We have discussed quite a few Hypercars in our previous posts. From the Car that created the Hypercar Category, the Bugatti Veyron, the holy trinity, and to the God of Hypercars the Bugatti Chiron. None of the Hypercars in the world cost less than a Million Dollars, but what if I told you can experience Hypercar levels of Performance for just 300,000 dollars. It surely isn’t a small amount but for the 3rd of the price of a Used Hypercar, you could get a Brand new car that can give you the same feeling of driving a Hypercar.
The car is the McLaren 720s, the car which breaks all the rules of the Standard Supercar world. This is the car that can beat Aventador SVJ’s all day long on Drag stripes, even when the SVJ has more horsepower and an All-wheel drive system. The McLaren 720s is the car which challenges the engineering involved in the supercars today. With a Twin-turbo 4.0 liter V8 that produces 710 Horsepower and 770 Nm of torque, the 720S accelerates as hard as a brand new Porsche 918 Spyder and it has a top speed of 212 Mph, which is about the same as a Ferrari 488 Pista. Its arch-rival is the Ferrari 488 Pista and as to my surprise, the 720s beats the Pista every time on a drag strip, the Pista is slightly faster than the 720s around a track as the Pista was designed to be a Track monster and not a straight line Monster, the Pista has 10 more horses than the 720s and even has an almost identical engine, but it’s still the 720s which feels like a Hypercar and not the Pista.
The part of the reason is how cleverly the 720s have been engineered, the 720s have shorter gearing ratios it starts to build up torque in the lower RPMs and thus it launches so fast that you can feel your eyes and your organs shifting towards back from their place. Another reason why the 720s is so quick even though it’s a rear-wheel-drive is in the way it transfers power to the rear wheels, the power transfer is so efficient that unlike every other rear-wheel-drive car that struggles for traction and does unnecessary burnouts, the 720s just plants its rear tires on the ground and takes off. The 720s sounds good, it isn’t very loud, keeping the annoying European sounds regulations in check. The silhouette of the 720s is shaped in a way to make it as Aerodynamic as efficient as possible. The intakes from the headlight sockets to the side intake and the flying buttresses are all part of the Aerodynamic engineering on this car. On the interior side, the 720s are luxurious as well as sporty. The sad part about the infotainment system is that it doesn’t get Apple car play nor Android auto so playing your favorite music isn’t an option in this car. Also, some areas feel cheap in the 720s, for example, the rearview mirror isn’t a frameless one which we find in other supercars of the same price, the sun visor doesn’t help in protecting your eyes from the sun and neither has it an inbuilt light, so you can’t see yourself in the vanity mirror at night. I like the fact that the buyer can spec the 720s with a track telemetry option which will enable the driver to check their stats after a fast lap. One can even option the 720s with a glass roof and an electro-chromatic treatment to it, to protect themselves from UV light.
The 720s has some practical elements to it which its competitors lack, though it doesn’t have a glove box, it has some decent sized door pockets and net behind the seats, the front boot or the Frunk has enough space to keep a bag for your weekend trip.
The 720s is the lightest car among its rivals when you compare their weights and that’s down to the extensive use of Carbon fiber in the car. From the A-pillars to the Carbon Fibre Chassis which just weighs 73kgs despite being used to withstand high forces in a very powerful car. There are many owners around the world, who have turned their 720s to 1000 Horsepower machines with not so many changes and they keep giving other supercars a run for their money and it surely is an engineering marvel.
That’s it for this time guys
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Photo by Olav Tvedt on Unsplash