McLaren's Spider could be the best car in the world Lately, McLaren - under its driven, monomaniacal leader Ron Dennis - has branched out into making limited numbers of high-performance sports cars. Last year, we got our first enrapturing taste of the MP4-12C coupé which, at £176,000, gave the Ferrari Italia 458 a real run for its money. Now (having abandoned the cumbersome MP4 bit) here is the convertible Spider version of the same car. And it simply, gloriously, blows the opposition away like leaves. Costing £19,000 more, the Spider has the same scissor doors as the coupé, is built on the same carbon-fibre monocell chassis, and shares the same twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8 engine (the output of which has now been increased to more than 610bhp). Mechanisms for lifting, folding and storing the retractable hardtop add 40kg to the weight of the Spider, but that makes about as much difference to this car as carrying jockey Tom Queally at Frankel's speed to the finishing post. Three seconds for 0-60 mph acceleration and six to reach 100mph is close to sports-bike performance, yet a learner could pootle gently and safely to the shops in the Spider, so docile and manageable are its powers. This extraordinary combination of qualities was apparent even when the Spider was let loose on the hairpins of the mountain road to Ronda and - under the reassuring direction of pro driver Euan Hankey - on the nerve-rackingly demanding 5.42km Ascari race circuit. Howling, boiling bursts of energy can be directed with the precision of a go-kart, yet the ride remains almost as comfortable as a Ford Focus. The MP4-12C coupé was criticised by some correspondents for "lacking emotion" - which is as witless a way to talk about a car as it is to discuss its "DNA." Cars don't have DNA, children, any more than they have emotions. They are capable, however, of stirring emotions, and that is what makes the McLaren 12C Spider worth every penny of its £195,000. Along with millions of Britons, I did feel a rare sense of pride in my country during the Olympics. Driving the Spider gave me another charge of the same feeling. With the McLaren, however, I am pretty sure that the emotion will last.