It’s wet, slippery and time to drive a couple of drop-top McLaren supercars!
- What have we got here?
- Into the McLaren 720S Spider
- Now for the McLaren 600LT Spider
- Long may they rain
Plans just don’t pan out some days.
Like today. Here we are sitting in a McLaren 720S Spider rolling towards some delicious Adelaide hills roads and the rain has started tumbling down.
I mean, it’s fair-dinkum cascading. The wipers are beating away on the heavily raked windscreen, the massive 305-section rear tyres are sending up plumes of spray.
We are in a 527kW twin-turbo V8-powered rear-wheel drive supercar and it’s the convertible version. Bugger.
And what could add insult to injury? Knowing a McLaren 600LT Spider parked back at McLaren’s new Adelaide showroom is waiting its turn to be stropped along these wonderful roads – these now soaked wet and frigidly cold wonderful roads.
What have we got here?
Lining these two cars up is a pretty unique opportunity. They’ve only recently lobbed in Australia, they’re as rare as hen’s teeth and as expensive as golden eggs.
They also promise extreme performance, courtesy of mid-mounted biturbo V8s, seven-speed dual-clutch gearboxes, rear-wheel drive and light weight.
How light? The McLaren 720S Spider weighs in at 1332kg and the 600LT just 1297kg. Both cars are built around versions of McLaren’s signature carbon-fibre structure with adaptive suspension units front and rear.
Performance is epic. The 720S makes 527kW and 770Nm from its 4.0-litre engine, hurtles to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds and then on to a top speed of 341km/h.
The McLaren 600LT Spider makes 441kW and 620Nm from its 3.8-litre engine, manages the same 2.9sec 0-100km/h dash as the 720S and has a slightly lower top speed of 324km/h.
What, only 324km/h? Ripped off!
Speaking of money, which we kinda were… The 600LT will set you back $496,000 before on-road costs and the 720S $556,000, making the latter the most expensive model in McLaren line-up outside the crazy Ultimate Series cars like the Senna.
Speaking of ‘series’, the 600LT comes from what’s called the Sports Series and the 720S from the Super Series. Along with the aforementioned Ultimate series there’s now a also a fourth model line emerging courtesy of the new GT model.
Into the McLaren 720S Spider
Rationally, there is just no way to justify shelling out more than half a million bucks for a motor car. There’s probably no way to justify spending more than $40,000, for that matter.
But once you figure out how to open those funky dihedral doors, clamber in to the 720S over those side sills – no easy task in itself – and make yourself comfortable, rationality starts to sink into the sunset.
From cool little touches like the way the speedo rotates out of view in track mode, leaving you with just the bare information essentials, to the big deals like traction, grip, steering feel and sheer acceleration, the 720S delivers an all-enveloping experience.
Here it is, streaming wet and slippery and there’s just no incentive to push this thing at all hard. And yet, it feels so secure, communicative and responsive it’s impossible not to exploit what’s happening here.
McLarens still use hydraulic steering (with electric assistance) and it’s easy to understand why, such is the accuracy and responsiveness of the system. It feels natural, it feels right and it is a potent reminder of why pure electric systems can still fall short.
Even more than the engine, the steering is what sticks in the memory, which is saying something because this thing has mega thrust.
In the streaming wet the traction control system must have been working overtime to control torque loads, but unless the throttle was stupidly provoked it was impossible to detect. The engine spun with a lightness that belied its ferocity, without hitches or steps in its delivery.
Incredibly, the McLaren 720S can also be something of a gentle giant. Use the ‘active dynamics panel’ to dial back the hydraulically interlinked adaptive dampers to Comfort and the 720S is actually quite friendly to ride in. In automatic mode the gearbox is smooth and the throttle docile.
You could even call the 720S livable. Except it’s a two-door, two-seat convertible with negligible storage or luggage room, graunches on any driveway you don’t raise the nose over and would be terrifying to commute in with its limited visibility and all those SUVs towering over the top of it.
Apart from that, all good.
Now for the McLaren 600LT Spider
The LT doesn’t even pretend to be user-friendly. It’s brutal from the moment you sit in the buttock-squeezing one-piece seat. It’s manual adjust too – cop that for your 500K!
Of course, the ‘LT’ designation has already given the game away. It stands for longtail and in McLaren-speak means track-focussed. This is only the fifth McLaren longtail model, including the F1 GTR racing car of the 1990s.
So how focussed is the 600LT? Well, compared to a 570S – which is the fundamental donor car – there’s more downforce, a 10mm wider track, 8mm lower ride height, stiffer dampers and anti-roll bars (14 per cent front and 34 per cent rear) and a revised suspension geometry that uses lighter forged aluminium components.
And driving the 600LT bears all this out. Wind the dampers up in active mode and the ride is harsh. It feels like they start somewhere near where the 720S finishes.
The drivetrain vibrates obviously at low speed, is abrupt at any speed and loud – much louder than the somewhat subdued 720S.
And how good do those bazooka exhausts look poking out through the rear engine cover? They are like a couple of mortars ready to fire on enemy positions. The 600LT’s exhausts actually do spit flame too, but usually it’s only visible at night.
The McLaren 600LT Spider bangs and crackles on downchanges and spins manically way up beyond 7000rpm, valves meshing and exhausts keening. It’s a marvellous soundtrack. You can lower the rear window to hear it even better.
So on these wet roads with worn Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R semi-slicks feeling out the way, I was ready for plenty of slipping and sliding, yet it never happened. No, I wasn’t going at big speeds, but I was sure there’d at least be a twitch or a slide.
The McLaren 600LT Spider behaved itself impeccably. The rain even abated for a moment so the opportunity was grasped to run roof-down, wind ruffling the hair, engine barking and growling, water hissing off the tyres. Magic.
Long may they rain
Even in such difficult, gloomy circumstances the quality and purity of these two McLarens came shining through, as luminescent as the 600LT’s green paint job.
They have such enormous capabilities and limits and feel so personal and elemental it’s difficult to equate them back to orthodox motoring.
I can understand why people want to drive fast cars like these again and again and again. They’re an addictive automotive drug.
In a strange way the awful conditions helped underlined the sheer brilliance of these two cars rather than disguise it. They made even a wet, cold and pretty miserable Adelaide day something special.
How much is the 2019 McLaren 720S Spider? Price: $556,000 (plus on-road costs) Engine: 4.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V8 Output: 527kW/770Nm Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic Fuel: 12.2L/100km (ADR Combined) CO2: 276g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested
How much is the 2019 McLaren 600LT Spider? Price: $496,000 (plus on-road costs) Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo petrol V8 Output: 441kW/620Nm Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic Fuel: 12.2L/100km (ADR Combined) CO2: 276g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested
Keyword: McLaren 720S Spider v McLaren 600LT: Spider in the rain