Two-wheeled colleagues over at CAR’s sister newspaper MCN made a good spot at the weekend: the new McLaren MP4-12C supercar, seen in their short video clip below.
They were returning from the Le Mans Classic in a Merc CL500 when they stopped at a service station on the French autoroute to stock up on Evian and baguettes. There next to them was this black 12C prototype.
‘We were heading back from the Le Mans Classic at the weekend and saw prototype XP11,’ said Andy Downes. ‘The back of the car was covered in temperature reading stickers and according to the driver they had just done a four-day test in Granada and were heading home.’
Andy managed to rattle off this iPhone video as the Macca pulled away from the service station.
Did they set chase in the CL500?
Sadly the MP4-12C wasn’t to be seen again. It didn’t help that the Merc driven by Andy’s biking friends then broke down on the ferry.
‘The Merc CL500 then blew a big load of oil out of the transmission on the ferry and left me stranded at Dover,’ he says ruefully. ‘Only got to bed at 3am this morning after a five-hour wait for the RAC!’