A Drift Mode Is Coming To The New McLaren Super Series

Drifting a McLaren has always carried the risk of having a terrible (and terribly expensive) crash, but the new Super Series will actively let you get sideways. We're a bit excited

Matt Kimberley

02 Feb 2017

A Drift Mode Is Coming To The New McLaren Super Series

Drifting a McLaren is about to get a whole lot less terrifyingly risky. The company has let slip that the next Super Series cars, codenamed P14, will use a more advanced, driver-adjustable stability control system including Variable Drift Control.

This is good news. The system will let committed drivers push past the limits of grip into smooth, graceful slides that make the gurning driver look like a boss, without risking immediately swapping ends and facing back the way they came.

McLaren is making some bold claims for the new Super Series, too, saying in a press release that it will have the “widest breadth of dynamic ability of any McLaren.”

There’s a new Proactive Chassis Control II setup, which feeds far more data to the central computer than before, analysing more data, faster, to extract even more grip from the no doubt short-lived tyres.

Comfort, Sport and Track driving modes will be standard on P14 series cars, delivering different feels and responses as per usual, but expect Comfort to be more comfortable and Track to be more butt-clenchingly extreme.

“Proactive Chassis Control II generates a significant amount of additional grip, but not at the expense of the balance and feel of the car,” explained Mark Vinnels, Executive Director – Product Development, at McLaren Automotive.

“The depth and breadth of handling precision and ride comfort in combination with the peerless level of driver involvement in the second-generation McLaren Super Series is simply extraordinary.” That’s marketing speak for “it’ll be bloody quick around corners.”

The new car is going to be released at the Geneva Motor Show in March, around which time full details will emerge. Looking forward to it?

Comments

Will the next McLaren Formula 1 Car have drift mode?

I don’t think so…

You know cars are getting worse when RWD cars get a drift mode..

Either you can drift or you can’t, let me remind you what happens when people think they are the DK:

Fair point. But it’s worth noting that it’s incredibly hard to drift a car like the P1. Sure you can get the tail out easily, but controlling a 900bhp hybrid hypercar in a slide is very different from let’s say an M3. Most of these rich owners don’t have either the skill or the confidence to drift one, so better to let the computer lend some assistance. More people will drive their car properly and fewer of them will be crashed. Also, if your name is Sebastian Vettel or similar, you can just switch the drift mode off and do it the old fashioned way.

This is my drift mode. Go into a corner like a man, brake and downshift to shift the weight balance like a man, turn it in hard like a man, smash that gas like a man. None of that electronic crap, I don’t even have 150hp ;)

Good thing none of us can afford it or we’d all be in debt by April.

2023: “McLaren P15 840S gets manual doors mode”
2028: “McLaren P16 960S gets manual acceleration and braking mode”
2033: “McLaren P17 1080S gets manual driving mode”
2038: “McLaren P18 1200S gets a mode which allows the buyer to sit in the car while it drives itself”