First Drive: McLaren 750S at the Sepang International Circuit

Somehow, the first McLaren I got the privilege to drive in my life wasn’t the 720S, but the GT from a couple of years back. It gave me a good taste of the daily usability of a McLaren, but I was always left curious about the capabilities of its more sport-oriented models.

The next model I got to drive was the Artura last year, which heralded a whole new generation of McLarens in itself (story told in detail in my review here). But I finally got to discover the full capabilities of the successor to the 720S, the 750S, on the racetrack thanks to the kind invitation from McLaren to Sepang International Circuit (SIC).

Where does the McLaren 750S sit within the McLaren range?

At the top of the tree are the unobtanium cars like the McLaren Senna and Speedtail the ‘Ultimate’ range, and rounding up the base is the ‘GTS’ range. The 750S sits within McLaren’s ‘Supercar’ range which slots in between Ultimate and GTS, and it’s considered the flagship of the Supercar range. We should talk about its predecessor, the 720S, and the Super Series II range in which it belongs, but we’d better not lest we muddle things up for you, as McLaren has since changed the lineup names. Hope we haven’t lost you there.

Tell me the key differences between the McLaren 720S and the McLaren 750S.

There is a power bump up by 30 PS from the same V8. The 750S’ springs are softer at the front and stiffer at the rear than in the 720S, and it’s also a new generation linked hydraulic suspension. The surface area of the lengthened active rear wing is 20% greater than the wing of the 720S (contributing to 5% more downforce overall in the 750S), while being lighter by 1.6 kg due to its carbon fibre construction. There’s now a central exit exhaust that mirrors that of the P1. And depending on how you specify the 750S, it’s up to 30 kg lighter than the 720S, too.

Is the McLaren 750S faster than the McLaren 720S?

Yes, but just by 0.1 seconds in the 0-100 km/h sprint - the 750S takes 2.8 seconds. But beyond the spec sheet, the lead instructor for the track day said the 750S is far quicker than the 720S on Sepang. Judging from his thousands of hours behind the wheel of McLaren, I’m inclined to believe him.

How much horsepower does a McLaren 750S have?

750 PS (hence its name, get it?), which is plenty enough for Sepang’s sweeping curves.

How does the McLaren 750S feel like on the track?

There’s a remarkable ability of McLarens to feel completely at home on the street but still tear down a racetrack like a proper race car. There are indeed very few cars out there that can truly lay claim to this duality, and the 750S is definitely one of them. The difference between it and the more docile McLarens is that the 750S has a far sharper throttle response that rewards a skilled driver (and consequently also challenges a novice like me more). It’s racier, more feral and finely tuned.

The precision also extends to the car’s handling, which is noticeably more agile but also livelier. That said, the downforce on some of the friskier long sweepers was nigh on impressive, affording so much confidence in a 700+hp RWD car! Accuracy and discipline are required to extract the best from the 750S, and it is perhaps the most rewarding car of the day if you get it right.

I really enjoyed the electro-hydraulic steering (versus the common full electric setup on most cars these days) which allows you to feel the road from your palms, while the brakes felt right at home on the track with their extremely natural and linear feel. I think McLaren’s brake feel is a standout feature that I haven’t really experienced elsewhere in any other supercar. It takes getting used to on the road, but it makes full sense on track.

How did the McLaren 750S compare with the Artura and the GT?

I alluded to the sharpness above, and I’d say that the 750S probably would reward a skilled driver the most. The Artura is a lot more forgiving to drive and tends to whittle away mistakes to less than a blemish, offering more torque to get you out of trouble or back in line and also having a more calm and neutral handling balance overall. The GT felt like altogether a longer car, with a lot more sound deadening, so it felt a little like a Bentley Continental GT that discovered it had superlative mid-engined superpowers.

Who are the competitors of the McLaren 750S?

There are quite a few, but I’ll comment on what I’ve driven, a notable one being the Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica. It’s a fascinating comparison, because while the Lamborghini is old-school in the dogged way they’ve stuck to a naturally aspirated V10 engine, McLaren has also stuck to some time-honoured way of doing things, like its electro-hydraulic steering and its refusal to stick a hybrid drivetrain into the 750S, at least not yet.

They both feel authentic, real and create slippery sweaty palms. I think for outright calculated precision, I’d pick the 750S.

What is the price of a McLaren 750S?

It’s asking for S$1,398,000 without COE.

Photos by McLaren Singapore and James Wong

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