Accidentally Locking Myself In The Boot Of A £220k 12C Supercar Was A Terrifying Experience

Yesterday, I was handed the keys to a £220,000 McLaren 12C Spider. The day would be spent shooting a bunch of videos (coming soon), taking a load of lovely pics and driving one of the world's most compliant supercars.

After parking up at our location some forty miles south of McLaren's imposing technology centre in Woking, I popped the bonnet - by means of a subtle plastic catch - to check out the 12C's 150-litre luggage compartment. Impressive, I thought, so my primitive man-brain demanded I get on my hands and knees to see if I could fit in. Success!

With that, I emerged victorious and asked CT producer Ethan to get this random nugget of trivia on film. Camera set up, I crawled back into my coffin, cramming myself in more efficiently than before. Click.

That noise and the pressure on the top of my back told me that the bonnet catch had engaged, meaning I was now trapped in the front of a £220,000 supercar. Trying not to panic, I calmly told Ethan where the catch was (something I probably should have told him before my stunt), but he was unable to locate it.

After about a minute, Ethan was starting to panic, so shouted to videographer Matt for help; Matt's a level-headed and practical kind of bloke, so I was sure I'd be out within 10 seconds flat. "It's no good, mate, I can't find it," was the response at which point I was having to control my breathing to fend off my inevitable panic.

I couldn't move, but I could see two pairs of hands flapping in and out of my new environment, desperately trying to locate the plastic catch I insisted was there.

It took 4mins 17sec before Ethan's hand made contact with the boot release and another 20 seconds before he worked out which way to slide it (an eternity when you're losing your battle to keep calm).

With the lid lifted, I jumped out and walked away from the car. I was shaking and couldn't believe that I was finally free.

The lesson here? I'm clearly a masochistic idiot, but more importantly, yes, the McLaren 12C Spider's boot is big enough to house a short bloke for about five minutes. Who says we don't do serious consumer reports?