What is it?

It's the one we've waited a long, long time for. Ferrari's successor to the Enzo, its ultimate distillation of speed, its magnum opus. LaFerrari.

Easy to get your hands on, then?

Not so much. With a price tag of over £1m apiece, all 499 LaFerraris were sold before the car was first unveiled at the Geneva Motorshow last year. This despite the fact that to simply be considered LaFerrari ownership material, you needed (a) at least five Ferraris in your collection and (b) a first-name-terms relationship with Ferrari Chairman Luca Di Montezemolo, who personally approved all 499 owners. And thankfully let us have a shot, too.

So how does it work?

Ferrari heralds its creation as a rolling showcase of the limits of road-going possibility. Having sat through a three-hour technical presentation in which Ferrari's finest engineers attempted to explain degree-level theorems involving complex maths, physics, chemistry, aerodynamics and materials science, Top Gear has to agree with this assessment.

So here's the shorthand version. At LaFerrari's heart lies a 6.3-litre V12, which fires 789bhp through a seven-speed dual clutch gearbox to the rear wheels. And what an engine: arguably the greatest V12 in Maranello history, a twelve-cylinder heart that revs to a staggering 9250rpm redline.

In any normal game of supercar Top Trumps, 789bhp would be sufficient for victory, but in the hypercar stratosphere defined by the P1 and 918, that's merely the down-payment. Pinching tech from its F1 outfit, Ferrari has added a Hy-Kers hybrid system to the V12, not just to improve its green credentials but to make an already ballistically fast car even faster.

Tell me about the electric bits.

The Hy-Kers system provides an additional 161bhp - or very nearly a Fiesta ST's worth - of instant power through the electric motor mounted to the back of the gearbox. Unlike the 918 and P1, you cannot plug LaFerrari into a wall, nor cruise silently in all-electric mode - the e-motor is there to add punch to the petrol engine, not replace it.

Read Clarkson's verdict on the McLaren P1

And what punch it adds. The Hy-Kers fills out the bottom end of the torque curve of the viciously high-spinning V12, meaning an utterly constant, stupefying surge of power from anywhere in the rev range to literally anywhere else.

Stats? With a total combined output of 950bhp, LaFerrari will get from 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds, hit 124mph four seconds later, and top out ‘in excess' of 218 miles an hour.

OK, got it. It's very exclusive, very complicated and very powerful. But what's it actually like?

As you open the front hinged swan doors and drop into a cockpit decked wall-to-wall in carbon fibre and leather, the first thing you notice is the seat adjustment. Or, rather, the lack of it.

The seat forms an integral part of the LaFerrari's tub, so each owner will have their own set of seat pads tailored for them before delivery. To get comfy, you pull a lever below your right thigh to release the pedal box and adjust the pedals to the perfect distance, race car style. Shut the door with a hefty thud, adjust the steering wheel, insert the key - yes, it still has one of those -and watch the TFT screens blink into life. Thumb the ‘Engine Start' button. Instantly, the V12 soul of LaFerrari barks into life, a sound that talks of pedigree, potential, and power. This is it.

Truth is, even if you're lucky enough to have driven supercars before, nothing quite prepares you for a moment like this. Emotions? Excitement, no question. Privilege, too. But mostly fear. Quite a lot of fear.

So it's scary to drive, then?

No. Strangely, it doesn't take many minutes on the road before the fear melts away. Supercar rules dictate that size matters, so you expect it to be vast, but LaFerrari despite its complex drivetrain is actually 40mm narrower than the Enzo. Which is a good thing, given we're trying to explore the ultimate Ferrari's road car potential on a narrow ribbon of rutted, hairpin-riddled Italian B-road.

But rather than a hair-raising, sweary sweat-fest, the LaFerrari is surprisingly... easy. The seating position, visibility and scale of the car allow you to place it neatly on the road - an unusual sensation in any hypercar. The steering serves up high-definition feedback without ever turning hyperactive, while there's a suppleness to the suspension that allows the LaFerrari to slip over the worst the broken Italian highway can throw at it.

And when you put your foot down?

Forget all you know about fast: this is a whole new stratosphere of performance, a relentless accumulation of speed accompanied by the greatest automotive soundtrack in the world. You don't so much accelerate in LaFerrari as warp scenery. As the V12 screams its way to the 9250rpm redline, the Italian countryside is hauled back and fired out of the rearview mirror.

Read our in-depth Porsche 918 review

As the LaFerrari pours down this tight and broken strand of tarmac, there's a hypnotic violence to proceedings: second, third, fourth, brake hard, down two gears, dual clutch box firing ratios faster than you can process, accelerate, third, fourth, repeat...

It's violent, visceral, synapse snapping, and utterly, utterly addictive.

Does the hybrid-stuff work?

Seamlessly. Some worried that the integration of hybrid technology would blunt the Ferrari experience, but the Hy-Kers system dovetails immaculately into the drivetrain, simply adding yet more sharpness to the big V12. It's so seamless that you're unaware of the e-motor even doing its thing, your senses overloaded by your right foot's connection to what feels like the most instantly responsive V12 in history.

And what about on track?

Again, not half so scary as you might expect. Yes, the LaFerrari will do sideways if you've got the talent - not to mention a wallet big enough to cover the repair bill should things go wrong - but keep it pointing forwards and you'll discover a massively fast, surprisingly accessible track car. Within just a couple of laps, it's clear LaFerrari has a depth of ability you would never grow tired of discovering, encouraging you to push ever faster and exploit its genius to the very limit.

So it's a bit good, then?

More than a bit good. LaFerrari is an intoxicating blend of earth-shattering performance and confidence-inspiring technology.

A 950bhp hypercar shouldn't be easy to drive, but this one is. That's the genius of LaFerrari, which takes the concept of driver aids that heighten rather than blunt the experience and propels it into a new dimension, which grafts F1 tech to a vast, traditional V12 to showcase the very best of Maranello old and new.

Put it this way. Christening this car ‘The Ferrari' was a high level gamble that could have backfired horribly. But really, the LaFerrari is just that. The Ferrari.

Issues?

Just one. So exhilarating, so extreme is the LaFerrari that it feels more an end rather than a beginning. With legislation strangling the upper reaches of the automotive performance envelope, are we living in the final, ultimate age of hypercars? Where can fast possibly go from here?

After a mini-embargo break a couple of hours ago that could end up costing a certain German publication a penny or two if the story on the manufacturer fines is true, Ferrari's press masters lifted the ban and the very first media test-drive videos of the new LaFerrari are out in the open for everyone to see and to some extent, perhaps even enjoy.

For the time being, the only English-language video reviews we found come from three magazines, including Autocar, EVO and Car&Driver, but as always, we'll keep an eye open and add anything else that reaches the web.

I'm pretty sure you prefer to hear the sounds of Maranello's new 950hp V12 exotic, so off you go...

Join Chris Chilton at Fiorano for a flat-out test of the 950bhp LaFerrari on track, before we head out onto the road in Ferrari's new £1.2m hybrid flagship.

In recent days, the LaFerrari has been put through its paces by some of the world's most authoritative magazines and newspapers. The limited edition special series car exceeded all expectations at the Fiorano circuit and on the roads around Maranello, both of which were also used in its development. This video gives a blistering 60-second account of the adrenaline rush of being behind its wheel.

Intimidating, yet supremely usable. Oh, and obscenely quick.

The first thing any of us does with these hypercar things is look for the power figure. In the case of the LaFerrari, that figure is 950 hp. The next figure we snaffle out is, quite naturally, the weight, which in this case is around 2954 lbs, wet. Then we do the math. We always do the math: 643 hp per ton. Six hundred and forty-three. Boom.

Add in 715 lb-ft of torque and the LaFerrari's rear-wheel-drive setup, and the combined foreknowledge does little to quell the sense of intimidation you feel on a public highway—especially one of Maranello's narrow, lunatic-in-a-Fiat-strewn roads. And then you discover that the car's most admirable quality may be the ease with which it can be driven slowly. It won't grab headlines, and it won't help the 120-mph smoky drift for the video shoot, but if you're one of the 499 chosen few, then it will probably be the single most pleasing aspect of the car's performance. Take a 458, lose a little rear visibility, add some width, a 10 percent intimidation factor for the sticker price, and a few extra points for fellow motorists who seem hellbent on crashing into you while they gawk, and that's the slow-speed difficulty summarized; that's your LaFerrari in traffic.

The transmission is key. Gone is the Enzo's mostly hateful mechanized manual; in its place is a modified version of the F12's Getrag dual-clutch box. You can pop it in auto and pretend you're in a C-Class Merc. It's that easy. The only telltales to the contrary are the firm brake pedal with zero dead-travel at the top, and the long throw of the throttle pedal, which, even on small openings, allows access to performance levels not entirely compatible with narrow Modenese roads.

We like to think of cars like this as being no-compromise performance exercises defined though lap delta and Vmax, but the reality is that, perhaps more than any other Ferrari special, the LeFerrari is designed for usability on the street. Just look at the funky door opening and the cut-away sill. Both allow perfectly dignified access and exit strategies for occupants outside the casino. The ride is perplexingly good on the road, too. As in the F12 and the FF, you thumb the damper logo on the steering wheel, the dash says 'bumpy road' and everything slackens to the point of being comfortable.

I always marvel at how these engineers manage to take such mechanical ferocity and make it so calm and usable. You simply have no idea what's going on underneath your bottom. You don't know that 57.5 lbs of high-voltage cells are bolted into the carbon tub, and that someone has taken the F12's already monstrous 740-hp V12, added a variable length intake system and a hydroformed exhaust, and rounded it up to the magic 789 hp at 9000 rpm. You don't know that they've then somehow integrated a harvesting system that can draw energy from the brakes and even the differential. All the driver has to do is pull a paddle and dawdle.

But you want to know what the LaFerrari, the most absurdly named car in the company's history, is like to drive fast.

This of course happens at the Fiorano circuit. I'm always a little skeptical of drawing absolute dynamic conclusions of Ferrari product here for obvious reasons, but there's only one chance to drive this car.

The driving position is pretty radical. You sit low in a padded area of the carbon tub, not in a separate movable seat because that can flex and contaminate the driver-machine connection. The pedal box moves on a sprung handle and the steering wheel has a greater amount of movement than a series production Ferrari. It's a great position, and owners get the padding tailor-made for them.

The wheel is standard Ferrari, but oddly quadrate in shape. The dash readouts are all new, full TFT and riddled with information. The rest is bare, sculpted carbon and Alcantara. Few cockpits are more inviting.

The V12 yelps when you push the red starter, sounding much like the F12 but with a slightly deeper edge. Pull a paddle and you have first gear, tweak the little manettino into 'race', because we need to get on with this, and push the throttle. Take a lap, building speed and tire temperature, and ka-bam! We're traveling.

Throttle response is, well, electric! I've always wanted to say that in the literal sense. Urge is instant and entirely predictable on the throttle input. It just goes from 1500 rpm and keeps pulling, building to 9000 rpm, all the while leaving a rooster of V12 shriek that must be one of the finest noises ever created. This feels profoundly faster than the F12. Traction is superb, and the traction control allows decent slip angles without jagged throttle cuts.

Braking performance is race-car standard. The vast carbon ceramic Brembos leave you pinned in the optional harness belts. Given the regenerative capability, something the McLaren P1 doesn't have and that we know can ruin pedal feel, the work Ferrari has done is exceptional. And the steering is spot-on for speed, weight, and, dare I say it, a better sense of connection than either the F12 or the 458 deliver. I love the way Ferrari decided to effectively automate the driving process—there's active aero constantly juggling downforce levels, an electronic diff, and lord knows what else, but the driver just drives. No boost buttons, no DRS, just concentrate and drive. And you need to, because the LaFerrari is just so damned fast.

It's approachable, too. You can hang half a turn of opposite lock at high speed, just the way you can in a 458. The sense of agility is always there, and of course the power is so overbearing you can always alter your line with a prod of your right foot. Switch off all the safety aids off and the LaFerrari will reduce its tires to blue smoke very effectively. It will also a reveal a chassis with so much balance at extreme slip angles that you wonder if the car actually does anything wrong.

I'm still pondering that now. The noise, the excitement, the sheer, blistering speed, the spread of ability in being so usable on the road and such a missile on track. The LaFerrari is a triumph. We'll tell you more in the magazine very, very soon.

Could be unveiled early next year

According to a recent report, the LaFerrari XX could be equipped with a Formula One-derived turbocharged V6 engine.

Details are limited but Top Gear is reporting the engine could be used in place of the standard model's 6.3-liter V12 that develops 800 PS (588 kW) and 700 Nm (516 lb-ft) of torque. It remains unclear if there would be any modifications to the hybrid system but the standard LaFerrari uses a 163 PS (120 kW) electric motor that raises the car's combined output to 963 PS (708 kW).

Regardless of the final details, Ferrari's head of the Sporting Activity Department has previously said the LaFerrari XX will be a "hypercar for the circuit" and he hopes it will "arrive on the circuit in January or February of next year." Antonello Coletta also suggested the model will be about as powerful as the LaFerrari but feature improved aerodynamics, upgraded electronics, a sportier suspension and racing tires.

We know what you're thinking of asking upon reading our title and the answer is that, the man whose face we cannot see is likely Top Gear magazine's editor-in-chief Charlie Turner who wrote a piece about the first drive of the LaFerrari and not one of the folks from the Top Gear television show.

The short video itself contains no human commentary, only the sweet sounds of Ferrari's 6.3-liter V12 engine that is supplemented by a 161hp (163 PS) HY-KERS hybrid system.

Whatever you think about the LaFerrari and how it might compare to the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder, it doesn't really matter because you can't get your hands on one even if you wanted to – at least until some of the 499 handpicked owners decide to drop their rides on the used car market.

But we wouldn't bet on that happening any time soon; as pointed out by Turner in his magazine article, "to simply be considered LaFerrari ownership material, you needed (a) at least five Ferraris in your collection and (b) a first-name-terms relationship with FerrariChairman Luca Di Montezemolo, who personally approved all 499 owners".

Only a handful of people have driven all three of these incredible hybrid-hypercars. Charlie Turner is one of the lucky few

Twelve people have walked on the moon. At the time of writing, fewer have been lucky enough to drive all three of the physics-pummelling trio of hypercars that constitutes LaFerrari, Porsche 918 and McLaren P1. I'm hugely privileged to say I'm one of them.

So which is best? In truth, these three cars are so extreme, their constructions so complex, their performance so nuanced yet unique, that to herald a winner would be daft. Not least because to fully explore and appreciate their finer differences will require the stars to align, and all three to be gathered in one place at one time. That's something I can assure you we're working on.

Until that day, though, here are my initial thoughts. First off, the rarified atmosphere in which the LaFerrari, P1 and 918 exist means the issue of 'which to choose' probably doesn't make much sense to their deep-pocketed owners. Safe to say many will have purchased all three, or, if not, chosen their car by the brand with which they most closely identify. And what these cars say about their respective brands speaks very loudly.

TG was first to deliver the verdict on the Son Of F1 late last year, when Jeremy was handed the P1 keys in a very wet Belgium. Following the boss's time with the car, Associate Editor Tom Ford and I were tasked with delivering the uber-McLaren back from Spa to Woking. What instantly became clear on that journey was that the P1 heralded a new era in performance. It took what we knew about going fast, ripped it into tiny pieces and rewrote it afresh.

Even so, on the long journey back, Tom and I never grew tired of pressing the e-drive mode and cruising silently with only tyre and wind noise for company. Both the 918 and P1 are plug-in hybrids and both can waft in eerie, electric-only calm down the motorway.

LaFerrari, in keeping with Maranello's faster-everywhere philosophy, cannot be plugged into the wall, and refuses to go anywhere silently. Instead the electric power is deployed in conjunction with the V12 the whole time, with the sole aim of making a very fast car even faster.

That long journey in the P1 demonstrated that the ultimate McLaren had lost none of the ride quality or ease of drivability demonstrated by its little brother 12C. Similarly, LaFerrari's ability to soak up the worst that Italy's buckled Strada Provinciale could throw at it was equally impressive, the Ferrari slipping over, rather than crashing across, a sinuous mountain road.

The Porsche weighs 1634kg - more than the P1 and LaFerrari, both of which sneak under 1400kg - and on the roads around the firm's Weissach proving grounds you're certainly more conscious of the impact of that extra mass on the 918's ride and braking. Even so, gone are the days where pursuing the outer limits of performance meant an appointment with the dentist the following week to replace lost fillings.

Maybe the most impressive thing about this trio is the way they make their blinding performance and engineering sophistication so accessible. Each swaddles its vast performance in a blanket so comforting that, honestly, you could imagine using any one of them as a daily driver, fuel bills and depreciation notwithstanding.

Really. The P1 is as docile and approachable as a 12C in the dry, the LaFerrari no more threatening than a 458, the 918 far friendlier than a 911 GT3. Not something that could be said about any of these cars' forebears: the F1, Enzo and Carrera GT.

True, practicality is unlikely to be a prime concern of buyers at this end of the market. If you've got the cash for one of these cars, you've likely got the cash to employ a chauffeur to follow behind with an S-Class containing your luggage.

But in the ease-of-use stakes, the 918 shines. It's the only cabrio of the trio and the only one to feature four-wheel drive, rendering it the most useable day to day. It would feel as at home climbing up to your Alpine lair in the depths of winter as cruising, roof removed, along the Italian Riviera. Removing the roof has the added benefit of giving you an intimate audience with the top-exit exhausts of that race-spec V8. And Porsche's bleeding-edge nav and connectivity tech are simply astonishing, leaving McLaren and Ferrari trailing in its wake.

It's also the simplest to drive very, very quickly on the road. The 918's ability to build speed effortlessly (we saw 176mph on a derestricted autobahn) - acceleration emphasised by its lack of roof and the up-close-and-personal V8 soundtrack - is mesmerising.

But not quite so attention-sharpening as the behaviour of the P1 and its twin-turbo V8 in the wet. On damp Belgian tarmac, exploratory prods of the McLaren's throttle resulted in wheelspin in fourth, a lot of swearing, an argument and a long conversation about avoiding the highest-profile ‘off' in car magazine history. And that was with the traction control on. We only drove the Porsche in the dry, but I suspect its AWD would make it far less puckering down the same bit of sodden road.

Of course, you need a track to get anywhere near the outer limits of these three cars. A mighty big track, as it turns out. Our v-max limit in the LaFerrari was restricted by length of the straight at Ferrari's Fiorano's test track, a circuit that feels plenty large enough in most road cars. Not LaFerrari.

As you uncoil the car out of the left-handed Turn 13 and onto the pit straight, it's truly a struggle to wrap your mind around the combination of speed and sound the LaFerrari dishes out. It feels more... mechanical, more petrolly than the Porsche or McLaren, a sensory overdose dominated by the V12 as it fires its way to that insane 9250rpm redline. The LaFerrari was cracking 162mph on the Fiorano straight, a speed only rivalled by Maranello's F1 cars.

Whether you're on track or road, the LaFerrari doesn't overcomplicate matters. Handy test-driver Fernando Alonso experimented with dozens of methods for activating the hybrid's HyKERS electric module, and eventually came to the conclusion that even he couldn't do it better than LaFerrari's own brain. So Maranello decided to keep it simple, and allow the car to set its own performance parameters depending on which of the five manettino settings you've selected. In other words, if you want everything in the LaFerrari, pin the throttle and you'll get it.

The 918 is the halfway house between LaFerrari's you-want-it-you-get-it philosophy and the P1's configure-everything approach. By twiddling the nondescript dial on the bottom right of the Porsche's wheel, you can slip from electric mode (for silent cruising), through hybrid mode (where the V8 will activate as required by the throttle input), into sport mode (engine on all the time) and then full-fat race mode (everything-everything). The LaFerrari doesn't bother with such options.

The P1, meanwhile, makes much more of a song and dance of engaging max-attack mode, as we discovered after commandeering Lydd airfield in Kent to find just what the McLaren could do with a dry, empty runway. And it can do quite a lot, as it turns out.

McLaren might have a reputation for strait-lacedness, but there's real drama as the P1 readies itself for a full-bore run. When stationary, the McLaren hunches itself 50mm, and the wing stretches to its full 120mm extension, before you're ready to launch.

And what a launch. With a mile and a half of tarmac ahead of you and every drop of petrol and electric power deployed, the P1 catapults at the horizon's vanishing point with a violence that you feel in every sinew of your being.

If the LaFerrari experience is dominated by the response and staggering sound of the V12, and the 918 is an effortless pursuit of speed with every element of that hugely complex AWD drivetrain working in unison, then launch in the P1 is tyrannised by a wave of midrange torque as the turbos spool up and unleash face-warping savagery. For the record, I ran out of ***** and braking distance at 197mph on Lydd's runway.

Which is best? Impossible to say. The reality is that the few lucky billionaires who will own all three of these cars will discover a depth of performance they'll never grow tired of exploring. For one car to so entirely reconfigure our understanding of road-going possibility in the way that every one of the P1, 918 and LaFerrari does would have been extraordinary enough.

But for all three to have arrived within months of each other suggests we are living in the most extraordinary times. Each is the ultimate articulation of the very best bits of its respective brand. Each is an icon of the future, and it has been an unbelievable privilege to experience every one of them. The automotive landscape shall never be the same again.

Ferrari LaFerrari vs McLaren P1 vs Porsche 918 Spyder: the specs

Engine:

Ferrari LaFerrari: 6.3-litre V12 naturally aspirated
McLaren P1: 3.8-litre bi-turbo V8
Porsche 918 Spyder: 4.6-litre V8 naturally aspirated

Engine power:

Ferrari: 789bhp, 516lb ft
McLaren: 727bhp, 531lb ft
Porsche: 608bhp, 389lb ft

Electric:

Ferrari: 161bhp, 199lb ft, 330g/km CO2
McLaren: 176bhp, 192lb ft, 194g/km CO2
Porsche: 282bhp, 545lb ft, 70g/km CO2

Combined power:

Ferrari: 950bhp and over 663lb ft
McLaren: 903bhp and 664lb ft
Porsche: 875bhp and 943lb ft

Gearbox:

Ferrari: seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, rear-wheel-drive, third-gen E-Diff, EF1-Trac F1 TC
McLaren: seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, rear-wheel-drive, IPAS and DRS
Porsche: seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic, all-wheel-drive, Hybrid, Sport and Race modes, plus Hot Lap setting

Tyres:

Ferrari: 265/30 R19 (front) 345/30 R20 (rear)
McLaren: 265/35 R20 (front) 325/30 R21 (rear)
Porsche: 265/35 R20 (front) 325/30 R21 (rear)

Weight:

Ferrari: 1345kg est
McLaren: 1395kg
Porsche: 1634kg

0-62mph:

Ferrari: 2.9s
McLaren: 2.8s
Porsche: 2.5s

0-124mph:

Ferrari: 6.9s
McLaren: 6.8s
Porsche: 7.2s

0-186mph:

Ferrari: 15s
McLaren: 16.5s
Porsche: 19.9s

Top speed:

Ferrari: 218mph+
McLaren: 217mph
Porsche: 214mph

According to a recent report, the LaFerrari XX could be equipped with a Formula One-derived turbocharged V6 engine.

The Enzo’s successor is finally here. The LaFerrari costs over £1 million and has a 950bhp hybrid V12, but just how good is it? Steve Sutcliffe straps in to see

What is it?
The LaFerrari is very possibly the world’s fastest, most exciting hypercar. Which is some statement to make when there are machines such as the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder to contend with.

The bottom line, however, is that LaFerrari has more power (a whopping 950bhp) and less weight to carry around than its prestigious rivals so figuratively, if nothing else, it quite clearly has the upper hand.

Either way, this is the ultimate Ferrari, and it has but four ancestors; the 288 GTO, the F40, the F50 and the Enzo, each of these being a limited series car, just like LaFerrari, of which just 499 will be made during the next two years.

At the centre of the car, behind its two fixed carbonfibre seats, sits a 6262cc naturally aspirated V12 engine that generates 790bhp at 9000rpm and 516lb ft of torque at 6750rpm. On their own these outputs would be sufficient to make LaFerrari more potent than the Scuderia’s last V12 F1 car, the 412T from 1995.

But also behind and beneath the seats sits a 60kg lithium ion battery pack which, via a 25.7kg electric motor, provides a further 160bhp and 199lb ft to give combined outputs of 950bhp and 715lb ft.

However, entirely unlike its rivals from Porsche and McLaren, the Ferrari’s power unit has been designed to produce its maximum outputs all of the time. There is no e-mode that can be engaged as such. Instead, the combustion engine and the Hy-KERS system have been engineered to work as one, with energy being constantly harvested on the move (via the brakes, the ABS system, the traction control system and even the E-Diff) to deliver full beans, as in 950bhp, whenever you want it.

The prodigious energy produced by this so-called power unit is then sent to the rear wheels, and the rear wheels only, via a seven-speed dual clutch auto gearbox, made for Ferrari by Getrag. This also has an electric motor attached to it, with a dedicated gear-set that transmits drive directly to the final drive, thereby reducing the need for a typically vast clutch. The meticulous removal of weight runs as a key theme throughout the supercar's engineering, and this is but one example.

As with the P1 and 918, LaFerrari features a carbonfibre tub on to which the engine and suspension are mounted. At each corner there are double wishbones (carbonfibre at the front) and coil springs with electronically controlled dampers, plus an enormous carbon-ceramic disc brake made by Brembo, those at the front measuring 398mm, those at the rear 380mm.

Electronics play a huge role in the car's engineering, and in the delivery of its vast dynamic repertoire. Wings at the front and rear are actively deployed on the move to provide two radically different running configurations; high and low downforce modes.

Mostly, these exist to provide the maximum amount of grip and reduced drag required at any given moment – with a maximum of 360kg being produced at 124mph when cornering, or a minimum of 90kg at 124mph when travelling in a dead straight line. On the move, the car decides how much downforce it needs, not you. Intriguingly, the active wings also play a key role in cooling the engine, the batteries, the gearbox and the carbon-ceramic brakes, too.

The cabin of LaFerrari is a deeply exotic place in which to find yourself, as you’d expect, but it’s also smaller and more intimate than you might anticipate, despite there being 30mm more headroom than in an Enzo in order to accommodate drivers wearing a crash helmet. And that’s because the driving position itself is so low slung, with a fixed seat but movable pedals and steering wheel.

Ferrari claims the driving position is half way between that of a normal sports car and a Formula 1 car, with the driver’s backside sitting at broadly the same height as their toes. Sit on the floor against a wall with your arms and legs out-stretched but slightly bent, holding on to an imaginary steering wheel, then shift your bum forwards so that your back is at an angle of 32 degrees to the wall and you’ll get a rough idea of how “single-seater” the driving position feels. And the rest of the cabin is very much in the same vein.

There are three different instrument styles than can be dialled up within the TFT digital dash display, all with the rev counter dominating to varying degrees. Anyone who’s ever been fortunate enough to sit in a 458 will recognise certain elements immediately, but there’s a sense of purity inside the Ferrari that elevates it above any of Maranello’s other cars. It feels quite a lot like you’re sitting inside a very well appointed Le Mans car, actually, with swathes of Alcantara and buttons for the sat-nav where normally you might expect to find switches marked 'rain' or 'pit lane speed limiter'.

What is it like?
However fast and furious and noisy and exciting to drive you might imagine LaFerrari to be, double it, add 20 and you might, just maybe, get somewhere close.

I find myself vibrating with excitement as I prod the starter button, squeeze the huge right hand gear paddle to select gear ratio number one and rumble out on to the track for my first few tentative laps, with the manettino switch set to Race mode. Other than this now familiar dial on the steering wheel, there are no other buttons to play with, nada; Ferrari deciding instead to let the car do the talking, which is a refreshingly pure ethos to adopt.

The ride instantly feels spookily smooth and calm, the steering surprisingly light but bursting with a delicious, old school kind of feel. The brake pedal also feels light underfoot but is again rippling with feel. And the throttle response, the first time I go anywhere near the loud pedal is just outrageous; the car explodes down the back straight even on half throttle in fourth gear.

And that’s what you get when you integrate electric power with a thumping great V12. At low revs the electricity provides the torque, and provides it instantly, and from there on up – at about 3000rpm – the V12 takes over. Yet the transformation is so smooth you are never actually aware that it takes place. Instead, it feels like the car is powered by a 10-litre V12 that somehow has massive low rev response at the same time.

And to begin with, at least, it’s the immediacy of its response to the throttle that pretty much defines what LaFerrari feels like on the move. The torque appears to arrive from the moment you think about opening the accelerator, not when you physically press the pedal, and to begin with that takes quite some getting used to.

But once you do, and to be fair this happens far faster than you’d think, given the vast range of capabilities contained within this most complex of cars, there is a proper box of secrets to be unlocked.

The sheer thrust the thing can generate will scare most people half to death to begin with, for example, because it really is monumentally rapid. And it just never lets up. The acceleration, and the noise, and the violence, it all just keeps on coming at you, stronger and louder with every extra revolution of the crankshaft until the limiter intrudes at an ear-splitting 9250rpm. The first time I run it right up to the limiter in third, the hairs on the back of my neck sit bolt upright, and it’s all I can do not to start screaming uncontrollably for no apparent reason.

And yet, in their way, the gearchange, the brakes, the steering, the turn in, the handling balance and the ride… they are all every bit as incredible as the engine – sorry the power source – and the acceleration it can produce. You look at what this car has on paper and assume that it is going to be a deeply complicated machine to drive, one that perhaps us mere mortals will never get to truly understand, or get the best out of. But that’s not the case at all in reality.

In many ways LaFerrari feels as natural and easy to drive as a 458 Italia. Its responses may be massive, its grip vast and its performance envelope borderline insane, but it also feels surprisingly, well, normal in the way it drives. The electronics are there but they operate very much in the background. A bit like the brilliant speech writer for the brilliant speech maker, they are a key element of LaFerrari’s DNA but they don’t define how it feels, or how it drives.

And as for the way you can eventually learn to play with the car, assuming you are bold enough to rotate the mannetino switch right the way round to switch everything off, well it’s just breathtaking. Never before have I driven a mid-engined car that feels so well balanced, so comfortable, when its rear tyres are lit and you’ve got half an armful of corrective lock applied. In my head, in my world, you should not be able to drive a car like this, like that, but believe me; anyone who knows broadly what they are doing behind the wheel could do exactly the same thing in it after a while. And that’s purely because the car has been engineered to allow most people to be able to drive it hard, really hard, without scaring themselves.

There are no spikes on which to impale yourself, in other words, even if the scenery does appear in the windscreen at a quite unbelievable lick, if and when you press the accelerator hard and hold it there for more than a couple of seconds. Everything LaFerrari does – from the way it turns into a corner to the way it stops for one, and even the way it accelerates out of a bend – it does predictably. You always know where you are with this car. And considering just how insanely fast it is, that is arguably its greatest achievement; being manageable.

On the road, where I also drove it briefly, LaFerrari feels if anything even faster still – to a point where you really do need to choose your moment before squeezing the throttle with anything approaching enthusiasm. But even so the ride quality is still quite amazingly good, the steering beautifully well judged in its response and not in the least bit corrupted by rough surfaces.

The visibility is also nowhere near as poor as I had expected it to be, the car’s general drivability/usability not much less than that of a 458 Italia. Which is extraordinary given how much deeper its well runs in all other respects; including the ability to turn heads, which is something it does more than any car I’ve ever driven.

Should I buy one?
You can’t unfortunately because A) all 499 cars are now sold out and B) you might well have struggled to match Ferrari’s strict critieria for ownership in the first place.

If you wanted to buy a LaFerrari then you needed to have bought a minimum of two recent Ferraris via the dealer network from new, and have owned six in total in the last 10 years, and ideally never have speculated on any of them – or something along those lines.

A more appropriate question then; is it better, worse or just different to a McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder? And is it a worthy successor to the mighty Enzo?

LaFerrari is a more than worthy successor to the Enzo. Indeed, it makes the old-timer feel gruesomely under-achieving in most respects, and is also a much easier, far sweeter car to drive in the process.

Does that make it a better hypercar than the McLaren and 918? That’s a question we aim to answer properly in months to come, but my hunch here and now is that it will be one heck of a dust-up. Between at least two of the world’s most exciting cars.

And in the meantime, be in no doubt; LaFerrari is a true masterpiece from Maranello.

The Ferrari LaFerrari hypercar has arrived, but how does it stack up against its rivals from McLaren and Porsche?

With Ferrari’s new LaFerrari hypercar finally joining the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder under the review spotlight, we’ve decided to take this opportunity to consider just how the three stack up against one another.

The debate surrounding these amazing vehicles is likely to rage on for months – if not years – to come, so we’re going to try and remove all emotion and consider this incredible trio based on facts and figures alone…

Battle of the hypercars: Performance

McLaren’s petrol-electric P1 is driven by a highly-tuned 727bhp 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 engine, coupled with a 176bhp lightweight electric motor, meaning total output equalling 903bhp.

On its way to a top speed of 217mph, the rear-wheel drive McLaren will accelerate from 0-62mph in just 2.8 seconds, 0-124mph in 6.8 seconds and 0-186mph in 16.5 seconds. That last figure is 5.5 seconds quicker than the legendary McLaren F1 and about the same as a standard Bugatti Veyron.

By comparison, Porsche’s AWD hybrid offering shares some of its design with the brand’s Le Mans racer, producing 600bhp on its own from a mid-mounted 4.6-litre V8 engine. This is coupled to two electric motors – one at each axle – that can drive the wheel independently or work in tandem with the engine to boost performance.

Linked up for a full-out thrash, the 875bhp 918 Spyder will see off 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds and hit 214mph.

Power for the LaFerrari comes from a 789bhp version of the F12’s 6.3-litre V12, working in tandem with a 161bhp electric motor to drive the rear axle only.

In contrast to its rivals, the Ferrari is setup without an electric-only mode for short-distance town cruising – the V12 is tuned to produce its best at high revs and combines with the motor’s high torque, low rev output.

With a total of 950bhp, it outstrips both the Porsche and McLaren, which according to the Maranello-based marque means 0-62mph apparently takes “less than three seconds”, while 0-124mph is managed in “under seven seconds”. The exact top speed is also a closely guarded secret, although Ferrari has revealed it to be in excess of the P1’s 217mph.

Battle of the hypercars: Design

Just as it’s hard to separate these cars based on performance, there’s little to choose from when it comes to appearance. Distinctive brand styling cues aside, the trio share similar dimensions, the LaFerrari is 4,702mm long and 1,992mm wide, with 2,650mm wheelbase. This is longer and wider than both the McLaren and Porsche, although each exceeds the Ferrari in terms of distance between the wheels, with respective lengths of 2,670mm and 2,730mm.

Weight is a better indicator of the unique approaches used to build the three hypercars – at 1634kg the 918 Spyder is the heaviest, with the Ferrari exactly 200kg lighter than the middleweight 1450kg P1.

Battle of the hypercars: Efficiency

This Porsche’s additional weight is partly the result of a more complicated hybrid system, which returns just 70g/km of CO2 and can manage a combined 94.1mpg. The P1 is no slouch either: its 194g/km emissions figure and claimed economy of 34mpg is about the same as that of a Ford S-MAX 2.0 EcoBoost, with claimed economy figures of 34mpg.

Even though the non plug-in Ferrari manages a rather less efficient 330g/km of CO2 on the official cycle, this is still an impressively low figure from its hybrid system given the level of performance on offer.

Battle of the hypercars: Price

As befits mind-blowing performance from three of the world’s premier supercar manufacturers, these flagship models command something of a price tag.

The Porsche is the ‘budget’ option, coming in at £712,088, whereas a P1 is slightly more expensive at £866,000. Meanwhile, Ferrari’s LaFerrari is priced from £1,150,000, so it leads the way on performance and cost.

Battle of the hypercars: Availability

Before you make to withdraw any life savings, it’s worth noting that only a limited number of these cars will be produced, and many have already been sold. In fact, Ferrari has already found buyers for all 499 LaFerrari models, and that’s also the case for McLaren’s 375 P1s, leaving only the Porsche 918 Spyder for hypercar fans with cash to burn.

You’ll have to move fast though, as orders are reportedly coming in fast, despite customers having slightly more of a chance thanks to Porsche’s plan to manufacture a numerically-suitable 918 units of the 918 Spyder. If such excessive numbers from the German manufacturer are off-putting, a £60,000 Weissach Package does offer added exclusivity and “a more performance-oriented finish”, which Porsche expects around 25 per cent of buyers to select.

We drive the Ferrari LaFerrari, the 950bhp twin-engined Maranello machine with a name so daft it makes the marketing crack-heads behind Nissan’s Pantry Boy Supreme seem almost sane

What’s this about two engines?

This is Ferrari’s first ever hybrid road car, so you get a 6.3-litre V12 good for 789bhp – and then you top it off with a 160bhp electric motor feeding directly into the rear axle. It’s like a Led Zep-Daft Punk mash up. To put those numbers in perspective, the Enzo made do with 651bhp, and this V12 alone is more powerful than the combined petrol-electric drivetrain in the Porsche 918. But at 1425kg, LaFerrari is over 200kg lighter than the German, and only two-wheel drive. Even McLaren’s P1 only musters 903bhp. Crazy.

How does it charge?

Like a bull strapped to an Exocet missile. 0-62mph in well under 3sec, 0-186mph in 15, and a top speed the far side of 217mph. The acceleration is borderline painful, but so, so addictive.

No, I mean how do you charge it up?

Not by plugging it into the wall. The battery is located on the floor behind the seats, and is topped up through a combination of regenerative braking, which Ferrari says far surpasses the efficiency other hybrids deliver, and by syphoning off excess power from the V12, and sending it through a second motor, which can also work like a giant alternator. Ferrari claims the charge will never run out in real world conditions, either on the road or on the track. The only way you could flatten it would be to go to somewhere like Nardo and chase its 217+mph top speed for lap after lap.

Clever, but if this thing is a hybrid, how many miles can it go in whisper-quiet zero-emissions mode?

No miles whatsoever, because there is no EV mode. The petrol engine and electric motor work together every situation, hence the flower-wilting 330g/km of CO2. As Ferrari quite rightly asks, who in their right mind would want to buy a car that sounds this good, and then press the mute button and subtract 789bhp from the equation? You won’t find any kind of Fast and Furious-style push-to-pass boost button either, just an accelerator and Ferrari’s familiar manettino toggle on the steering wheel. The whole ethos of this car is to integrate the clever stuff into the traditional sports car experience, not make it centre stage.

What other clever stuff is in there?

Tech like the active aero devices. At the rear, there’s a large spoiler, hidden at rest, but deployed when downforce is needed. That spoiler is permanently linked to flaps in the diffuser, and both are operated by the same actuator. Together, they give 50kg of downforce in low drag mode at 124mph, but 230kg in max drag mode. Flaps at the front help maintain the aero balance, moving their position in response to changes with the rear aero kit.

All of this is handled by computers, which is good, because when you’re driving what feels like a 1000bhp 458 Italia, you want to be keeping both hands on the wheel. The big surprise is that the chassis isn’t remotely overwhelmed by the power. This is an easy car to drive, but it’s also easy to become desensetised to the speed and even with brakes as epic as these, find yourself arriving at a corner rather faster than you anticipated…

Ferrari’s test driver says LaFerrari has so much less downforce than the F1 cars that it arrives at the end of the pit straight at Fiorano travelling almost as fast. Speaking of Fiorano, this thing will circulate it in 1m 20sec, a massive 5.3sec faster than the Enzo.

Blimey! But surely a 950bhp rear-wheel drive supercar is going to be undriveable on the road.

Against odds that even Phil Collins wouldn’t take a flutter on, LaFerrari, turns out to be as manageable as its 458 baby brother. It’s bigger, certainly, and the visibility isn’t as good. Those lovely insect antennae that pass for wings mirrors create a massive blind spot at roundabouts. But it rides astonishingly well, which isn’t just great for spinal comfort, it means the car flows beautifully across the ground, carrying speed in places where a much harsher car (I’m looking at you, Aventador) would have to dial right back. LaFerrari’s traction is astonishing given there’s the bet part of 1000bhp trying to explode out of the rear axle, yet the balance is so good you can still switch off the ESP and slide it around like a 458. One of the biggest surprises is the steering, which is not always a standout Ferrari feature, but here is plain lovely.

So it’s a hit. Hurrah, I’ll have six!

Sorry to disappoint you, Sultan, but even at €1.2m plus taxes (call it £1.2m on the road guvnor, and I’ll throw in some mats – the floor is bare carbon as standard), all 499 have been sold. Ferrari hand-picked the buyers to try and weed out speculators too, so finding a used one might be tricky.

Verdict

It’s difficult not to get carried away when presented with any car that’s as quick as this, but LaFerrari is a work of genius. The fact that the myriad pieces of technology that together make this car so go fast have been integrated so seamlessly, is the real achievement here. But the most exciting bit of all is that Ferrari will use lessons learned on this project to help define the 458 replacement we should see next year. It’s going to be a monster.

The LaFerrari is finally here - we review Ferrari's McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder rival on road and track

What is it?

The Ferrari LaFerrari, if we’re being pedantic, but the Italian supercar maker would no doubt prefer us to simply say ‘LaFerrari’. It follows in the footsteps of the most exciting entries from the Prancing Horse hall of fame – 288 GTO, F40, F50 and Enzo – and mixes a V12 petrol engine with electric power to create a hybrid hypercar to battle the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder. Its price tops £1million but that’s almost irrelevant; all 499 have long been sold out.

Technical highlights?

The 6.3-litre V12 revs to 9250rpm and develops 789bhp at 9000rpm for a specific output of 128bhp-per-litre. Maximum torque is 516lb ft at 6750rpm. This is supplemented by an electric motor that drives directly through the differential (not the gearbox, as in the P1), spins at 16,500rpm and contributes a further 161bhp and 199lb ft. Together with the batteries, the combined weight of the hybrid system is 146kg - roughly half that of the admittedly beefier 918 Spyder’s hybrid system. It more than pulls its weight, improving acceleration by 20 per cent and delivering a 50 per cent reduction in CO2.

The headline performance figures are a 0-60mph time of ‘less than 3sec’ and a 0-124mph time of ‘under 7sec’. At 1m20s, the LaFerrari’s Fiorano track time is also 5sec quicker than an Enzo and 3sec quicker than the F12 Berlinetta, which it displaces as Ferrari’s fastest ever road car. The top speed is quoted as over 217mph. It combines this performance with a claimed 220g/km of CO2 in hybrid mode – lower emissions than a Lotus Exige.

Active aerodynamics see front and rear diffusers, an underbody guide vane and a rear spoiler all react and deploy automatically when driving conditions require. This generates downforce without unnecessarily compromising the car’s drag coefficient. Both the hybrid system and active aero integrate into the rest of the LaFerrari’s dizzying electronic systems, including F1-trac and E-diff. There’s a Brembo carbon-ceramic brake setup, while the 19in front/20in rear alloy wheels are wrapped in Pirelli P Zero rubber.

What’s it like to drive?

The hardware might be thoroughly modern, but LaFerrari’s heart remains a screaming naturally aspirated V12 engine. More like a force of nature than something man-made, it owns your senses, its pulsing beat sending all manner of subtle vibrations into you through the structure of the car.

Where the real magic happens is in the way the electric motor makes its contribution. The ultimate silent partner, it augments the V12’s performance, response and delivery without ever making its presence felt. Ferrari has used the electric motor as a means of sharpening the powertrain’s response and providing torque-fill in the lower and mid range of its torque curve, which then allows the petrol engine’s tune to be optimsed for top-end fireworks. The effect is not that of the P1’s fairground ride whumph, instead delivering a solid wall of thrust, with no fuss or sense of multiple power sources. Rewind the years and ironically you’d find LaFerrari playing the part of the McLaren F1, and the McLaren P1 in the more visceral role of the Ferrari F40.

On warm, dry Italian roads it all conspires to create a totally explosive driving experience. The balance of grip and levels of traction are extremely well-judged, so you always seem to know where you are with both ends of the car. The feelsome measured steering gives you something to lean on, so you always have confidence in the front-end, and the stability control system is so precise and dialled-in to LaFerrari’s dynamics that together they only ever flatter your driving, even allowing you to persuade the tail into a smooth slide and then let the rear wheels spin a little before finally applying an invisible guiding hand.

It’s equally impressive on track. I’ve been to Fiorano on numerous occasions, but never has it felt so small. LaFerrari literally devours the place, romping down the straights and chomping through the corners like nothing I’ve ever driven here. Everything is so immediate, intense and explosive, yet just as on the road LaFerrari feels totally intuitive and approachable. The silky steering response that made the road driving so enjoyable also feels perfect on track - quick, but not jumpy - so you can make one clean steering input from turn-in through apex to exit, rather than feel your way in with a series of nudges. And when the tail begins to slide, your corrective inputs are just as natural and measured, to the point where you can forget the value of the car and drive it purely on feel.

We’ve become so used to synaptic gearshifts it’s easy to overlook just how great LaFerrari’s gearbox is. Up and downshifts are so rapid there’s no interruption, yet somehow the way the latency and impulse phases have been finessed means you feel completely engaged with the process of changing gear.

Likewise the brakes are sensational. All the more so when you consider Ferrari has gone one stage further than Porsche by using the brakes for harvesting regenerative energy even during moments of ABS intervention for absolute efficiency. In terms of outright feel and precision the P1 has the edge over LaFerrari, but only in the final stages of braking. And the McLaren has no brake energy recuperation at all.

Quite how LaFerrari manages to deploy its heroic performance with such control, yet make the driving experience so approachable, exploitable and totally engaging is something of a miracle. As is the seamless way in which the powertrain, chassis and aerodynamics have been integrated.

How does it compare?

Its on-paper stats outstrip the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder, while its driving experience is different to both. It’s also much more expensive than either. The only way to truly weigh them up alongside each other, though, is with a proper comparison test. Needless to say, we will move heaven and earth to try and bring you one of the greatest group tests of all time.

Anything else I need to know?

There’s a 60mm gain in headroom yet a 30mm reduction in roofline height compared with the Ferrari Enzo. This has been achieved by reclining the driving position a little and doing away with a conventional seat frame. Instead the cushions are bonded directly to the tub, with all the adjustment being in the pedals and steering wheel. This has a knock-on effect of enabling engineers to lower LaFerrari’s centre-of-gravity by 35mm; an unprecedented gain over an already extreme starting point and something that allows engineers to run softer springs yet still reduce body roll. According to Ferrari, every 10mm it could drop LaFerrari’s centre of gravity shaves 0.3sec per lap at Fiorano, 0.4sec at Monza and 2.2sec at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.