McLaren 720S: Getting Into This Road Rocket

McLaren’s journey to the top of the hypercar heap culminates with the incredible 720S.

- Chris Nelson

As it started to rain at the 1988 Japanese Grand Prix, virtually all Formula 1 racers on the track slowed their cars to tiptoe around Suzuka circuit. But not Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, who had earned pole position but stalled at the beginning of the race. He was now working his way back to the front. Senna, who had deft driving skills in wet conditions, delivered an otherworldly performance and won the race, earning his first of three world championships—an astonishing performance not only for him but also his new team, then called McLaren-Honda.

McLaren started life as an English engineering company, and its founder, Bruce McLaren, had a savage talent behind the wheel, winning his first Grand Prix in 1959 at the ripe age of 22. Bruce McLaren started his own Formula 1 team in ’65 and was winning races by his second year. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t get to watch his company blossom. In 1970, he lost control of his car at England’s Goodwood circuit, crashed into a wall, and died. The company struggled for the next decade and found a new identity only when determined Formula 1 manager Ron Dennis came onboard as chairman to realise McLaren’s ambitions. McLaren began by building fast, capable racecars that got the attention of talented up-and-coming drivers like Senna; under Dennis, it reestablished itself as a dominant force in automotive racing. In 2010, 40 years after its founder’s untimely death, the company launched McLaren Automotive. In just seven years, McLaren Automotive has become one of the most evocative car companies there is, cementing its place among elite supercar manufacturers with the release of its 710-horsepower, 340-kmph 720S, one of the most capable and enjoyable high-performance vehicles we’ve ever driven. But it didn’t happen without some teething issues.