7 Elements Of Mclaren's 720S

Since 2011, McLaren’s been landing blows on Ferrari, but its 720S could be the car to deliver the knockout punch.

- Ben MiIller

THE 720S is about having your cake and pushing it into your happy mouth in one great lump without a shred of remorse. It’s about the co-existence of attributes previously considered mutually exclusive. The car uses a bigger, more powerful engine than the 650S, but it’s also lighter (by 18kg, dropping the lightest dry weight to 1283kg). It requires more cooling than its predecessor, yet moves through the air with twice the efficiency, and generates more downforce as it does so. McLaren personnel claim the car will run long distances on the road with the ease and refinement of a 570GT while also delivering near-675LT levels of track heroism. It’s a supercar you can see out of the back of, an aero-honed aluminium sculpture to rival the P-51 Mustang and, perhaps most intriguingly of all, a McLaren conceived first and foremost to make you smile. Whatever next...

01 Bold, original styling

BEING reduced to a wide-eyed kid by excess, pomp and wonder is what supercars are all about. Despite its cool, calculated image, McLaren knows this, and the 720S doesn’t hold back on moments of unbridled joy. Approach and you’re struck first by the lack of visible side vents, a prominent feature of mid-engined supercars since forever. Then you reach the impossibly contoured door and realise it’s essentially hollow, with a cavity running through its sinewy aluminium form that speaks of complex airflow management. You then release the dihedral door and watch as it takes much of the roof with it, like Murray’s F1, for easy access.