The future of supercars may be downsized engines with hybrid assistance, but McLaren isn’t entirely done with the original recipe. When McLaren Automotive formed as a supercar entity for the modern era, it embarked on a twin-turbo V8-powered journey with the 12C, which eventually became the carving knife that is the McLaren 720S. Against supercars like the Ferrari F8 Tributo and Lamborghini Huracan, it was a weapon. It arrived track-capable, street-friendly, and with the ability to hit 124 mph in less than eight seconds, and we didn’t know how it could possibly be improved.
Since then, McLaren has paid attention to reviewers and customers and let the engineers loose to find other improvements. The result is the McLaren 750S and 750S Spider.
As the numeric model number would suggest, the McLaren 750S lies somewhere between the original ballistic capability of the 720S and the completely unhinged 765LT, laying down 740 horsepower to the rear wheels and through a chassis that has been tweaked and polished to be an animal on the track, but not try to kill you on the road, yet still providing maximum GPM (Grins Per Mile). To reach that oversimplified conclusion, we took ourselves to Las Vegas to drive the 750S on the road and at the track. So, let’s dig deeper.
How The 750S Got Here
According to McLaren’s lead engineer for the 750S, the idea wasn’t to bring the 720S closer to the 765LT in outright performance, but to increase the sliders on both performance and comfort. That’s not as easy as it sounds, he pointed out, when you have the departments working on comfort wanting everything – including the engine mounts – to be softer and the departments charged with making it hold the road even better want to stiffen absolutely everything. Then there’s McLaren’s suspension specialist charged with the seemingly impossible task of keeping everyone happy. As a result, the system has been reprogrammed and the front shocks softened while the rears have been stiffened.
The powertrain hasn’t been left alone, either. Along with an extra 20 horsepower wrung from the engine for a total of 740 hp, the gear ratios have been shortened to add even more urgency to acceleration, which is nothing short of fearsome. The steering ratio is quicker, the active aerodynamics stronger, and, as this is McLaren, engineers are always eager to shave off a few pounds. The new wheels lose the car 30 pounds and the exhaust system another five.
Inside, things have been streamlined and made more user-friendly. The button to lift the nose for supercar-unfriendly bumps and ramps is more obvious to reach, and the system is quicker to lift than before. The infotainment system has a more streamlined interface, but there is still not much space to store even little items.
There are optional carbon-fiber bucket seats for those wanting to wring the most performance out of the McLaren 750S. They were fitted to our road-test car, and thankfully, we have slim hips. The initial comfort on the bucket seats is high, despite the minimal cushioning, and we were good for a couple of hours before discomfort set in. The takeaway here is that if the 750S is mainly going to be driven to the track, they are a worthwhile addition that keeps the driver in place when the car is being pushed to the edge. Otherwise, we would stick with the standard seats.
We have to mention how good this car looks – especially dressed in this spectacular shade of paint which people couldn’t get enough of. McLaren offers various special hues, but we were sold on this one.
In A Straight Line
The number given for 0-60 mph is 2.7 seconds, and 0-124 mph in 7.2 seconds (the Spider needs 7.3 seconds), and in reality, it’s downright fearsome in a straight line – even without launch control. From around 60 mph with a complete mash on the pedal, the word “ballistic” springs to mind, and jail time on a public highway comes almost as quickly as that corner you thought you had space to stretch things out in. Save that for the track.
Providing that power is the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, and specs on paper are 740 hp at 7,500 rpm and 590 lb-ft of torque at 5,500 rpm, and it’s force-fed to the rear wheels via the re-geared and reprogrammed seven-speed transmission.
Distinctive Drive Modes
Before we drove the 750S, we were proudly told that each mode available changed the car’s behavior dramatically; “You’ll see,” we were told.
Comfort mode puts the suspension at its most compliant and puts the engine and transmission response at its gentlest. It would be quite a stretch to call the ride quality in comfort mode smooth, but it’s not unpleasant. The suspension takes enough out of the sharpness of the bumps so as not to punish the driver and passenger unduly, but it’s still not a luxury ride. The engine and transmission are smooth, though, and there’s little to complain about for town and freeway driving. It’s still crazy fast, and handling is far from compromised – there’s just more for the 750S to give.
Drive Mode: Sport
It’s when you move into Sport mode via the controls on the upper corners of the gauge cluster housing that the 750S comes alive, and it’s wickedly fun. The chassis stiffens, responses sharpen, and the engine comes to life spectacularly with burbles, pops, and bangs. In Sport mode, the 750S wants to go faster, and the reward is a well-tuned howl, the necessary discovery of how good the brakes are, and cat-on-the-carpet levels of grip available on a dry road. In Sport mode, you could get yourself in trouble, but it would require willful recklessness to ignore the early warnings of impending understeer or oversteer when mistakes are made, and the car wants to help you correct things and not fall off the road.
It’s clear Sport mode was designed for fun on the road, and it delivers. The chassis is delicious in terms of balance for spirited yet not unsafe driving, and the quick steering also lets you know what’s going on under the front wheels.
Drive Mode: Track
Track mode is an entirely different animal. There are no programmed pops and bangs from the engine, just an immense, furious wail from the end of the tailpipes as they try to overtake the turbo wooshes from just in front of them. Line up launch control and the 750S shows just how insanely fast it is with a huge dump of power and staccato gear shifts to manage it – then the brakes show just how brutal they can be in slowing things down.
As the corners come, the chassis comes alive, wanting to turn in harder and rotate easier than in Sport mode. It’s as if the balance point from the front and rear of the chassis has got thinner.
People often harp on about steering feel, but feeling the car’s balance in your hips is just as important. The feedback is sublime in that regard – and it needs to be, as just about everything in the car has been sharpened to the nth degree, yet you can feel when it’s ready to feed in power out of the last corner and out onto the straight.
This writer now knows the Las Vegas Speedway track reasonably well, but I was treating the center section (a left into a right) like everything else I had driven, which includes supercars in the same bracket. After a few laps with the instructor pushing me to trust the 750S in terms of grip and ability to transition, I was coming through much faster than anything else I had taken through there with stability controls dialed back.
That doesn’t mean it’s the fastest supercar around a track out there; it means the 750S can be trusted to be pushed harder by someone who doesn’t live at the track, helping to inspire confidence and reward learning and ability.
Conclusion
The McLaren 750S isn’t just fast; it’s a supercar that makes it impossible to resist pulling out The Automotive Journalist’s Small Book Of Clichés: It’s a guided missile; it drives like it’s on rails; it communicates with the driver exactly what’s going on through the chassis and underneath the tires.
It’s fast to the point of wondering how it’s legal on the road, and the chassis is, to this driver, perfect. Sure, the ride isn’t luxurious in comfort mode, but we don’t care. You don’t buy a 750S to drive to work and back every day.
The 750S Coupe starts at $324,000, the Spider at $343,700, and from there, you can start adding options and packages and ramp the price up quickly. For someone not planning on taking it to the track every week and working on shaving tenths of a second off of lap times, the retractable-roofed Spider version is the one to go for – the top comes down quickly, and wind buffeting is minimal, as is the extra weight.
With the 750S, McLaren has delivered a supercar for drivers that’s a genuine upgrade on the 720S and will annoy Lamborghini and Ferrari with its insane level of poise, precision, and performance.