Woking shuns electrification and aims for lightness and purity with 720S replacement
Asupercar as dependable and highly rated as McLaren’s 720S must have been a very reassuring influence at Woking these past few years, as the company has morphed around it. But the technically bold Artura is now with us in revised form, its troubled gestation and launch behind it; McLaren Automotive’s senior leadership team has changed widely since 2022 but now seems more settled; and the firm has been back to its shareholders for recapitalisation funding.
Calmer waters should be ahead. And while Woking’s greater exploration of ‘luxury’ niches and ‘lifestyle’ vehicle concepts remains on the to-do list, it can now plan that exploration with some confidence.
While doing so, it is time for the five-star 720S, McLaren’s trusty mainstay, to take a step on itself. This week’s test subject is a revised take on that car’s simple mid-engined, carbon-tubbed concept.
But while the 750S’s competitors increasingly embrace plug-in hybrid power, it has moved in the opposite direction. This car is reaching for even greater performance, handling dynamism and driver appeal through the pursuit of lightness, agility, downforce, mechanical grip and control feedback. Unlike its rivals from Modena and Sant’Agata, it will forge on without any powertrain hybridisation, and without the complexity and weight it would add, and McLaren has sought to ram home that advantage by dialling up its appeal to supercar purists and true enthusiast drivers.
Read on to find out how – and how effectively – that has been achieved.
DESIGN AND ENGINEERING
McLaren claims 30% of the 720S’s overall component count has been replaced or revised for this car. On the outside, a longer and more aggressive front splitter lurks beneath starker headlights inset into their sunken air intakes. At the side, there are larger and more numerous air intakes also around the sills and rear wheel arches than the 720S had. At the rear, a longer rear deck and larger rear wing complete a more purposeful look accentuated by a new stainless steel central-exit exhaust system.
The exhaust itself contributes as part of a weight-saving initiative that has shaved some 30kg from the 720S’s kerb weight. The 750S, claims McLaren, weighs less than 1400kg in running order, and can be made to weigh less
