Car_and_Driver_USA_July_2017

McLaren’s new 720S is the
unknown and unexpected
supercar revelation.
_BY MIKE DUFF _PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREG PAJO
McLaren chose to launch the 720S in Rome, almost certainly as the
result of a puerile yet entirely understandable impulse to tweak the
tails of Italy’s native supercar makers. But the location also emphasizes
the biggest issue the British manufacturer still faces: Nearly
a decade after it announced its first series-production road car,
much of the world is unaware of its existence.
A point made when I stopped to take pictures of a fine-looking
Lamborghini tractor that had been parked, at a typically rakish
Italian angle, outside a small café on the test route. This example
of well-bred Italian horseflesh had already drawn a small, appreciative
crowd, one that was quick to turn its attention to the arrival
of something even more exotic. Questions came in rapid-fire Italian:
Is it a Lamborghini? A Ferrari? A Bugatti? One guy even seemed
to be trying to persuade the ragazzi that they were looking at a new
Corvette. The revelation that it was a McLaren produced blank
looks and some clearly skeptical debate; had the Formula 1 team
really started to make cars?
So, while we can certainly discuss the finer points of McLaren’s
product evolution, we should also be mindful that, for many people,
the company’s entire existence remains a well-kept secret. For
them, ignorance precludes bliss: Over two days driving the 720S
on Italian road and track, there was no better place to be.
C
olin Chapman’s famous adage was to simplify, then add
lightness. Fellow Britain-based innovator Bruce McLaren
took a different tack as his fledgling team came to dominate
the early years of Can-Am: Add lightness, then add an overabundance
of power.
Although Bruce has been dead for nearly 50 years, his philosophy
still guides the company that bears his name. The outgoing
650S already held a substantial power-to-weight advantage over
every major rival, but the 720S has more muscle and less flab. It gets
a brawnier 4.0-liter version of McLaren’s
twin-turbo V-8, tuned to produce 710
horsepower (the 720 in the name refers to
metric horsepower).
That’s 49 horsepower more than the
Ferrari 488GTB, a car that’s rarely criticized
as a slug. At the same time, McLaren
has gone to the considerable extra expense
of making the 720S lighter, swapping the
650S’s aluminum windshield frame for a
carbon-fiber structure that mates to a new
roof spar made from the same material.
This allows for the fitment of even coolerlooking
top-hinged doors, but it has also
increased structural stiffness while reducing
mass. McLaren says the new body is 40
pounds lighter than the old one. That gives
a power-to-weight ratio that makes both
2018 McLAREN
720S
VEHICLE TYPE: midengine,
rear-wheel-drive,
2-passenger, 2-door
coupe
BASE PRICE: $288,845
ENGINE TYPE: twinturbocharged
and
intercooled DOHC
32-valve V-8, aluminum
block and heads, port
fuel injection
DISPLACEMENT:
244 cu in, 3994 cc
POWER: 710 hp
@ 7500 rpm
TORQUE: 568 lb-ft
@ 5500 rpm
TRANSMISSION:
7-speed dual-clutch
automatic with manual
shifting mode
WHEELBASE: 105.1 in
LENGTH: 178.9 in
WIDTH: 76.0 in
HEIGHT: 47.1 in
PASSENGER VOLUME:
46 cu ft
CARGO VOLUME:
13 cu ft
CURB WEIGHT: 3150 lb
PERFORMANCE
(C/D EST)
ZERO TO 60 MPH:
2.8 sec
ZERO TO 100 MPH:
5.5 sec
1/4-MILE: 10.4 sec
TOP SPEED: 212 mph
FUEL ECONOMY
EPA COMBINED/CITY/
HWY: 18/15/22 mpg
the Ford GT and the Porsche 911 GT3 look
like couch potatoes.
Those new carbon pillars make a dramatic
improvement to forward visibility,
and new glazed panels on either side of the
rear glass help to give the car’s greenhouse
the side profile of an F-16 canopy, offering
similar visibility. The 720S has practically
eliminated the over-the-shoulder blindspot
that mid-engined supercars have had
since the Lambo Miura.
While the cabin feels more functional
than spectacular, with most controls
(including those for heating and ventilation)
now built into the central and not very
touch-sensitive screen, there is some supercar
theater in the form of the powertilting
digital instrument display that folds
away, replaced by a minimal version when
the car is switched to track mode.
The exterior design is handsome rather
than beautiful. It’s sculpted and muscular
thanks to the elimination of the 650S’s
side-mounted intakes. The air is now channeled
to the engine and radiators through a
well-hidden gap next to the greenhouse.
The back is strongly reminiscent of the P1’s,
especially with the movable wing in its
raised position. But at the front, large light
apertures, which incorporate air intakes
as well as lighting elements, make the 720S
very color sensitive. Dark metallic shades
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