AT LAST: A MCLAREN TO EQUAL THE FIRST
The 720S is a car so incredible it lay the ghost of the mighty F1 to rest. And now you can buy one for 911 money
Thomas Jennings works for McLaren Leeds. He is, by virtue of his day job and his passion for sports motorcycles, largely inured to the intoxicating speed and glamour of high-performance supercars. But the 720S is different. However ready you think you are, you aren’t. ‘We do see a lot of buyers stay with McLaren, moving up the range, and sometimes they will look at a 720S and say something like, “But my 570S is rapid – how much faster can this be?”,’ says Jennings. ‘It’s the same with customers coming over from Porsche 911s or an Audi R8. I just explain that they’ve driven sports cars, and that the 720S is a supercar – it’s the pinnacle of performance.’
McLaren man in “McLaren is pretty good” shock. But Jennings is absolutely right. CAR counts some pretty grizzled road testers among its ranks but even they take a deep breath when climbing aboard Woking’s achingly beautiful flagship. As Chris Chilton put it, writing our big sports car test of 2017, which the McLaren won: ‘You’ll wish you had a third hand so you could suck your thumb while keeping the thing pointed at the stony stuff…’
Is the 720S worthy of comparison with the F1? It is. It is by most
metrics faster. It’s heavier but it’s also more powerful, generates far more grip and has the electronics to keep you from destroying yourself. Like the F1 it also works as well on the road as it does on a track. The steering is magnificent, the ride quality scarcely credible and the all-round visibility, thanks to the dramatic bubble screen and Heinkel-esque glazed cockpit, breathtakingly good, like you’re being hurled through time and space on the tip of a twin-turbo rocket.
A good car? The 720S is the best McLaren’s yet created, and one of the best our species has yet managed. A good used buy? Oh yes. Go McLaren pre-owned and a 720S – run-in, serviced and ready to go, with a 12-month warranty – could be yours for £70k-£75k less than this modern masterpiece’s list price.
With thanks to McLaren Leeds – leeds.mclaren.com
THE 720S IS THE BEST CAR MCLAREN’S YET CREATED, AND ONE OF THE BEST OUR SPECIES HAS YET MANAGED