Mclaren 750S review

• Overview
• What is it?
• So what’s new for the 750S?
• Crikey. I’m expecting it to be very fast indeed then.
• I’m interested in more than speed.
• Our choice from the range
• What's the verdict?
• Ferrari 296 GTB
• Lamborghini Huracán Evo
• Porsche 911 GT3 RS
• Driving
• What is it like to drive?
• What modes have I got to play with?
• How’s the handling?
• Interior
• What is it like on the inside?
• Job done inside?
• Is it practical?
• What if I need more headroom?
• Buying
• What should I be paying?
• What do I get for my money?
• Will it break?

Overview

What is it?

Oh look, it’s another new McLaren that looks the same as the old one. Move along, nothing to see here. Right? Wrong. The new 750S replaces the 720S which arrived all the way back in 2017. McLaren says a third of its parts are new. Depending on if your glass is half-full or half-empty, you’ll decide that’s either quite a lot of new bits for what was already a class-leading supercar, or not enough tweaking considering it still looks so similar.

In fairness, most supercars tend to stick around longer than your average family hatchback. The Lamborghini Huracán has been knocking around since 2013 and is currently on its second mid-life facelift. Which is more than Simon Cowell. The Ferrari F8 is a renosed 488 GTB. And that was basically a turbocharged 458 Italia.

So what’s new for the 750S?

A longer front splitter, Artura-style vents atop the front wheelarch, lighter alloy wheels designs, and a bigger intake in the car’s lower flank to help cool a more powerful twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8. It’s up from the 720S’s 711bhp to 740bhp (it’s a lot less confusing if you just stick to metric horsepower measurements).

That means that behind its meshier rear, under that larger (yet lighter) 765LT-esque airbrake, you find an engine producing about three more horsepower than the cousin in the McLaren P1. Wondered what a P1 would’ve been like without all the hybrid gubbins and battery ballast? Here you go. Did I mention the 750S is about 100kg lighter than a P1 too?

Crikey. I’m expecting it to be very fast indeed then.

Hah! Wrong! It’s slower than the 720S. Seriously. McLaren has been busy adding downforce and shortening the final drive ratio, so the new car punches through the seven gears even more ferociously. The net result is the top speed drops from 212 to ‘just’ 206mph. Boo-hoo. But it’ll get from 0-186mph like a hypercar, which makes the quarter-million quid 750S a bargain. If speed alone is all you’re interested in.

I’m interested in more than speed.

Good, us too. But actually, it wasn’t the way the 720S looked, or went, or handled that really needed an overhaul. So alongside the extra frisson of pace and sharper aero, what McLaren’s tried to do here is make the 750S easier to build, more expensively finished, and easier to live with. McLarens are always set up with more ergonomic common sense than a Swiss chiropractor. They all offer so much visibility you can see into the future and a boot deeper than Mary Poppins’ weekend bag.

But owners who want to use them every day have been frustrated by the cars’ dodgy phone signal, naff radio reception and electrical glitches, not to mention concerns over the general fit and finish. The company insists this crucial attention to detail is now top priority, so the 750S should be as delightful to own as it is to drive.

Our choice from the range

MCLAREN

V8 2dr SSG Auto

£269,160

Take a quick look at the 750S and not much is new. Peer at it for longer and you notice most of the panels are changed. It’s the same story with driving it. If you’re not paying attention, it’s a quicker 720S. But if you concentrate, the mass of detail tweaks mounts up into one of the most complete supercars ever created. No car with 750 horsepower has any right to be so approachable. So useable. A daily-driver? Sure.

The difference with the 750S is that the interior won’t spoil that fantasy. The engine might still suffer from lag but the touchscreen no longer needs more thinking time than the person in front of you at the coffee shop. It hooks up with your iPhone and plays your tunes obediently. The nose lift no longer operates in geological time. These aren’t sexy, bedroom wall-worthy features. But they will give a 750S a fighting chance of being chosen over a 911 Turbo S for the morning commute.

It’s actually a curious mix, the 750S. In an increasingly electrified world this sledgehammer turbo V8 missile is a bit of a dinosaur. But its styling is still spaceship, the performance more than you could ever hope to need, and the cabin’s finally caught up with the times. So it’s charmingly old school and at the cutting edge of what’s possible all at the same time. And that’s a rare blend – one that keeps the 750S right up there among the very best.

Ferrari 296 GTB

Lamborghini Huracán Evo

Porsche 911 GT3 RS

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Driving

Driving

What is it like to drive?

Nothing unfamiliar about starting the 750S if you knew the 720 – it still wants a firm squeeze on the brake pedal and a prod of the central starter button. The V8 blares into its usual impatient, bassy idle that sounds like a Lancaster bomber taxiing down a runway. With a crisp click from the paddles behind the (still button-free) steering wheel, you’re underway.

The 720S was always a weirdly comfortable car at low speeds and if anything the 750S feels even more pillowy, though that might be more to do with the fact we were surprised how tautly the new Artura hybrid has been suspended. If you want the archetypical McLaren ‘magic carpet’, you’ll find it here.

Springs are two per cent stiffer up front and three per cent softer at the back, changes which reinforce McLaren’s tightrope with this car: try to improve on the 720S but don’t muck it up. The changes are supposed to make the car more agile, playful and neutral at track speeds.

To enjoy that you’ll need a mode switch, and the 750S borrows the Artura’s rocker selectors framing the instrument hood. They look a bit awkward at first but having your eyes forward and hands on the wheel while dialling up the 750’s temper is a good thing.

What modes have I got to play with?

Same as before: there are Comfort, Sport and Track settings for the powertrain (engine and gearbox) and suspension. The steering weight is gloriously unaffected, and you can water down or disable the ESC independently.

Best of all, keeping your favourite combo handy is less fiddly than before. It’s all stored in the ‘McLaren Control Launcher’ button on the dashboard. That’s the one with a Kiwi bird on it, nodding to New Zealander Bruce McLaren’s homeland. So, poke the ‘speedy kiwi’ and you’re good to go. That’s never been said in a car review before.

In Sport mode there’s a lot more bang, crackle and pop from the 2.2kg lighter stainless steel exhaust, and theatrical surges on each upshift. If this becomes tedious, and at times it’s a bit OTT, then select Track mode for ruthless, gimmick-free acceleration.

McLaren’s twin-clutch gearbox remains seamlessly smooth (it’ll now accept redline downshifts if you’re a bit keen into a braking zone) and the engine is an absolute power tower. There’s torque everywhere, so if you arrive at a second-gear hairpin quicker than your brain can fathom, you can surf through in fourth and still have the wind knocked out of you on the exit.

We bet you won’t miss having the instant whack of electric boost. Petrol alone does just fine here on its own. Climb in wearing a crumpled shirt and the acceleration will have it ironed flat by the time you arrive at the office.

Might be a tad damp, mind you.

How’s the handling?

Still freakishly approachable. A supercar sending 750PS through its rear axle alone, with twin-turbo torque to boot, should be more of a handful than juggling flaming hedgehogs (don’t, it’s cruel). But the feedback of the 750S’s hydraulic steering (a quicker rack now, but still far less hyperactive than a Ferrari) and its balance means that even when you reach the outer limits of its colossal grip reserves, you know what’s going to happen, and can react to it.

Plan for it. Even induce a bit of misbehaviour. Because a 750S wants you to have fun, not just pursue lap times, or to terrify you into submission. There’s a touch of Lotusness to it – a delicacy of response that shouldn’t be possible when the numbers are this huge. And yet, in a fast sweeping bend, you can attack the inside kerb, trust the downforce, and gurn as the G-forces head into fighter pilot territory. For your average mere mortal driver, it’s not night-and-day better than a 720S. But it didn’t need to be.

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Overview

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Interior

Interior

What is it like on the inside?

So besides the Speedy Kiwi and the cheery primary colour palette of Apple CarPlay, what’s new inside the 750S? In truth, not a whole lot. Shifting the mode rockers up onto the instrument screen has meant the loss of the folding binnacle Track mode Easter egg from the 720S, which is a bit of a pity, but apparently this has saved a bit of weight and also helped refinement inside – i.e. there are fewer moving parts to rattle.

Interior fit and finish in the two coupes and Spider we’ve tested so far was strong. The materials look and feel well chosen and the switchgear has a tactility entirely absent from Ferrari’s infuriating haptic non-buttons. Heck, it’s easier to adjust the Bowers & Wilkins volume than in a Golf.

The 8.0-inch touchscreen reacts faster to a quick scroll through the menus than the bug-infested old system, and McLaren says it’s upgraded the radio aerial and Bluetooth module so you’ll be able to listen to the football without missing this weekend’s VAR meltdown, and your friends won’t ask why you’ve locked yourself in a filing cabinet when they answer your call.

Job done inside?

Flaws remain. The controls for the electric seats are still mounted on the front of the chair, so you need a third wrist and a masters degree in 4D chess to adjust the backrest. The cupholder is a tight fit, storage behind the transmission controls is harder to reach than the last Pringle in the tube and the armrest lid mechanism still feels like a 4.59pm Friday afternoon job.

Worse still, the cubbyhole underneath isn’t really big enough for a smartphone when it’s plugged into the cable you need to use CarPlay. D’oh.

But visibility remains peerless (even in the Spider thanks to its beautiful glass buttresses), the comfort seats do what they say on the tin, and the P1-esque sports seats are a such fabulous semi-reclined fit you’ll have to be a real weight-saving sadist to demand the slimline Senna-style race-chairs are fitted.

Is it practical?

Much more than you might expect for a mid-engined supercar. The boot (under the nose, with no annoying secondary latch on the bonnet) is incredibly deep and offers 150 litres of cargo space. You can also store 58 litres-worth of stuff on the shelf above the engine, but that space is better kept clear so you can enjoy the amazing glassy visibility and option the engine room porthole, showcasing the 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8.

What if I need more headroom?

Try the Spider. For an extra £24,400 McLaren will fit your 750S with a two-piece retractable hard-top that motors away in 11 seconds at up to 31mph. It’s a quiet mechanism, and because the 750S carbon tub is monumentally stiff, the car needs no extra bracing. As a result, it’s only 49kg heavier than the Coupe. Not a penalty that 750 horsepower notices, that.

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Driving

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Buying

Buying

What should I be paying?

In the realm of brand-new supercars, the 750S is stonking value for money. The 720S brought hypercar performance to the two-hundred grand market, and even in 2023 it’s very tough to go faster for less. Ferrari’s base price for an 800bhp 296 GTB is over £10k more and Ferrari won’t build it this century unless you dabble deep in the ferociously pricey options list.

Naturally, you can drape the 750S in carbon galore and myriad dubious paint choices via the McLaren Special Operations (MSO) division and pump its price towards £300,000, but this isn’t a car that demands accoutrement.

What do I get for my money?

Standard equipment includes dual-zone climate control, Apple CarPlay, front and rear parking sensors, a higher definition rear-view camera, DAB radio (with a strong aerial), an upgraded Bluetooth phone receiver and a much-improved nose-lift system which now goes from flat to hoisted in four seconds, instead of a yawning 10 seconds in the 750S. And you can use it when the steering wheel isn’t straight. And the button isn’t hidden behind the steering wheel any more. Common sense rules.

Will it break?

And so we come to the nub of the 750S: a car which didn’t need to be faster or handle better, but did require a reputation for better fit and finish. Speak to 720S owners and they’ll often report they loved the car, but grew weary of its soft underbelly of leaky door seals, bricked touchscreens and quality control niggles. McLaren insists it’s overhauled its processes for the 750S, removing what insiders call ‘pain points’ in its build and refining the perception of quality so it’s not trounced by a Porsche 911 at less than half the price.

All 750s are supplied with a three-year unlimited-mileage warranty that’s transferrable between owners, in an effort to shore up residual values and avoid the 720S’s newspaper-beating depreciation. You also get a three year service plan thrown in – and service intervals are a generous 10,000 miles.

McLaren will also extend your warranty as an option, in an effort to instil confidence that this car is now built with the same precision and attention to detail which makes it such a stunning drive.

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Interior

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Specs & Prices

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