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Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1 Duke it Out On Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

This, ladies and gents, is the instrumented comparison you’ve all been waiting for. In the red corner, we have the McLaren P1. In the blue corner, we have the Porsche 918 Spyder. Care to guess which is the fastest around the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca?
McLaren P1 vs. Porsche 918 Spyder 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
MotorTrend’s resident test driver answered that million-dollar question for us and you should be preparing for quite a shock. No more beating around the bush - the Porsche 918 Spyder is quicker than the McLaren P1 around the 11-turn, 2.2-mile (3.6 km) Laguna Seca Raceway.

If you’re all about the numbers, that’s 1:29.89 for the Germanic hybridized hypercar versus 1:30.71 for the Brit. That’s less than a second between the two dream machines. By comparison, the third fastest car to lap Laguna Seca in MT’s hands is the Viper TA (1:33.62).

Before you press play and enjoy the 22-minute video below, there are some things we deem necessary to mention. First and foremost, the Porsche 918 Spyder can enter braking zones later and harder than the Macca. As an added bonus, the Porker can accelerate harder out of a corner, especially the low-speed type.

However, MT resident test driver Randy prefers the McLaren P1 over the Porsche 918 Spyder. Why? In his own words, the Macca feels more like a full-on hypercar: harder to tame, more savage in terms of power delivery.

In the hands of Randy Pobst, the McLaren P1 managed to do the 1/4-mile in a staggering 9.8 seconds at 148.9 mph (239.6 km/h). Even though it isn’t the fastest per lap, the British bruiser claims the title of quickest accelerating production car ever tested by MT.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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