Introduction: Big Mac with The Lot
Our long-term fleet gains the doors of a billionaire… and 530kW
Say hello to the most thrilling long termer in MOTOR history – the McLaren 720S. Woking’s Super Series darling has joined our fleet of cars, but don’t think we’ll be giving the supercar kiddie-glove treatment. We intend to treat the 530kW/770Nm, half-million dollar beast like we would any other long-termer. Big drives, daily use, spirited excursions, it’s all part of the remit.
The 720S sits in an interesting place in McLaren’s line-up. It is, and will remain for the time being, the most powerful series production car you can buy from the British brand. Limited-run specials like the Longtails, Senna and Speedtail will sit above it, while the electrified V6 Artura will sit ever so slightly below when it finally arrives. Other than the grand touring GT, that’s it for McLaren’s rationalised line-up.
First revealed in 2017 the supercar game has moved on significantly since the 720S first peeked its sunken eye sockets beyond the curtain at the Geneva Motor Show. Can it stack up against its more modern supercar rivals in 2022?
It certainly fills the brief in terms of monetary exclusivity. McLaren are more than happy to tell us exactly what options are fitted to our test car – but remain strangely coy about the exact price of fitting them to the car. Our best guide is that the dealer box-ticking would come in around $200,000. That’s on top of the $489,900 sticker and on-roads. Though, if you must ask what the cost of the options are, it’s fair to say they don’t fall within your budget.
For the curious, ‘our’ McLaren comes fitted with the Performance Plus Pack, nine separate exterior carbon-fibre items (which will set you back roughly $100,000 alone), sports exhaust, soft close doors, diamond cut wheels, carbon-ceramic brakes, tyre pressure monitoring system, 360-degree parking camera, front nose lift, and a printed owner’s manual.
I share this in the name of transparency, but it’d be reductionist to focus on the deep fiduciary well that is McLaren Special Operations extras that are nice-to-haves on top of the 720S stunning core ability.
Of the options fitted, it’s only the nose lift that we’d recommend be a mandatory addition. There’s substantial front overhang on the 720S and without it most urban driveways would be inaccessible unless you wanted finely grated carbon fibre left on the street. My nerves barely survived a tour of an underground carpark underneath my local grocer.
Despite all the pretence and potency contained beneath its skin, the 720S is remarkably approachable day-to-day if you avoid tight parking caverns. You sit quite far forward, giving you the sensation of being strapped into the front cabin of an alien spaceship. We aren’t going to lie to you and claim the interior of the 720S is spacious, but McLaren has been clever with the space that is available.
There are two useable cup holders, a tray for your phone, wallet, and keys (that can contain these items even under heavy acceleration loads), an appropriately sized centre console, two additional hidden compartments in the doors, and a fairly large parcel shelf behind the seats. That’s not including the surprisingly deep front luggage area totalling 150 litres – or to give some real-world context, enough space for two people’s carry-on luggage. Nice, but a GT this is not. McLaren still offers the imaginatively named GT for those wanting touring ability.
The biggest quirk-turned-gripe that has appeared on the daily commute is pedal placement, which caters heavily to left-foot braking on track. My size 11 feet mean that with certain shoes when I have my left foot placed on the rest plate to the far side of the footwell I can only have part of my right foot on the brake pedal. To get proper coverage of the brake I need to pull my left foot back to me and place it flat on the floor to allow enough space for my right foot. Adapt to a two-foot driving style and this issue withers away.
So far the most surprising element to the 720S has been just how damn well it rides. The hydraulically interlinked dampers allow McLaren to design the car without anti-roll bars, meaning each wheel deals with bumps and imperfections entirely independently. A drive in Affat’s Kona N drove home exactly how well judged the ride quality of the McLaren is – this is a high-end supercar with mind-warping levels of performance and body control that’d make Porsche engineers intrigued, while still riding better than some family-focused SUVs. Though to get the best out of the system you need to activate it by pressing a centre console-mounted button. Without doing so feels like the car is riding on house bricks instead of actual springs.
That is just one small part of the slightly lengthy start up process for the McLaren. It goes something like this. Foot on brake, press start, wait for engine to properly fire, activate suspension and powertrain modes, raise nose for driveway, select drive, release handbrake, and then you are good to roll. You feel like an astronaut completing pre-flight checks as you flick switches spread around the cabin, waiting for the appropriate chimes and dings to confirm that everything is cleared for launch.
When you do hit the open road, the McLaren provides you with a comprehensive rewiring of what you thought possible. Even initial interactions with the 4.0-litre twin-turbo flat-plane crank V8 – codename M840T – is enough to make you abundantly aware of the unit’s tarmac-ripping potential. Even in its tamest settings, throttle response and progression is sharp, the car happy to leap forward on your command. Press toward the firewall, and you need to have your wits about you – 530kW and 770Nm is fed through an open differential to the rear wheels exclusively.
Under heavy acceleration, the 720S will squirm and shake at the rear before transposing everything ahead of you much, much closer at a rapid rate. Stay tuned next month for a deeper dynamic inspection, but already the price you pay for all that power is abundantly clear. The M840T doesn’t so much drink fuel as chug it, just peep our fuel figures as proof.
Genuine and nuanced impressions of the McLaren’s nature can be hard to parse from its outrageous extremes. The 720S is a case study in shock and awe. From its visual presence to its power delivery, Woking’s creation asserts its dominance with an overwhelming sensory overload. Weather the initial barrage though, and the intricate layers of complexity begin to be revealed.
Criticism of the 720S that claim it to be characterless are muddied and short sighted. It’s early days, but the 720S is as defining of the supercar genre in 2022 as it was when it arrived five years ago. In our next instalment the leash is removed and the 720S is given room to truly stretch its legs. – CK
Things we love:
- Compliant ride
- X Factor
- It’s ‘ours’
Things we rue:
- Heavy fuel use
- Pedal placement
- Front overhang
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Keyword: Living with the McLaren 720S