We were wondering what to expect as we awaited the arrival of McLaren's latest supercar at our agreed meeting point one cool summer morning. It had just won EVO magazine's 'Car of the Year' award, but our experience of the 720S was limited to a quick (parked) viewing late last year. More than once we had read and watched journalists and professional YouTubers lament that the 720 'lacked emotion' or 'wasn't loud enough' to be classified as a real supercar like its look-at-me Lamborghini counterparts. Thus, we were expecting a sort of quiet spaceship to glide in from a side street and appear under our noses. How wrong we were...
When we spotted the Onyx Black body rolling down Ferrars Street in South Melbourne, it certainly wasn't silent - eliciting remarks from others at the cafe like "wow, is that a Ferrari?" with a car enthusiast quick to butt in with "no, it's a McLaren!" But what really makes a McLaren a McLaren, aside from its badges of course? And by extension, what makes a McLaren owner a McLaren owner?
Wouldn't you rather spend the same amount of money on a much more established brand, like Ferrari, Porsche, or Lamborghini; something that regular people who don't spend an irresponsibly large amount of time around cars (like us) will recognise? The answer may not be as clear as you'd think...
True, the McLaren name does have as much heritage and has shared in as much honour and glory as the likes of the aforementioned manufacturers. Not to mention a deeply entrenched racing pedigree to boot. But let's not forget the 720S comes from a brand essentially not ten years in age. 2010 marked McLaren Automotive's relaunch as a standalone brand, unveiling to the world the 12C (nee MP4-12C). This was McLaren's first road car since the legendary F1 in 1993. A much improved version followed, named the 650S. Just seven years later, the Surrey marque presented us with this latest supercar, a rebuild from ground up. Given the brand's relative youth, you could expect the 720S to have its fair share of bugs, rough edges, and reliability issues. Remarkably, this is seldom the case. |
It is by no means a poorly built supercar - materials feel expensive, and the fit and finish is easily on par with the rest of its class. This should not be taken for granted for a stand-alone sports car manufacturer without the financial backing of a larger parent company.
Since its 2010 relaunch, McLaren has undercut the mid-engined Ferrari of the day, an aggressive marketing technique aimed to woo customers away from the beloved Modena brand. Departing from this formula seems to be a bold move, and that's exactly what they've done with the 720S. It retails locally at $531,764, while the 488 GTB starts at $513,198.
They are actually quite similar on paper - each have a twin-turbocharged V8, each have a 7-speed gearbox, and each will turn heads wherever they go. True, the 720S has a power advantage and will beat the Ferrari around almost any track so the price hike can even be justified.
We still find it a bold move from the marketing/economics department in the Woking headquarters; it's the Ferrari customer base McLaren is looking to poach from, so the heftier price tag is quite the power play in our opinion. A bold statement to Ferrari that their once safe customer base may be under threat.
They are actually quite similar on paper - each have a twin-turbocharged V8, each have a 7-speed gearbox, and each will turn heads wherever they go. True, the 720S has a power advantage and will beat the Ferrari around almost any track so the price hike can even be justified.
We still find it a bold move from the marketing/economics department in the Woking headquarters; it's the Ferrari customer base McLaren is looking to poach from, so the heftier price tag is quite the power play in our opinion. A bold statement to Ferrari that their once safe customer base may be under threat.
Or, perhaps we are reading a little too heavily into their price points. Besides, let's face it, the Ferrari is always going to be the more popular choice, and will be into the foreseeable future. But for those after something with mind-bending performance, serious tech - both mechanical and digital - and just a different flavour of theatre, the 720S looks like the obvious choice.
Business strategies and economics aside, let's talk looks. The thing commands attention! Like few others in its segment, we'd even propose. Its styling is, in a word, polarising. Some immediately fall for it, while others just can't get it. The MCS camp was split down the middle, until we observed this one on the road for the first time last year.
We walked away unanimously in awe, and a little bit weak at the knees having witnessed one of the coolest technological marvels of the modern day. Were we schoolboys again talking about a high school crush, or grown men talking about a purposefully curated pile of atoms called the 720S? Honestly, the feeling could be attributed to either; and yes, that's a little bit concerning.
To us, this is a car that can't be admired from a poster or glossy photo in a magazine like many of its Ferrari and Lamborghini equivalents (indeed, even a collection of pixels on a website doesn't do it justice). Rather, firsthand sight and sensory experience is required to be wooed. Maybe it's ahead of its time.
While Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini are perhaps restricted in their freedom of design, the McLaren feels a little more experimental. We noticed small things, like sequential indicators front and rear, and a red light illuminating the engine bay at night which feels very Marvel (Iron Man, maybe?). McLaren often cops criticism for being too focussed on function over form - but that's what having a customer base that hasn't been built over 70 years allows you to do - take certain risks.
The exterior drips with the impression of a prototypical supercar
And risks McLaren has indeed taken. The oft-cited 'eye-sockets' where the headlights sit are an innovation that no other brand has thought to consider, allowing both functional cooling and a unique aesthetic design. The rest of the exterior drips with the impression of a prototypical supercar - sleek lines, gulping air intakes slotted into the dihedral doors, and a curvaceous rear wing that folds away neatly when you're trying to behave yourself. Make no mistake, the 720S's low slung body certainly could be mistaken for any of the other supercar manufacturers by the layman (like our friends at the cafe), but to a true car enthusiast, buying the McLaren will immediately grant you respect and appreciation for buying something that isn't (necessarily) red and Italian.
Entering the car isn't as much as a contortionist act as one might expect; the cutout in the roof above the seats means that you can virtually step into the car without ducking under a headliner. Stepping over the MonoCage II (coolest car-tech name ever?), the carbon-fibre tub that makes up the 720’s rigid structure originally found in the P1 hypercar, and dropping down into the body of the car feels like connecting your lightning cable to your iPhone – snug, and satisfying – your body feels attached to the car, it becoming an extension of your hands, feet, and backside. The driver will immediately notice that there are no buttons or knobs on the steering wheel – a trend that really took off with the Ferrari 458 back in 2010, taking direct inspiration from F1. We can’t help but feel that this is a wonderful thing and moves cars in the right direction, taking the driver’s focus away from the wheel and back towards the overall experience of the car. |
Operating the car is as simple as turning a knob or pressing a button; to change to drive, neutral or reverse, depress one of the gear ‘tabs’ on the centre console; to change driving mode, it's is as simple as twisting one or a combination of the handling and powertrain mode switches to comfort, sport, or track. It truly is a very minimal interior, with most of the settings customised through the large, central screen.
The cabin feels remarkably spacious, too; the option of glass sections above the driver's head and see-through C-pillars mean that placing the car in traffic or merging on the freeway is a piece of cake.
The driver’s display is probably the coolest feature of the car’s interior, and once again, a design risk that McLaren took that has paid off. The regular mode looks just like what you’d expect from a high end supercar – digital display, with an endless amount of data, graphs, and dials for the driver to peruse.
Having information overload? Press the little ‘display’ button on the dashboard, and the whole screen rotates down and away from the driver, revealing the top of the display with a rev counter bar, selected gear, and current speed. How very racecar. If that doesn’t make you feel like a F1 driver, then we’re fairly sure nothing will…
The 720S really shows its smarty-pants credentials in the way it can control the powertrain and the stability of the car. By navigating to the ‘Variable Drift Control’ screen (yes, drift control. Call the police or better yet, Tracy Grimshaw, this car is obviously made for hooning), the driver can tell the car how much of a drift hero they want to look before the car intervenes and saves itself and the driver from embarrassment.
A neat graphic provides a useful visualisation of how it works, and probably makes the driver think twice about overstating their driving skill - the most lenient mode is quite sideways indeed.
Here’s a cool trick to impress your friends (or scare the piston out of them, as it did to us): loud start mode. Before starting, flick the handling and powertrain knobs to their most aggressive track mode, hit the ‘Active’ button, and then start it up. If there is any unburnt fuel sitting in the system, the car will burn it off with a loud and satisfying bang.
There is no doubt that the 720S is a brilliant driver’s car, suitable for anyone who really appreciates their driving machines. But back to our original question: why would someone buy one over, say, a Ferrari 488, a Porsche 911 GT3, a Lamborghini Huracan, or even a Mercedes-AMG GT R?
The answer is obvious: someone who is willing to take risks in spending their money on something that is non-standard. What makes the car special is its technology; the way that it’s able to put down its 529kW and convert it to lateral acceleration is purely mind-bending. Remember: it exhibits P1-esque levels of performance, which was a car that re-wrote the books back in 2011 to what is capable from a road-going supercar; arguably coining the term hypercar.
The answer is obvious: someone who is willing to take risks in spending their money on something that is non-standard. What makes the car special is its technology; the way that it’s able to put down its 529kW and convert it to lateral acceleration is purely mind-bending. Remember: it exhibits P1-esque levels of performance, which was a car that re-wrote the books back in 2011 to what is capable from a road-going supercar; arguably coining the term hypercar.
In the 720S, put your foot down, and it rips apart the fabric of time in a way that would have made the late Stephen Hawking re-question physics, and makes us question how a car could be that fast (and, what the future could possibly hold for supercars and their merely-mortal drivers, too). It’s the third most powerful car available for sale in Australia, behind the Lamborghini Aventador S and the Ferrari 812 Superfast, both of which have huge capacity V12 engines.
The way that McLaren has taken a much smaller V8 and turbocharged it to produce that much performance is truly impressive. Trying to find this car's limit would be playing a very dangerous game indeed. McLaren's most recent products - the 570S, 675LT, 650S, P1, and now the Senna - are all testament to the brands exponential progression and focus on technology, leaving us confident that the brains behind the machines are onto a good thing. Considering that the 720S is a quoted 91% different to the 650S, pondering what 91% different again from the 720 could be makes the brain hurt a little bit. This is a car that's not only fast, but also extremely capable: designed to generate the excitement of the 675LT and the comfort of the 570S, it's a car that you could (and almost is, in our case) used every day - the owner of this car even going as far as to say that it's more comfortable than his previous 570S! |
Trying to find this car's limit would be playing a very dangerous game indeed
One of our most popular cars to spot to date, there is rarely any negative comment from the photographer with remarks usually along the lines of how curvaceous and other worldly the car looks. Rarely is there bad reception to a 720S post, too; the negative stigma that is (often unfairly) dealt to Italian brands doesn't seem to attach itself to the British brand. McLaren certainly seems to attract a different breed of down-to-earth and genuinely car-loving enthusiasts. Again, maybe it's ahead of its time... Don't be shy, let us know your thoughts on the 720S below! Thank you very much to the kind owner, @nicholas_petro, for lending us your time to pick your brain and photograph your beautiful machine! | |