McLaren 720S Review | Living with the Fastest Supercar Under $300K

Sam, It's.

Oh boy. So this is the legendary McLaren 720s. And I'll say this right now, stock for stock, it's probably one of the fastest cars you can buy right now. And it's definitely one of the fastest cars you can buy for under 300 grand. Now I know I'm stretching that statement a little bit because it actually starts at a very convenient $299,000. But if you option it out fully, it comes out closer to 400. 400 grand? That is, that's like Aventador money right there. But anyway, this particular car is the performance tr, which gives it alcantara and a lot more carbon fiber and that puts it a touch over 355, which is a little bit more reasonable. But of course, the used market's a whole different story because unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years, you'll know that McLaren's depreciation like rocks and a 2 year old 720s can be had for something like 220 to 240 now. But of course that's not accounting for the whole Covid inflation thing that's happening and that's definitely not normal. So hopefully that goes away soon. Anyway, enough about that. Let's talk about the car. Well, for, for starters, it's got a 4 liter twin turbo V8 that makes 710 brake horsepower. Now I know that the Name might suggest 720, but that's PS and that is a European rating. For our purposes, it makes 710American brake horsepower and a very modest 568 pounds of torque. But if you couple that with the ultralight Curb weight of 3,100 pounds and this reverse engineered alien 7 speed dual clutch gearbox, you get a car that is capable of, you know, a high nine second quarter mile time when it's boost season. So this thing must be intimidating to drive, right? Well, not at all. I mean, sure, this whole control system is a little bit wonky when you first get in the car, but once you get used to all of this, it drives like any other mid engine supercar. So if you've had a huracan or a488, getting into this thing is it's gonna feel like home, but you don't really feel the wideness either. Although I will say it's quite nimble and agile and the turning radius is much better than I imagined. The whole experience is quite enjoyable. I actually find it almost too easy to Dr. There's no drama, no crazy burbles, no sudden loss of traction. And comfort mode is quite comfortable. It carries itself really gracefully over minor imperfections on the road. If you blindfolded me and you asked me to drive this car for the first time, I would probably say that it's a Porsche, a really aggressive Porsche. The driving position is really quite natural. The steering wheel is wrapped in alcantara and it's just the right size, so it fits really well in your hands. The turn in is smooth, precise and predictable. There's an acute sense of connection to the pavement. Big fan of these carbon fiber shift pad, though. They're column mounted.

Nope, Obviously they are steering wheel mounted. I don't know what I was smoking, so you'll have to excuse me here.

And they are actually connected to each other. So when you do an upshift or downshift, it moves the other paddle in the opposite direction. Pretty nifty.

At first I wasn't sure I liked it, but after a while it grows.

On you because it gives you this reassuring feeling that you actually made the gear change. It's not Ferrari or Lamborghini levels of sexiness, but hey, I think I can live with it. My only immediate complaint is that the pedal feedback isn't great. You know, the first half of the travel doesn't really get you anything you to do another 25% to really stop. And then if you need hard braking, you got to be foot to the ground. A lot of this can probably be explained by the fact that this car has carbon ceramics. But I have driven a few other cars that are CCB'd and they have slightly more, I guess, confident feedback.

The real problem is that every time you're at a standstill or stoplight, you need to be hard on the brakes. Otherwise you can roll forward slowly with average amounts of pedal pressure and that's kind of dangerous.

Oh, and sometimes the car hesitates off the line under normal acceleration or in traffic conditions. It just kind of does this little clunky takeoff with the gear changes. And there's often weird electronic noises happening randomly when you're at idling. Just these little things that remind you that you're still driving a supercar regardless. I can't shake the odd feeling that this car might be borderline over refined until you do this. And then the dashboard folds in and it's as if things just got serious suddenly. I almost feel like this is the way the car is supposed to be now. This thing is an absolute monster. It's almost like this thing is a little juggled and Hyde switch. Sure, comfort mode has plenty of power, but when you put into track mode, it's just how it delivers all that punch. Everything just stiffens up. You know, the steering, the suspension, the throttle response and the downshifts. Man, it's like getting punched in the back by a Muay Thai boxer. But honestly, that's what we expect to happen when you put a McLaren into track mode. I guess what I'm to say is that I didn't expect this car to be so effortless and compliant.

To day.

To day driving, supercars really have come a long way.

But driving the car around for a couple hours inevitably had me needing a break. This coffee shop here should do the job just fine. Oh, yeah, getting out gracefully will definitely take some practice. And no matter how compliant the suspension is, the seats themselves just aren't conducive for long drives. They're too rigid, not enough padding, a bit oddly contoured, and just the wrong idea for anything besides aggressive driving on a track. The car is definitely a looker. People often break their necks in traffic trying to figure out if you're a celebrity or what kind of Ferrari you're driving. And that little faux scooteria stripe certainly adds to the problem. Even though this car is shaped like many other supercars in the few McLarens before it, in the sense that it's mid engine, the cockpit does look like it sits a little further forward than normal. The whole thing is actually more reminiscent of a fighter jet than a supercar. And sometimes it really does sound like that. At full tilt, it's just a magnificently attractive car in person. I just wish it wasn't white.

I don't know why I was driving.

With the air brake spoiler up the whole time. I actually prefer the look when it's down more sleek. Like most McLarens, there's no way to easily open up the back to look at the engine base, so you'll just have to admire it through this little grate. There are so many vents and aero bits on this thing, but all these little openings on the back expose the car's nuts and bolts to the elements. And though it seems cool, in practice, the owner had to replace quite a few rusty pieces of hardware. I wonder if this piece here is OEM or a product of the owner's obsession with fire suppression in his supercars. But the Frunk is delightfully spacious, more spacious than your typical Ferrari or Huracan. So that's nice to have if you ever want to torture yourself with weekend Trips in a McLaren. On the inside, it's all business. An obs driver, focused center console layout, alcantara everywhere. I like that the drive selector is so obvious and that the mode dials are positive tactile switches instead of a soft, rubbery button that you can sort of get confused with seat warmers. The seats themselves don't look very supportive, but give decent lateral support once you set them properly. Which brings me to my next point. The adjustment buttons are located in a really unconventional place down here in the front. It's nice to have a little extra space here where it would have otherwise been just a window to look at the engine in a Lambo or Ferrari, except it's made of leather, so everything just kind of slides around everywhere. Besides that, there's not much other storage except for a few little cubbies and a spot for your phone. I do enjoy the small windows right above your head because it gives you this feeling of openness. The coolest thing has got to be the variable drift control settings in the menu. I didn't get a chance to test it out, but I'm sure it'll make you look like a hero if you dial in.

Right.

Otherwise it's pretty standard supercar in here. Front lift, decent sound system. Oh, and soft closed doors. Anyway, I think it's time to move on to the exciting part.

So normally we would do our half mile acceleration test at our airstrip Runway, but today I decided against that simply because I think this car too damn fast. So in order to test things safely, we've come to Pocono Raceway, where our buddies at Racemotive have let us use the back straightaway to go all out. And if you don't know what race motive is, it's basically this racing event.

Where some of the fastest cars in.

The northeast come to duke it out.

In a third mile roll race.

You've got 17, 60ft of straightaway just to let loose. You can basically make as many passes as you want. You can race anyone or anything you see. There's plenty of runoff at the end. Plus they make it competitive with different classes, leaderboards, and they use Olympic grade timing. So it's just a great place to push a car to its limits and safely. Even if you don't think your car is fast enough to participate, it's still fun to hang out, watch spectate. Anyway, without further ado, let's move on.

To my favorite part of the show.

The way the car delivers speed is really interesting. Contrary to popular belief, there's quite a bit of lag until you get around 4,000rpm, but once you're there, it feels like you're being thrust into another dimension with all that power. Another important aspect is the extremely effective traction system. Even with an intimidating power to weight ratio in the mid 4s, it doesn't roast tires or create any ruckus. It's just all super well modulated to the point where it just feels like your acceleration is completely seamless. But the complete lack of drama makes this car sort of less exciting to drive, because you're not constantly looking over your shoulder making sure this thing isn't trying to kill you. However, here's another downside to all this tech. The car couldn't get itself into launch control because it sensed that the tires were in the blue and therefore too cold.

Guess we'll do it the old fashioned way.

I got a lot of flack the first time I did the 720s Spider because those results didn't really reflect what people saw floating online. Hopefully this time around we'll have better luck since I had more than just one run. And I can also vouch for this particular pilot. Let's start with our 40 100. The 720s did that in an unbelievable 3.63, which is faster than what most sports cars can do. 0 60. And I think that'll probably be a recurring theme for this segment of the review, because it'll just be the fastest in every single category. Of course, a car of this stature is meant more for 61 30s. And the McLaren did that in 5.42, once again the fastest here. But it's trailed not too far behind by a stage two 600 LT and. And the 720s Spyder. The closest thing after that would be an Aventador SVJ or a heavily modified Hellcat. The half mile is when this car really starts to stretch its legs and it just demolishes the competition by trapping an astonishing 178.4. And I really doubt that anything is going to come remotely close to that without being a straight up hypercar or race car. The quarter mile is definitely outdated for this thing, but it ran 10.3 at 146.64, and that's without the help of any launch control. Plus, this isn't exactly a prep drag strip either. I just can't believe it's doing all this with only 305s in the rear. And the 0100 is simply crazy as well, because at 6.05, it's well over a second faster than most Supercars. And of course we won't even talk about Zero60 here because it's so pointless. Anyway, for a complete list of times on the 720 or other cars, check out the link to the fast list in the description below.

Hmm. There seems to be an enormous amount of race motor plugs in this particular video. I don't know, must just be a.

Coincidence, but yeah, she does look pretty damn good sitting in this garage.

Huh, Too bad. We all know this household doesn't do no white cars, so that's not happening anytime soon.

But the truth is I am deathly.

In love with the 720s and having the opportunity to drive one for a few days really just put that last nail in the coffin for me.

The only thing missing from this equation.

Is spare quarter million dollars. Anyway, I gotta say, life with the McLaren has been pretty stellar so far, but there are a few things you gotta be aware of. The main concern is obviously reliability.

It has all these little weird quirks. Remember the first acceleration video of the.

720S spider where the launch control button fell right through the center console?

Well, that didn't happen here.

But the rear camera sometimes glitches out.

The ambient lighting seems to get paid hourly.

The parking sensors can see ghosts apparently because it'll beep randomly when there's nothing there and it just doesn't remember my settings. Sure, sure, these are little things. But I'd be worried about one day the car leaving me stranded on the side of the road because some electronics malfunctioning.

And that almost happened because the computer controlling the suspension decided that it did not want to wake up one morning. Good thing you bought that extended warranty.

The pros do outweigh the cons though.

You've got a car that is so.

Effortlessly fast but easy to drive at the same time, yet it's still kind of fun in its own way. I don't know how the McLaren engineers did it, but kudos to them and oh, did I mention that it's just drop dead gorgeous as well.

I would say that most mid engine supercars are generally good looking works of.

Art, but this thing is definitely a next level sexy ass spaceship.

They could have revealed this car 10.

Years from now and it would still look ahead of its time. And obviously because of that, the thing attracts a lot of attention. Sometimes a little too much. I always get a little nervous when I see a pair of 9000k hids running up on me late at night.

Because I never know if they're trying.

To race or they're about to rear end me because they're all distracted on their phone sickness. A video of the car. Anywho, enough rambling. We all know that all good things must come to an end, so let's pack her up.

I'm definitely going to miss this thing. The 720s was a car that has been on my list of things to potentially own for quite a while now, and being one of the first McLarens I've had the pleasure of truly experiencing, it was a special time. But as fantastic as this car was, truth is I don't know if I can see myself with it long term. It's a one trick pony in the sense that it's just really damn fast. Sure, it's fun and it handles phenomenally, but it just feels like something's missing from the equation. And yes, I am talking about noises and drama because when it comes to cars like this, living on the edge is when you feel the most alive. And I don't mean the edge of a highway because your car decided to shut off randomly after the HC glitched out. Because that's just plain dangerous. All I'm asking for is a little bit more rawness. And yes, it's definitely a looker, but like most things in life, that's also not enough for a real relationship. Regardless, at this price point, they get a lot right. It's a legendary car that'll forever be, in my book, the gold standard that bridges the performance gap between supercars and hypercars. Anyway, I gotta give special thanks to John Dong for handing me the keys to this lovely piece of machinery. This video definitely would not have been possible without him. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this review and I will catch you all on the next one.