Ferarri Vs McLaren: Let the battle begin.

It is the battle of the Supercars for the Super-rich – Ferrari's clunkily named LaFerrari (The Ferrari, said in a sort of name-to-end-all-discussion way) against McLaren's P1.

Both are highly exclusive F1-based cars developed for the road and available in strictly limited quantities: LaFerrari with 499 cars and P1, just 375. Exclusivity will also be limited by the cost for while the LaFerrari may have more cars for sale, they also cost almost £175,000 more than the P1s reducing their affordability to an even smaller pool of the über-wealthy. Ferrari also claims that they already have owners for most of its LaFerraris.

Both cars are petrol hybrids. With supercars like these, its not so much for eco-friendliness as it is for the instantly available, amped-up performance the lightweight electric motors give compared to the equivalent performance from a much heavier, non-hybrid petrol engine. Though, McLaren, not one to waste the benefits of an electric engine offers the P1 the ability to drive on just electric power for more than 10km in E mode which means zero emissions. When the battery runs out, the P1 switches to petrol automatically to maintain drive and recharge the battery. Besides regenerative braking, the P1 battery can also be charged via a plug-in charger that can be stored in the luggage compartment. The LaFerrari battery is charged solely via regenerative braking as well as whenever the engine produces excess torque. LaFerrari's HY-KERS doesn't have the McLaren's electric-only drive mode but Ferrari assures its environmentally-friendly buyers that it can be engineered in for customers who really want it.

While McLaren has set out to build the ultimate driver's car, Ferrari has been more forceful in their ambitions – to build the fastest, most extreme car ever made. Rather craftily Ferrari waited until McLaren had unveiled details about their vehicle before releasing theirs to ensure that their car's performance would top that of the P1. Ultimately, whatever the performance figures, until the cars are taken off the show stands and pitted against each other in a death-defying duel, numbers are just numbers.

Their Vital Statistics and a bit more: