Why the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder are the most significant cars of the last 25 years

Plug-in hybrid supercars didn’t exist before the arrival of these three hypercars, which soon became known as the Holy Trinity. What was odd was that they all arrived within months of each other in late 2013 and yet they couldn’t have been more different, both in the way they drove and in the way they deployed their mix of electric and combustion power units to propel them down the road. 

That makes it hard to decide which was the best of all, but let’s say the Porsche 918 was the cleverest and technically the most impressive. The McLaren P1, meanwhile, was the maddest of the bunch, with its heavily boosted 3.8-litre V8 engine disguised perfectly by the electric motor helping out whenever boost was building. And the LaFerrari never actually felt like it had an electric motor helping out at all; it was as if the magnificent 6.3-litre naturally aspirated V12 had actually been enlarged to 10 litres but Ferrari had forgotten to tell anyone. 

> Dream drive: McLaren P1 in the Pyrenees

But the really great thing about the Holy Trinity for me was that, despite their added complication, they were all fantastic machines to drive, and if the tech on board these pioneering supercars was to be the future of performance cars then, as far as I was concerned, you could bring it on. 

This story was first featured in the 25th anniversary edition of evo. Harry also voted for the McLaren 12C, new Mini, Pagani Zonda and Porsche Cayenne Turbo to round out his five most significant cars of the last 25 years.