Video: McLaren P1 LM v NIO EP9

25th April 2020

Ben Miles

The McLaren P1 LM and the NIO EP9 are the two fastest road-legal cars we’ve ever had up the Hill at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard. Sure both did it on slicks (hence they are in the main shootout, and not the supercar shootout).

But they both did their thing in incredibly different ways. The P1 LM is a McLaren P1 GTR that’s been converted for road use by Lanzante, and then had a few more performance tweaks made. It’s powered by a big, old-school, V8 petrol engine. The NIO EP9 is a radically different car, built, like the P1 GTR, really more for the track than the road, but this time pushed along by electric power rather than petrol.

They delivery their performance very differently, the NIO has a lot of aero and looks planted, although Peter Dumbreck is clearly hustling hard. The P1 LM looks more reliant on mechanical knowhow, slightly fidgety at times, but sounding amazing. They both set incredibly fast times, and we know that the NIO’s 44.6 seconds was faster in the end. But that’s not the question we’re asking. We really want to know which run got your heart pumping more? Mighty V8 power or spin-tingling electric force?