Just how big an influence does the country a car is developed in make on what it's like to drive? Less so now that even the Americans feel duty bound to benchmark their domestic product at the bloody Nurburgring. But it still matters.
Essential car park testing regime makes it count
Traditionally we'd have said this was a plus point for British manufacturers, our narrow, twisty, bumpy and speed restricted rural roads resulting in cars that make a virtue of being nimble, supple and fun to drive at realistic speeds.
From small volume sports car builders to mainstream manufacturers like Jaguar Land Rover, the classic British shakedown has real value. Especially in comparison with the Germans, obsessed as they stereotypically are with Autobahn (over) gearing and tied-down Nordschleife damper settings.
Bit different when it comes to supercars though. And a specific issue for McLaren in its rivalry with Ferrari.
Not a bad proving ground, as they go
A short drive from Maranello is one of those roads that really shows up strengths and weaknesses in a car's chassis and set-up. It's bumpy, climbs the steep side of a valley with hairpin after hairpin before opening out into fast straights and corners at the top. Seemingly well known to visiting hacks you'll have seen many a Ferrari photographed and videoed here. Often sideways and laying down thick number 11s on the tarmac. Going by my time there on the
488 GTB
launch it's also a favourite of the Ferrari test drivers. Who do much the same, I'm assuming on a frequent basis. Do the locals seem bothered? Beyond a bit of misty-eyed national pride at seeing fully lit 488 and F12 M mules giving it the beans on the public road seemingly not.
Stereotypes apart this has to be a unique competitive advantage for Ferrari compared with McLaren. If the 488 project chief wants to test a new damper setting or ESP calibration in flat-out road conditions he can just chuck the keys to the nearest test driver, send him off and in a couple of hours he'll have his results. The benefits of this are obvious behind the wheel of any modern Ferrari.
How can his opposite number at McLaren rival that? Just how would the residents of Surrey react if Chris Goodwin and his team regularly laid rubber down on Box Hill and weaved between other traffic and cyclists in camo'd 675LTs at 120mph? By giving them a thumbs up for demonstrating British engineering prowess in action?
Box Hill here we come ... oh
Sure, McLaren can use any number of airfields, race tracks or test circuits. And, huge credit to them, there are no glaring deficiencies in the way McLarens drive on road or track. Far from it. But nailing those final few percentages of the set-up will involve time, expense and faff the Ferrari engineers simply don't have to contend with.
Same with Porsche. I'll forgive Wolfgang Hatz a bit of poetic licence when he says he does 300km/h every day on his way to work. But the point is, if he wanted to, he probably could find a quiet bit of Autobahn on the way home and find out how his latest prototype works in extremis. Not quite the same as Ferrari's local back roads. But better than Bruntingthorpe.
I'm not saying giving McLaren test drivers special dispensation to rag around Surrey back roads at maximum attack is necessarily a good idea. But as long as their equivalents in Maranello get the opportunity to the same on their local roads that has to hand an advantage to the Italians. What then, F1 style testing restrictions for supercar makers? Might spice things up a bit.
Spy photos: S. Baldauf/SB-Medien
