Eyes open, brakes, massive, glowing and ceramic kick in; the seat disappears from your universe as the seat belts bite, the only things between you and the dashboard. Then, the seat is back gripping reassuringly as the McLaren drifts at impossible speed through a series of turns, the red and white of the track edge-markers a pinkish blur just centimeters away.

A snarl, a shove into the seat, the belt’s bite and we repeat the process time and again. A couple of minutes, hours perhaps later (time is compressed. Was that circuit really only 5.5 kilometers?) and at rest, a reassuringly calm voice cuts through the gentle, even purr of the mid mounted V8.

“That’s got her warm, then. Shall we go?” grins Chris Goodwin, the world-renowned Chief Test Driver for McLaren Automotive. “There’s more?” I ask. Oh yes!

The McLaren MP4-12C is a phenomenal treat for your senses. The experience of being driven (let alone driving the beast) with Chris Goodwin, was nothing less than euphoric. For the first time, I was delighted to be buckled up in the passenger seat.

Coming from Saudi Arabia, where women delight in the luxury of the backseat, MP4 engenders the realization when steering the car that you should be steering your own life.

Poets say you have to find a key to your desire, but with her (yes, it’s a she) you don't need one; keyless entry! The MP4-12C can charge from 0-200 kph in 8.9 seconds in a most unladylike way and top out at 322 kph. Massive ventilated discs produce a 100 to zero kph braking time on MacLaren specification Pirelli P Zero tires of fewer than three seconds in just 30 meters. And she does so, with utmost pleasure, steady acceleration or booming supersonic fury; you choose!

Pushing the MP4 on the Yas track in Abu Dhabi is not a simple task, although Goodwin makes it seem deceptively easy and normal. He lives to oversee and guarantee, with his vast experience of the marque, the engineering of McLaren’s from infancy to mature perfection.

He drifted the sure-footed McLaren, swerving, jolting and redefining assumptions about speed limits for a road car around the racetrack. Goodwin is always preoccupied with speed. And when it’s not speed, it’s velocity. As he decelerated to 200 kph, he calmly observed that it is all about the way you control the car. “You should know what the car is capable of.”

If anyone should know, it is Goodwin who has been a part of Formula First Championship, Formula Renault, FIA GT Championship, Le Mans and GT Open Championship, amongst many others. In 1999, he competed in the British GT Championship with a McLaren F1 and was influential in winning the SLR GT Trophy for the Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren sports car.

On the city streets, however, the car adopts a new personality. It makes you wonder about the different shades of its personality. McLarens are engineered to win races, and with the MP4-12C, that gets emotionally deep. It wins the hearts on streets and shamelessly encourages the desire to own one.

Thundering and brutally powerful on the racetrack a few minutes ago, it transformed as we cruised on the streets of Abu Dhabi. Always in mind was the car’s power unleashed; it was reassuring to know it could outrun most things and out-brake them all. I saw what Goodwin meant about knowing its capabilities; it makes for a reassuring drive.

It is not a car to preserve in your garage for "that special occasion," but it is one to drive anytime. Take it for a cruise, or for an excursion in the deserts. McLaren was the first to bring the proposition of Formula 1 technology pretty much undiluted to a road car. The MP4-12C does so with fashionable élan.

It lacks with its simple design the extraterrestrial hard-edged “transformer” lines that many supercars are opting for lately. Mark Harrison, a senior member of the McLaren Automotive family commented: "That is not what the McLaren is about." McLaren could produce exotic or flashy designs, but each brand maintains its integrity and niche. “McLaren remains true to its body of work. They are based on Formula One technology and that is what they use their cars

for: Racing.”

It is above all a driver’s car. It is not here to please celebrity-seeking minds. It is for those who want to drive a supercar that shouts superiority. For those for whom speed is their choice of drug, the MP4-12C embodies the genuine soul of McLaren with understated power, race proven technology and competition levels of performance.

To experience the power of the MP4-12C from behind the steering wheel was strangely surreal. The moment I pushed the much dreamed of start button, the adrenaline pumped, a tingle of anticipation skittered over my skin and the beast growled.

She was mine, mine, mine!

Gentle with the foot and, the gear in “drive” the car rolled off in a well-mannered glide; Goodwin’s words, “You should know what the car is capable of,” were remarkably reassuring. I had more power, grip and braking that I was capable of handling in a first drive —

I had no chance of pushing this machine anywhere near its limits. It was pushing mine, opening horizons, and I was in control!

And with such control — aircraft type instrumentation, F1 type steering wheel, ergonomically laid out to give instant fingertip control — at speed, there was no room for anything else.

After driving the beautiful tamed beast, I understood entirely. Every head turned, cars slowed and stopped to gaze at the MP4-12C. That in itself was a moment to savor.

After the roaring and rather rewarding encounter with the she-car, my SUV just doesn’t feel the same. I have been spoiled!