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War.
War never changes.
Ferrari waged war in the circuit to reap rewards on the road.
Porsche build an empire from it's constant refinement of a single idea, and McLaren It's shaping a few cars into a road going superpower.
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This is McLaren's latest weapon in the never-ending war for supercar supremacy.
The 720S.
It's quicker than a 650S and will post lap times that will almost worry a track special 675LT.
And, it's got holes in its face.
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Now as we're talking about a new McClaren we should probably talk about its power.
Behind me is a 4 liter turbo charged V-8 with you guessed it 720 break horsepower and it also kicks out 568 pound foot, that's a lot.
So many lots in fact that it'll get from naught to 62 in just 2.9 seconds and onto 212 miles an hour.
However to win the super car war it's not all about being the quickest, there has to be.
Some breadth of ability in here.
As such [UNKNOWN] wants this to be comfier in the 650S but also faster when it needs to be.
So what they say is it's not quite as smooth as the 570GT but it's way quicker than the 650S ever was.
As well as all the power stuff there's some seriously smart engineering stuff going on here.
Airflow, for example, is managed differently and less obviously than before.
See its big gaping eye holes?
Those feed air into the radiators.
And there are vents that run along the doors that do the same thing for the engine.
So when it isn't covered in holes, its cooling efficiency is up 15% on its predecessor.
But what good is cooling and all that stuff in the heat of battle.
It needs to handle and [UNKNOWN] says it does.
See it's rear wing?
That's all active and can be used as an air brake to stop faster.
It's twice as aerodynamically efficient as the 650 s. Which is nice.
There are the usual McLaren driving modes to play with.
There is something super cool buried in there though, it's called variable drift control and what that does is set how far the car can slide when you're really going at it on the circuit.
So you start off with a little bit of slip then you get really good at that.
And then you give it a little bit more, and a little bit more, until the car's at a really crazy angle but you can control it cuz you've figured out how it works.
Probably with an instructor.
And then by the time you've done that you can figure, out in a far better place, how to do it with absolutely everything off.
That is clever, and actually weirdly responsive.
Now in any war, you want to be able to see more than the other guy.
And in the 720S you stand a better chance than most.
It comes with the imposing sounding monocage two, it's new carbon fiber architecture It now covers the upper structure of the car, and screen surround, which means there's glass everywhere, and you can see all of the things.
Then there's the new interior, which is certainly more exciting than the 650s, and how's about that instrument cluster?
It tucks itself away if you just want the basic info, so you can concentrate on the road.
It's all well and good having loads and loads of toys, that's absolutely fine.
But you need to combine them all into a decent package.
So, has McLaren managed to do it?
Well, let's put some things into Sport, press the Manual button which is down there.
Knock it down, the gearbox is super quick, and then you just get into the [UNKNOWN] in seconds, we're doing ten below the speed limit, and.
We're not doing ten below any.
Any more
[BLANK_AUDIO].
Come on [LAUGH].
The acceleration is a, I think it will be fair to say quite fast, very fast.
And it doesn't [UNKNOWN], that extra talk [UNKNOWN], an already incredible car.
Just makes this thing fly.
Between that and it's steering fields, you can place exactly where the front wheels are.
You know where they're going, and you know what they're doing.
On the road that is immensely handy.
On the track, even more so.
Cuz remember this is [UNKNOWN], it wants to build the car that can do everything.
[INAUDIBLE] the gear box is fantastic, it's just it's something else.
It's so slick.
It's just that one step above.
For this car's party piece is the handling.
This thing grips all these little changes made over the 650S.
It all adds up and it all adds up to one hell of a package cause you can barrel into corners.
Way faster than you really should be able to.
It's such an intuitive thing the car knows what you want to do, or what you're doing and then figures out either side of it.
Well maybe they wanna go a little bit faster fine we'll prime for that.
Maybe they wanna turn in a bit more fine we'll prime for that.
The way Mcclaren has made this thing ride and feel it's just, it's overwhelming.
Look I know Ferrari has various modes on its switches, but they've always been a little bit intimidating.
Whereas I don't mind driving around in [UNKNOWN].
I don't feel like it's going to eat me.
That's fantastic.
Also up there in the list of really good things this car has, amazing brakes.
There's not much trouble to the pedal.
That's all so you can catch yourself out and it is on a little bit of a hair trigger so if you're not with it 100% well you end up sort of lifting off a little bit even though you thought your foot was on the pedal and you start creeping forward.
That's a little bit off-putting however on a circuit or when you're really on it on the road these really will help you cover ground faster.
Because you can brake lighter and you can brake harder than the other guy.
They are phenomenal.
One other thing that really stands out about this [UNKNOWN] is the canopy.
There's this little jet [UNKNOWN] where you get that little brake hand to see once [UNKNOWN] the pilot.
But they way the new [UNKNOWN] works, you can do a proper glance spot check and see if there's something in your glance spot.
There's no Hidden area that mid engine cars get so often, there's so much light in here it feels super airy.
And that's just wicked.
There are a couple of tiny downsides though.
These bucket seats aren't spectacular.
I've been driving this thing all day and my lower back may apparently Entirely of fire.
Not ideal.
But there are other seats available.
There's also the fact that the driver's door doesn't really enjoy closing properly 100% of the time, so you've got to give it a feral hit.
Sometimes it will soft close for you, which is a neat touch.
Sometimes it simply won't.
Quite annoying.
But everything else, this is designed for someone Who wants to drive everywhere, anywhere either at super high speed or in time just to get [INAUDIBLE].
It's beautiful to look at and it is beautiful to drive.
And it just feels good everywhere.
The problem [UNKNOWN] had in past is its image.
As a comparative new boy to the road game, F1 excluded Its cars have always apparently lacked soul, and feeling, and other words people who are way too into cars say a lot.
Myself included on occasion.
Let's be real then the 720 S is certainly good enough to bring the game Into the big boys but does this evoke enough adjectives to make the officers of Ferrari and Porsche worry.
The super car wars will never end.
There'll always be something a little bit faster, a little bot more this, a little bit more that.
But Mclaren has struck a key blow because this one is unbelievably fast.
It's usable everywhere.
You can see out of it.
The space It looks amazing.
But here's the thing McLaren has got a hell of a lot of soul here.
So Ferrari and Porsche good luck with whatever comes next.
