There’s only one place to start this review and that’s with the numbers. The McLaren 750S is powered by a 4.0ltr twin-turbo V8 which produces 750PS, hence the name, and 800Nm of torque. Whilst those are massive numbers, we’re used to massive numbers now. Cars are insanely fast these days. You can buy a brand new hot hatch which will outrun a supercar from 20 years ago. Progress in the industry has been as quick as the cars it now produces. Even a 0-60 time of 2.7secs, whilst being absolutely mental, isn’t quite as awe inspiring as it perhaps should be. It’s crazy, because you’re never more than three seconds away from maybe losing your licence in the McLaren 750S. So, what’s the kicker?
Well, some things are beyond explanation. I’m probably exposing my limitations as a journalist in simply stating that the McLaren 750S reduces you to struggling to emit expletives. It’s fast in a way that numbers don’t do justice to. You’re expecting it to be fast, but this fast? There’s no other way to describe it: it’s really f**king fast.
End of review? Perhaps. If you want to go as fast as possible for £300,000, then look no further. Beyond this, it’s hypercar money and you can add an extra zero to your bill. If the quest for acceleration is your only aim, however, you could get an EV and smugly zip around. Like all great supercars, however, the McLaren 750S is about so much more than outright speed. So, I drove it to Leeds and back, covered 628 miles and did the hard yards in it so that you don’t have to. You can thank me later.
One of my cousin’s recently had a baby. This was met with great excitement by my wife since it meant an opportunity to get rid of loads of unwanted baby stuff be generous. “Can you take this up to Leeds with you?” I explained that I’d be going in a McLaren 750S, not a Ford Transit, so it was best to temper her expectations. It’s only got 150-litres of storage space.
That, again, doesn’t do the car justice. Not only did I get baby stuff in from my house, I got baby stuff in from my mum’s house, too. Whilst I wouldn’t expect Amazon to switch to a fleet of McLaren 750Ss anytime soon, it’s surprisingly practical.
It was surprisingly amenable, too. McLaren don’t make cars overly hard riding, but the setup is different here than it is in the McLaren 720S. Comfort mode is just that; comfortable. It does feel a bit harder edged than its predecessor, but Kevin at McLaren explained that things have been dialled up a touch so that track mode is reserved for track use. Which makes sense and plays out in reality. I dialled the suspension up to track once and that was probably one time too many on a UK road. It was, however, all in the name of serious journalism.
Sport is a bit stiff for road use as well. Comfort is the setting you’ll settle on for everyday use.
The McLaren 750S is also car you could use daily. It’s supremely easy to use, with everything within touching distance of the steering wheel, which itself is delightfully free of buttons. Two annoyances; the self-cancellation function on the indicators is weak and the infotainment doesn’t support Android Auto, despite being an Android system and Android sponsoring the F1 team. First world problems.
The McLaren 750S, however, isn’t a car you’re going to buy on the strength of its self-cancelling indicators or infotainment system. You’re in the market for lavish aesthetics, loud noises, steering brimming with feedback and something that makes you feel like Lando Norris.
On the aesthetics, I must admit that I struggle to tell McLarens apart. I know I’m looking at a McLaren, but I’m usually unsure which one. I usually don’t care, either, and nor does anyone else. Decked out in Tanzanite Blue, the McLaren 750S attracted a lot of attention. Low, lithe and lairy, it absolutely looks the part. It sounds the part, too, with the bark only a V8 can provide on start up and Sport mode on the powertrain brings it to life on the move, too. Arguably it’s a bit showy, but who doesn’t enjoy a few pops and bangs now and again?
You can lower the rear quarter window behind the cabin to fully indulge in this. As it transpired, this was also handy on the motorway as a means of getting fresh air without opening the windows or taking the roof off. Oh yeah, the model tested is the spider, as you may have concluded from looking at the pictures.
The remarkable thing about the McLaren 750S, which is a trait of all McLarens, is how well it performs in almost every driving scenario. You don’t need to be driving at full tilt to embrace its charms. Find a twisty road and it ebbs and flows delightfully along it. This is in no small part thanks to McLaren’s insistence on retaining an electro-hydraulic steering setup. The steering wheel is always alive in your hands, responsive to your every input. There are no dead zones, only feedback and interaction.
This constant interaction immerses you in the driving experience. It’s a similar story with the pedals, the throttle being nicely progressive and the brake pedal, too. The brakes, obviously, have rather an important role to play and they perform well. The popping up of the rear wing under heavy braking adds another layer of entertainment. Superfluous? Perhaps, but it adds to the aesthetic appeal of such a car.
The acceleration is where you really find out about the McLaren 750S. From any speed, it just picks up and goes. In auto, downshifts can be a touch behind your intentions, but bring the elongated paddles into play and you can always capture the rev range you’re after. They snick through pleasingly, which further encourages their use.
On the motorway, which is where I spent a lot of my 628 miles in the McLaren 750S, it performs mind bendingly well. Put simply, it’s just quicker than anything else around it. Pulling onto the motorway, making gaps, gapping folks in their super SUVs who seem to think their cars are supercars (why is it always them?); the 750S just effortlessly leaves everything in its wake. It’s here, among ‘normal’ cars, that you realise how exceptional cars like the McLaren 750S are.
But it’s the B-roads you’ll long for. Drop the roof, let nature and the sound of that V8 in and just be at one with the road. It’s all very mindful and present, a form of meditation in its own way that few cars can provide.
When you muster the courage, flick it through to track and pin the throttle, you can guarantee that, for those brief moments at least, everything else will fade into insignificance. It savagely pins you back and the speedo flicks through the numbers at an unreadable rate.
One question I get asked a lot is: what’s the best car you’ve driven? It’s a complicated question because different cars serve different purposes. Usually, however, I say the McLaren 720S. It ticked all the boxes for me. Supercar looks, GT ride quality and laugh out loud performance that connected you completely to the drive. The only draw backs were a couple of build quality issues, but absolutely nothing that would put me off buying one (if I could afford one!). As a driving experience, it’s right up there.
With that in mind, I was somewhat nervous about reviewing the McLaren 750S. Could it possibly be as good as its predecessor, let alone surpass it? The 720S wasn’t exactly slow, so what would the uptick in performance bring?
The compromise is perhaps most noticeable in the ride quality, but then this isn’t a GT, it’s a supercar. The focus is on performance, which it emphatically delivers, both in terms of power and handling. The ride quality could hardly be described as poor, either. Build quality has gone up a notch, too. The infotainment is easy to use, the Bowers and Wilkins stereo is strong and nothing felt as though it was about to fall off.
You have to remind yourself at times that McLaren is still a young road car manufacturer. There have been mistakes and imperfections, not to mention several changes in management, but the McLaren 750S really feels like a strong step in the right direction. Performance and engagement have never been in question, but the 750S feels like McLaren bringing everything else that’s important to the table, too.
The thing that sticks in the memory, however, its that it’s really f**king fast. You’ll enjoy every mile, and that blows every other consideration out of the water.
