THE MCLAREN 720S
Do Supercars get any better than this?
Supercars with massive power and big speeds are no longer exceptional. We no longer baulk at 700 bhp+ or 0-60mph times of sub 4.0 seconds. This is simply the level to which the supercar bar has lifted. It is all irrelevant to everyday driving of course (or at least it should be) – yet the power and performance bands forever continue to rise. It is of course remarkable that this very latest McLaren 720S powered by a twin turbo charged 4.0 litre V8 engine, hits the 0-60mph benchmark in 2.8 secs, churns out 720bhp and tops 212mph. At about £230,000, you could buy a Lamborghini Huracán Performante or Ferrari 488 GTB for both similar money and similar performance, so why opt for the McLaren?
We say from the outset that this is not an argument over which of the three is best, but rather an attempt to show that in choosing the 720S, you have opted for ‘The McLaren Way’ of interpreting how a supercar should perform. We contend that the 720S is McLaren’s stroke of genius as a genuine supercar, that can equally double up for everyday use. In our view it is their ‘product of choice’ if you want maximum value for money and pound for pound enjoyment of everyday motoring. In that regard, it is a stroke of genius. The ride quality at all speeds, even on bumpy roads, is exceptional for a car with this level of performance; it is also remarkably easy to drive at ‘normal’ road legal speeds, and when you want to drive this car hard and serious it delivers in droves. We call it the ‘McLaren Sweet Spot’ car.
To the uninformed eye, in similar fashion to say a Porsche 911, visual design features of various models is a matter of subtlety rather than distinction. A car buff will know a 720S; Joe Public will just see it as a McLaren. Either way the 720S is a striking looking car. Its gull-wing doors make ease of entry a doddle, and when that door closes the cabin feels airy and roomy with surprising headroom, even for six footers like me. It is then just a matter of pressing the red starter button in the centre console and you are reminded of the feel of 720bhp combined with some 56 years of racing pedigree.
Refined aerodynamics.
Big Performance
Yet it is not at all daunting, far from it, for the throttle simply responds to your command, no more, no less, yet that demand can run deep, and after flicking up through a couple of the paddle shift gears with attitude, it is time to reckon with the fact that the McLaren 720S is one of the fastest cars on the planet and one must apply a little self-discipline to exploring its performance. It’s just a warning, take your time, because this is big performance, and I mean Big.
Yes, you can doddle around town with the semi-auto box set in standard drive and the suspension at its softest. It’s as easy to drive as any standard family saloon. If you’re modest, forget it, because mobile phone cameras will be clicking away from roadside audiences and so many people will be peeking into your cabin with a subtle eye pretending not to look just in case you had an overinflated view of your own self-importance. If you are genuinely modest, you will take the attention for granted and appreciate just how good this car is at, well, ‘ordinary driving’.
Yet that is but only one quarter of your McLaren 720S driving experience. The bulk of the pleasure lies in why you bought it in the first place, and that is to drive ‘fast’ and of course and when you do, I can assure you, you’ll be hooked! It is less about the sheer speed this car can achieve, and more about the way it executes the application of speed that impresses most. It is in this area that you look into the skies and thank the powers that be that you are lucky enough to be the owner of such a car as its capability is incredible. Let’s explore it a little……….
A well sorted car should never feel daunting to drive. It should give you enough confidence to explore the chassis and grip incrementally, and be predictable enough to say ‘hey, are you ready to take this further?’ If you are, there are no surprises when you up the ante other than the smile on your face when the grip and sheer tenacity of the thing starts to show. What is reassuring is that at hyper speeds the 720S feels incredibly safe; again, much of it down to the McLaren racing heritage and know how, thus feeding your confidence. Best to find your favourite twisty B-road on a quiet evening, somewhere remote, with lots of vision, cambers, straights and bends, even if you have to travel a few hundred miles for the pleasure of it, drive it hard and safe and I guarantee you that you will get home with the biggest smile on your face. It will rejuvenate your relationship coming home that happy. Here’s why……
The Mclaren Way
Under hard acceleration the 720S is absolutely planted, its mid-engine set up and balance makes for excellent high-speed cornering where the chassis is playing just as much a part as the tyres in defying nature on the bends. Get braver on your approach into the bend and it becomes a matter of scrubbing off serious speed, which the carbon ceramics do in a whisper as the air brake to the rear rises to the occasion for which the 720S was built. Work those rear tyres with an incremental firm throttle out of the bend and fast forward the brain quickly to prepare for the next corner to corner sprint, the gap between the two shortened in no time by the sheer power and torque of the 720S, and the instant, flick, flick, flick, up through the steering-mounted paddle shift, changing gear at a speed that even the most practised manual gear shifter could never hope to match. In terms of sheer point to point speed, you can’t argue with it.
The whole combination is just soooo fast, so precision-like, so well sorted, authoritative, competent. You’d be a fool to crash it; there is no need. This car is so communicative to its driver that to get it badly wrong you are either not listening to it or simply ran out of talent. Let’s hope that never happens, for it would destroy your next occasion of pure joy. You’ve guessed it. We love it, but not out of supercar romanticism, rather it has genuinely earned our admiration.