You hardly find an automobile company barely 50 years or even ten years younger competing with massive powerhouses in the same industry. An automobile company that has an output unit of less than 5,000 is barely hair-raising. But somehow, with these numbers, this British company, McLaren, keeps defying the odds and joins a handful of companies producing high-end luxury cars.
McLaren Automotive is a subsidiary of the McLaren group headquartered in Woking in the northwest of England. Founded on the 2nd of December 1985, the nascent company (in terms of age and technology) produces supercars, and they are not merely called supercars just for the fun of it.
The company might or might not have been named after New Zealand race-car designer, driver, inventor, and engineer, Bruce McLaren who died at a young age, but his legacy still lives on in Formula 1.
So, to start with, what else is there to know about this exceptional automaker?
McLaren Is A True Luxury Brand
The first car ever churned out by this automobile company is the McLaren F1, which hit the market in 1992. The F1 is a sports car alright but can be used on public roads, and the company only produced 106 units of this vehicle at that time. McLaren, as a company, prides themselves in producing limited editions of their cars and not flooding the automobile market with a lot of their cars.
At that time, the F1 was a next-gen technology product (a characteristic you'd find on Star Trek) that barely found competition. The only cars clocking similar speeds were the Ferrari Enzo and the Aston Martin One-77, and they were produced ten and 17 years later than the F1.
As of August 2021, the F1 holds the record for the fastest naturally aspirated production car in the world, that is, it depends only on atmospheric pressure for its speeds. Any car faster than the F1 uses artificial means like the supercharger or turbocharger for its speeds.
On the face of it, the McLaren cars might be an ostentatious good and might seem very pricey but compared to what you would be getting in terms of the comfort and cutting edge technology, it is a ridiculously cheap car. The reason is that new cars are released at an astonishing rate, and anyone who buys some selected series of these cars can get theirs upgraded to some next model months later.
McLaren Super Series
The McLaren Super Series consists of the 720S Coupe and the 720S Spider, although one could argue for the case of the McLaren 650S as a super series car. Still, that argument is easily dispelled because the 650S is a 25% upgrade of the McLaren MP4-12C. The major themes of the McLaren Super Series are performance and power, and this is thanks in no small part to the carbon-fiber technology employed by McLaren.
The 720S Is McLaren's Powerhouse
Unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show four years ago, the McLaren 720S is a bigger and better upgrade than its predecessor, the 650S, with 91% new components. It is faster and lighter too. The carbon fiber technology was first adapted by McLaren when they produced the F1.
These substances are incredibly light and strong and utilized in the construction of ships and in the aerospace industry, where strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness are major factors. It is five times lighter than steel and 1.5 times lighter than aluminum, and at least ten times stronger than both substances. This made the 720S a tad better than its predecessors.
The McLaren's 720S: Engine And Performance
The 720S is not just a fast car, but the design of the vehicle is very easy on the eye. You would be forgiven to think that jets move on land with this vehicle. You might as well call it a jet anyway because it possesses extraordinary speeds powered by a 710 bhp twin-turbo V-8 engine and a frame made of carbon-fiber monocoque.
Putting the speeds of the 720S into perspective, it uses McLaren’s new M840T engine, which is an upgrade on the M838T used in the 650S. The engine has a power output of 720 PS at 7,500 rpm hence the name given to it, and a maximum torque of 568lb-ft. In a road test, it took 2.7 seconds for the 720S to go from 0-60mph and it could hit 100 mph in 5.3 seconds.
The McLaren's 720S: Exterior And Interior
The dihedral design of the doors of the McLaren 720S is a sight to behold as it allows the door with a hinge mechanism to rotate 90 degrees outwards and upwards at its hinge. There are air channels in the door that direct air to the engine. There's also thin LED taillights and two round exhaust pipes. The exterior is a 50% improvement on the 650S.
It contains a two-seat cabin, and as a sports car, the limited space is a norm for every car of this genre. Not possessing a flashy interior, it still has its fair bit of aesthetics and can be designed to suit whatever the user wants it to be. The other variants of the 720S are the 720S velocity, 720S Spider and the 765LT.
The 720S and its variants possess a pricing range of $300,000 to $330,000. If you've deep pockets, then this is the car to splurge on.