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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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[ENGINE REVVING]
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The MP4-12C is quite simply a supercar you could live with
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every single day of the year, if you wanted to.
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It's a car with heated seats and dual climate control.
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And, to be honest with you, the ride
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comfort of a Rolls Royce.
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But that last bit's a lie, because the last Roller I rode
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in didn't ride as well as this supercar.
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But it's also a car with an automatic gearbox and such
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good forward visibility, you sometimes wonder if you could
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see your own feet.
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But should people drive supercars every day?
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I mean, don't they lose something when they become
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comfortable and sanitized?
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In being so technically capable, is the MP4-12C
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actually less effective as something to sort of rattle
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your undergarments when you go for an
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occasional drive on a Sunday?
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Because that's what you do in a supercar.
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Come to think of it, does the world
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actually need good supercars?
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Aren't they kind of defined by being a bit rubbish, noisy,
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hard to see out of, difficult to drive?
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Is the MP4-12C kind of not a supercar because it is so good
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at going slowly?
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Which it is.
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Do you know what?
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Judged by those point criteria, the MP4-12C is in no
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way a real supercar because its dihedral doors open wide
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for easy access.
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The boot is a decent size for shopping.
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And the view behind in these massive mirrors is truly
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widescreen.
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It's a wide car.
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But it's not an intimidating car to drive.
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Actually.
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I want to make one proviso there.
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It's not intimidating to drive.
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But in one respect, this car does feel like a genuine
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supercar, even at low speed.
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And it's the pedal box.
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Sounds strange, but the petals are quite heavily sprung.
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They take quite a push, and judging your
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inputs takes time.
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I'm not saying it's impossible.
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But certainly around town, you have to get used to how much
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throttle you need to make the car creep off the line.
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And you need to just remember how much
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brake pressure is required.
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Because sometimes it doesn't always correlate with what you
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think you need.
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It's not difficult.
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But it keeps you thinking.
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It's not Nissan Micra that happens to do
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200 miles an hour.
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The other thing that takes a bit of getting used to is the
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creep in first gear from stationary.
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I'm in first now.
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If I let go, the car does get going at quite a rate.
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In fact, I would say it kind of creeps like a teenage boy
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outside a girl's dormitory when he's about 14 years old.
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It's that kind of creep, you know?
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Unreassuring.
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But as I said, you get used to it.
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In the most part, for a car that can literally scare the
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bejeezus out of grown men, this car is offensively easy
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to drive at lost speed.
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[ENGINE REVVING]
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The MP4-12C to mooch around town.
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Although you could argue that in terms of disciplines, that
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was the most difficult thing it had to conquer.
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Making fast cars go slowly is not easy.
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But I'm now out on some more open roads.
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Truly the MP4-12C is not like any other car I'd ever driven.
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It is strange, fascinating, complex, brilliant,
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frustrating, all of those adjectives.
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But most of all, it's unforgettable.
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The reasons for these freakish qualities.
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Well, first of all, there's proactive chassis control.
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As you probably know, the McLaren doesn't have
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conventional springs and dampers.
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It does have supports at each corner.
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But it's hydraulically suspended.
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So effectively, there's hydraulic fluid
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linking every corner.
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So the car is suspended diagonally and sort of
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vertically.
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And it means that every single time one of the ECU spots that
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a corner of the car needs support, it can throw extra
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support, effectively extra spring rate, at that corner.
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Does mean that on the road it gives you this
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incredible flat ride.
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When I mentioned it riding better than a Rolls Royce, I
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really do mean that at this sort of speed--
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58 miles an hour on an A road-- where a 458, or a 911
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GT3 would be giggling around, this really isn't.
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It's just level and flat.
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And it makes the car incredibly soothing and
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comfortable.
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We'll come back to that in a minute.
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Because do we want our supercars to be comfortable
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and soothing?
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Personally, I do.
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Because it means that you can enjoy this
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car more of the time.
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And most of all, you can enjoy it on long journeys.
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Now, the chassis is kind of infinitely variable.
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But you can choose three settings.
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So you can either have it in normal, sport, or track mode.
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On the road, normal gives you lovely suppleness.
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Move it into sport, and you just get a
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little bit more support.
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And then move it one more time into track, and you get a very
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firm riding card, which I have to say, isn't
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necessarily for me.
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The powertrain is the same.
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It has three settings, normal, sport, and track.
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They bring about some big differences.
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So at the moment, I've got an automatic car.
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I put my foot down.
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It kicks down for me and gives me a bit of noise.
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If I go to sport mode, I then get paddle shift.
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And I also get a lot more noise.
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[ENGINE REVVING]
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This is what's interesting about this car.
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That's when it changes.
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[ENGINE REVVING]
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It's a pretty remarkable powertrain, this.
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3.8 liter, twin turbo V8, little under 600 horsepower,
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442 foot pounds of torque.
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And it's insanely fast.
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0 to 200 miles an hour in a little over six second, 205
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flat out, and so much torque.
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This is fourth gear.
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[ENGINE REVVING]
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It just pulls.
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It has seven gears.
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It needs about three gears.
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Remember how there was a geek at everyone's school who one
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day completely, without warning, left his computer
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screen, bought a bottle of vodka, and cut loose in the
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most spectacular fashion imaginable?
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Well the MP4-12C is just that character.
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Computer optimized to behave like a family hatchback when
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it needs to be house-trained.
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And then, bang, a frothing monster the moment you twiddle
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a few switches and push that long travel
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throttle into the carpet.
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What is the MP4-12C like at my home circuit, Castle Combe?
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Fast.
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That's the first word that springs to mind.
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It's the one that sticks with you a bit as well
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as you drive it.
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It's just incredibly fast.
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I've got the car in track mode now.
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Less assistance.
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Revving out seven eight.
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I mean, that's just immensely fast.
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In fact, it bears no resemblance to the thing that
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was quite happily poodling around the
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center of Bristol yesterday.
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Listen to that noise!
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The motor doesn't really feel turbo charged
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when you're up it.
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You just pull another gear, gear change into the--
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bang, snap.
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And away it goes.
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It's an animal.
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It's just so quick.
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I've got lots more support in track mode.
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To the right, it's firm.
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But the car is agile, wants to change direction.
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But there is one big change about this car over the last
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time I drove it.
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Before, you couldn't really turn the systems off.
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Now you can turn the systems off.
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And it will do this.
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But forget skidding around for a minute.
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It's only when you're barrelling into a turn like
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tower, third gear a bit too quick.
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And you feel the assistance moving around, the support
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chaining on the suspension, the traction control working.
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So much going on that you think to yourself, hang on a
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minute, this car can actually warm my ass.
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It can play beautiful music through its Meridian hi-fi.
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It can cruise through town.
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It's only when you're doing this and you try and remember
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just what can do, its breadth of ability that you realize
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just how special this car really is.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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[MUSIC PLAYING]