MOUNTAIN HIGH

When the McLaren P1 was launched in 2013 it mesmerised with its freakish abilities. Seven years on, has time, and progress, dulled that brilliance? We find out on the twisting roads of the Pyrenees

- JETHRO BOVINGDON

NINE HUNDRED AND THREE.’ I’VE lost count of the number of times I’ve said it in the past 24 hours. There will be dozens more in the next couple of days. But for some reason right now, at a tiny Repsol station in La Molina, it dawns on me just how outrageous the McLaren P1 remains. The station is one of those strange petrol station/ café/workshop/community centre/off licences you only get in small-town Spain. When I arrived there were two people sitting outside, smoking and drinking coffee. Or maybe something stronger. Now – less than five minutes later – there must be 15 or 20 and nearly as many scooters and beaten-up SEATs crammed into the forecourt. ‘How much horsepower?’ somebody asks. ‘Nine hundred and three.’ His eyes almost pop out of his skull before his friend repeats it back, shaking his head, laughing and pointing his phone at the P1 with its door raised to the sky. I’m standing next to him doing exactly the same.