McLaren 720S

FIRST DRIVE McLaren’s new mid-range offering may be one of the best supercars ever.

- Steve Sutcliffe

WHEN McLaren unleashed the MP4-12C in 2011, the rarefied world of the supercar was very different from the way it is now. But even then, it was a landmark car. It wasn’t quite as good as a Ferrari 458, perhaps, but it wasn’t far wide of the mark.

Six summers on, McLaren has reached stage two of its plan to rule the world of supercars, and the 720S is the result.

It has a new chassis tub called the Monocage II, a new 4.0-litre version of the familiar twin-turbo V8, and a new design language that does away with the huge air intake vents on the sides, but brings F1-inspired dihedral doors.

The 720S also gets a comprehensively rethought interior, with a lot more emphasis on quality and greater visibility thanks to new carbon fibre A-pillars that are half the width of their metal predecessors.

So not only is the 720S more potent and therefore faster than the car it replaces, it’s also more comfortable, more refined, better built and easier to live with, according to McLaren. And just this once, there is zero hyperbole behind such claims.