mode, the ESP system doesn’t allow an inordinate amount of slip and will be reined in even further for production. If you want to switch it off, you need to enter some special cheat code while parked that McLaren wouldn’t reveal.

Now away from sideways-obsessed car media, that may not be relevant, but surely if you do want to really play about, it’d make more sense to be able to do it with some sort of safety net available rather than risking everything by switching it all off.

So it’s a bit of a demon in a straight line and around corners. Any other tricks up the McLaren MP4-12C's sleeve?

What, you mean besides the incredible visibility and surprisingly easy-access semi-gullwing doors that make the prospect of using it every day absolutely realistic? Or the 24mpg it achieves on the combined cycle while emitting just 279g/km of CO2?

What about the styling though? I’m not convinced...

Our only real disappointment concerns the way the new McLaren supercar looks. It’s certainly not ugly, in fact it’s quite pretty. But it’s not especially dramatic. When Leonard Setright first used the term supercar in CAR Magazine over 40 years ago it was because he needed a term to convey how much more extreme the Lamborghini Miura he was driving was than other sports cars. Not just in performance, but in every respect, including visual drama.

In the 12C’s defence, style is very much down to personal taste, and I should add that it looks much more assertive in the metal. Especially in the orange of our test car (the silver car looked way more subdued).

McLaren MP4-12C: the road test verdict

Quite simply, this is the most complete supercar the world has ever seen. Quicker than a McLaren F1, easier to live with than an Audi R8 and more economical than a BMW M3, it rides like an executive saloon when you’re not in the mood but thrills like any supercar should when you are.

Base Price:
$231,400 ($229,000 + $2,400 for destination and port processing)

Engine:
3.8-liter twin-turbocharged and direct-injected V8

Gearbox:
Seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual

Power:
592 hp @ 7,000 rpm; 443 lb-ft @ 3,000-7,000 rpm

EPA Rating:
Estimated 20.1 mpg combined (based on European test cycle)

On Sale:
September 2011

First Impression:
Enzo/Veyron speed and passion at a V8 supercar price

Before today, debates on the performance of rear- and midengine cars generally boiled down to Ferrari vs. Porsche. But now, the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C threatens to stand alone beyond either. To quote the less-than-humble McLaren boss, Sir Ron Dennis, "It is the best-handling sports car in history."

And he should know.

Dennis was the team principal of the McLaren Formula 1 team between 1981 and 2009 and is the executive chairman of McLaren Automotive — the company responsible for the legendary McLaren F1 and SLR McLaren. When Dennis says a car handles well, we're willing to listen.

But to see for ourselves, we joined McLaren at the 17-turn, 2.9-mile racing circuit at Portimão in southern Portugal. There we experienced the full range of driving conditions — dry track, damp track, good and bad public roads and the car's comfort and track setups. It was demonstrated, in no uncertain terms, that McLaren has achieved a breakthrough.

Greater Than the Sum of...
Accomplishing world-beating status demands a world-beating powertrain and McLaren delivers with its 592-horsepower 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 and rear-mounted, Graziano-built seven-speed twin-clutch gearbox. The massive power is a product of high boost (21.8 psi) and a nauseating 8,500-rpm redline. There's a long shelf of torque (443 pound-feet) extending from 3,000-7,000 rpm.

But perhaps the greatest point of contention surrounding the MP4-12C's specs was McLaren's choice to use an open differential and brake-steer technology borrowed from Formula 1. Traditionally, the idea of using the brakes to go faster has been a failure. McLaren's brake steer system operates on the inner rear wheel in fast corners. It observes steering angle and predicted trajectory with the goal of eliminating understeer and wheelspin at exit. And it works — seamlessly and invisibly. We were able to polish off most of Portimão's curves without breaking the customary sweat.

The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, too, is a joy to operate. Because the shift paddles are mounted on a rocker, the driver can favor one hand over the other to perform both up- and downshifts — pushing on one paddle or pulling on the other — to accomplish the same shift. In Track mode, the shifts aren't just fast, but smooth. This is aided by the use of the Pre-Cog function where the shift paddle is preloaded so that when the shift is requested (with a full pull at around 7,500 rpm on upshifts), it's instantaneous — thanks to years of Formula 1 field testing.

Leave the transmission in Automatic mode with all "normal" settings engaged, and we were just as impressed with its functionality over southern Portugal's variety of roads as we were by its ability to dominate the track.

The Physics of Speed
Despite McLaren's encouragement to wean ourselves off the need for carbon-ceramic brakes, our test cars on track had the optional carbon stoppers and they are magnificent. Still, the standard two-piece iron-aluminum rotors — 14.6-inch front, 13.8-inch rear — get the job done.

The brakes are aided on the track by an air brake that substantially increases deceleration of the 2,945-pound machine. A fore/aft weight distribution of 42.5/57.5 — nearly identical to the Ferrari 458 Italia — makes the dynamics even more lively. The McLaren, with an 0.8-inch-longer wheelbase, is 1 inch shorter overall. Its well-planned interior, however, buys space and shrewdly shifts human mass to the middle.

Many at McLaren, including Design Director Frank Stephenson, freely admit that certain angles can challenge the eye.

McLaren offers multiple weight-saving options that are capable of reducing the car's weight to 2,868 pounds. They include "superlight" wheels, carbon sport seats (Recaros are standard), Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires, a carbon splitter and diffuser, a sport exhaust and the aforementioned carbon-ceramic brakes.

Every element of the McLaren works together to create a lower polar moment of inertia than any Ferrari or Porsche. Bending and twisting rigidity are higher than any model from those brands as well — two qualities which manifest themselves in the MP4-12C's handling. Getting the new McLaren to do whatever we wanted it to do was easier than an Ariel Atom or Lotus 2-Eleven track toy, only here those dynamic qualities are joined by all the refinement and substance required in this segment. A risky statement, maybe, but also a powerful differentiator.

Be Proactive
Besides the car's insane powertrain, McLaren built sophisticated chassis control into the MP4-12C, which it calls Proactive.

There are two chief command clusters on the narrow center console: "H" means handling and it sets the suspension, steering and stability control for Normal, Sport or Track; "P" means powertrain and has the same modes for throttle mapping, gearshifts and management of the intake plenum tone inside the cabin. At the center of the H cluster is the "Aero" button for fixing the air-brake rear wing at 15 degrees. The transmission is locked in Manual mode if you press the "Manual" button at the center of the P cluster. But before you fiddle with any of these controls, you'll need to punch the "Active" button right at the center of all things near your right hand.

As expected on any track, we immediately selected the settings with the Aero and Manual buttons lit. The McLaren's adaptive dampers with hydraulic roll control perform sensational duty under the highest lateral g-forces with no help from mechanical antiroll bars front or rear. In the same sense, there is no nosedive under torturous braking, nor any lift while exploring launch control.

With things kept so constantly level, we were liberated to seek out every talent of the MP4-12C, and discovered that its chassis does require some getting used to. Like a trophy truck dancing though the whoops, there's a sense of isolation here that belies the available control. The car sticks to the tarmac at all four corners on big Pirelli P Zero tires — 235/35 ZR19 front, 305/30 ZR20 rear. Initially we were overwhelmed with the chassis' abilities, but soon enough got on with the business of accomplishing all the things that its competition can't.

Take a Stare
To most, the MP4-12C is not the most astonishingly beautiful design in its class. Many at McLaren, including Design Director Frank Stephenson, freely admit that certain angles can challenge the eye. They've also already heard every possible "It looks a lot like a..." comment, so they're unflappable on the topic. For us, it is most influenced by the original McLaren F1.

The brash treatment of the twin side intakes catches our eye. They gulp in cooling air at a ferocious rate to gust over the longitudinally oriented radiators flanking the V8.

The rear fascia looks as if it's from a different design school than the rest of the car. But, even here, the Bugatti-like air brake pops straight up under the hardest braking and it becomes one of the most captivating rear ends around.

Every such discussion about the car as it sits still comes to the point that you have to drive it and it then becomes a most beautiful thing. The McLaren people certainly think so, and even humble chief test-driver Chris Goodwin told us, "There's no other car that could do that section that quickly," after scorching through the very technical first sequence of curves at Portimão. There's a definite beauty to that.

Numbers Crunch
While a Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time has not been made public yet, McLaren personnel are saying that recent testing on many of the world's most significant tracks puts the MP4-12C comfortably ahead of any current competitors. Top speed so far has been recorded at 210 mph at Nardò in southern Italy, while 0-60 acceleration on standard P Zero tires is claimed at 3.2 seconds with the standard tires and just 3.0 seconds with optional P Zero Corsa rubber.

McLaren claims the 0-125-mph time in cars using the Corsa tires and the other lightening options is just 8.9 seconds, significantly humbling all current Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis. It's even quicker to this speed than the Enzo. If these numbers hold, only the horribly expensive Bugatti Veyron remains faster.

While the biturbo exhaust sound of the MP4-12C doesn't make us cry from happiness, there's always the sport exhaust option. And, in any case, just switch the P cluster to Track mode and a resonance tube from the intake plenum pipes more sound into the cabin.

Ambitious Plans
For this first partial calendar year McLaren will build roughly 1,000 units — about a third of which are destined for the States. By 2015 things will be operating full-tilt to produce 4,000 units annually, spread over this and two other models. MP4-12C deliveries in the U.S. begin by early September 2011 at the nine anointed showrooms nationwide (plus one in Toronto, eh).

And as McLaren has racing in its blood, there are very ambitious factory and privateer racing plans not far down the road, beginning with the MP4-12C GT version currently testing. All 2012 McLaren MP4-12C buyers can sign up for a new McLaren Owner Experience that will teach them how to squeeze all the juice possible from this world-beater.

And, based on our initial drive and McLaren's insane acceleration claims, there's plenty of juice to squeeze.