Awesome performance, ride and handling; track telemetry tech
Expensive options; polarising aesthetics
Prod the start button in the McLaren 720S and settle back for some automotive theatre. The carbon fibre pod in front of your eyes pivots through 90 degrees to reveal a cluster of digital instruments. In the centre, a portrait-style infotainment system comes to life as your shoulders vibrate to the launch cycle of the 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8. Then an angry bark from two exhausts, mounted waist-high at the rear, signals the start of play. It’s a performance not even the rival Ferrari 488 GTB can match. Read more: Meet McLaren's latest supercar: the 720S with 'Magic Carpet Ride' suspension
Talk to McLaren insiders today and they’ll admit they underestimated the importance of such theatrics when they launched their first production car, the bafflingly-named MP4-12C, in 2011. Back then, McLaren was determined to best Ferrari’s heritage and passion with engineering efficiency. But talk of class-leading downforce at 150mph missed the point that supercars need to feel super in the showroom.
For the 720S, the need for histrionics was further compounded by a problem of McLaren’s own making. The company already makes a critically acclaimed, 200mph mid-engined supercar called the 570S, which sells for £143,250. The 720S starts at £208,600. “When a customer walks into a showroom and sees both cars, we had to give them a reason to gravitate to the 720S,” vehicle line director Haydn Baker, told WIRED. “Given how fast the 570 is, that appeal had to be about more than pure performance.”
The most obvious differentiator was the styling. While most manufacturers develop a family of aesthetically similar cars – think Audi, BMW and Mercedes – the 720 and 570 are dramatically different. Of the two, the 720S is the more "Marmite". Where you might expect to find conventional headlights are two gaping "eye sockets", designed to help channel air to the radiators. Even McLaren’s signature "tick" daytime running lights have been jettisoned to differentiate the pricier car.
“We wanted to make a statement with the headlights,” says Baker, “and we also wanted the sides of the car to be as clean as possible.” The 570’s side air scoops, used to cool the engine, have been replaced by a channel running along the top of the bodywork (where it meets the window glass) and a more discreet intake low down behind the door.
McLaren’s signature airbrake, which can fully deploy in just 0.5sec is also present and correct. The engineers claim the 720S is twice as aerodynamically efficient – defined by the ratio between undesirable drag and desirable downforce – as the 650 model it replaces.
The 720 in the name identifies the horsepower (PS) produced by the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, which usurps the 3.8-litre engine in the 650. Peak power of 720PS is a 70PS increase on the 650, and is 50 horses more than you’ll find in the Ferrari’s stable. Maximum torque is 770Nm versus 760 for the Italian. By any standards, this is an outrageously rapid car. McLaren claims 0-60mph in 2.8sec, 0-124mph (200km/h) in 7.8sec and a 212mph top speed.
WIRED drove the car on public roads around Rome as well as on nearby the Vallelunga Circuit. It might sound strange to say, but on the road it’s almost too rapid. Full throttle delivers acceleration so brutal that within moments you’ll either be staring at the derriere of another car, or risking a night at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Or both.
Harnessing all this thrust is a development of McLaren’s active suspension system, now known as Proactive Chassis Control II. This uses hydraulically interlinked and electronically controlled dampers at each corner of the car. An army of sensors – McLaren has added 12 more compared with the 650S – analyse the suspension movements and react in two milliseconds. There are three settings – comfort, sport and track – for both the suspension and the transmission, the latter adjusting both the response time of the seven-speed, dual-clutch paddle-shift gearbox and the throttle response.
On the rough roads that seem to characterise modern Italy, the 720S’s ride quality is nothing less than superb. The days when a sports car was defined by its ability to jar your spine are long gone. This is a comfortable long-distance car, helped by a supercar cockpit you can see out of. The electro-hydraulic steering is beautifully weighted and rapid without ever feeling nervous. You never forget that you’re in something special, but it’s not intimidating to drive.
It’s a feeling that continues when you hit the track, as McLaren expects many of its customers to do. There’s no end of electronic trickery to keep the less experienced on the circuit and out of the gravel trap. This includes a new Variable Drift Control function, which allows you to manually select had much the computer will let you to slide the rear of the car (oversteer) before the safety systems intervene. The name is a misnomer – it’s actually a variable stability control system.
With all the systems on, the car is as a failsafe as a 720PS car has any right to be, and the carbon-ceramic brakes are stupendous. Detune the electronic aids, though, and the 720S comes alive. As you’ll see from the onboard video of WIRED driving (below), it’s relatively easy to push this 212mph supercar. By playing with the throttle, you can adjust the balance of the car and encourage the rear to rotate, helping the car turn. Power out and the rear-end will slide at will. It’ll take practice to perfect, but this is surely the point of paying north of £200k for a supercar.
The 720S also debuts McLaren’s new Track Telemetry system (a £3,480 optional extra) uses GPS, three cameras and a series of sensors (including throttle angle and lateral/longitudinal G-force) to record circuit lap data. Drivers can review the data and compare different laps using the central infotainment screen or download it for analysis later. As a tool for improving driver performance (and showing off to your friends), it’s superb. Here’s the video of WIRED in action, captured using only the McLaren’s three onboard cameras.
There’s so much to like about this car and on so many levels. The dihedral doors which cut into the revised carbon fibre chassis (Monocage II) are an homage to the original McLaren F1 road car and actually aid access to the cabin. The dashboard, which rotates again in track mode to reveal a simplified rev counter, shows a sense of humour and there’s now marginally more luggage space than before (360 litres in total).
What’s not to like? Well, if you’re tall, you’ll find that you sit too high, even with the seat on its lowest setting. The infotainment system is fiddly to operate on the move and won’t support either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto – car manufacturers, even small-volume operators such as McLaren, continue to maintain that they are better at developing such systems than Silicon Valley. Desirable options such as the sports exhaust (£4,750), a nose-lift system (a must in the UK and £2,070) can also send the price spiralling. WIRED's test car cost £257,090, for example, although this is a criticism that can equally be applied to Ferrari.
That said, it’s hard to believe sometimes that as a proper car company, McLaren Automotive is just seven years old. This year it will sell over four thousand cars and now poses as a genuine rival to Ferrari and Lamborghini. The 720S is proof of the company’s new-found maturity. It not only successfully distances itself from the 570, it also threatens the supremacy of the seminal Ferrari 488GTB. There can be no higher compliment.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
