Check Out The McLaren W1 Getting Sideways In The Arctic

We haven’t heard much about the McLaren W1 since it was unveiled last October, but that’s because McLaren’s been busy making sure its latest hypercar is ready to go. That process includes taking a prototype up to the Arctic Circle and doing some big skids, a job that we wouldn’t really mind having.

Every new car undergoes thorough cold-weather testing like this to ensure they work in whatever conditions Mother Nature can throw at them. It’s particularly important for hypercars like the W1, though, as they tend to spend their lives in locations that regularly find themselves with negative double-digit temperatures and several feet of snow. You know, places like Miami, Monaco and Dubai. No, hang on.

Still, like those diving watches that can withstand the pressures of the Mariana Trench but will never be subject to anything wetter than a rainhead shower, it’ll surely be nice for the 399 W1 owners to know their car can theoretically handle hours of skidding about on a frozen lake, even if they’ll probably never venture out on anything other than bone dry tarmac.

More to the point, doesn’t the W1 look excellent among that jaw-droppingly barren landscape? We must admit we were a little underwhelmed by the way it looked when we saw the Papaya launch spec last autumn, but something about it wearing that prototype camo makes it look a whole lot cooler. Pun not intended.

As a reminder, the W1’s pairing of 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 and electric motor delivers peaks of 1258bhp and 988lb ft of torque, all delivered through the rear wheels. We’re trying to imagine what that would feel like when deployed on sheet ice covered with a layer of snow, and the word we keep coming up with is ‘lively’. We’ll commend anyone that tries to replicate these pictures with their own W1 once deliveries begin.