McLaren has just unveiled their new MSO “Stealth” themed 720S with hand-painted detailing that took way too long to finish.
Deep within McLaren’s offices is a secret underground layer where the British carmaker keeps their most special of engineers. Named after the spy and espionage department for England during World War II, McLaren’s Special Operations division concerns themselves with particularly demanding clients that ask for something unique and then hand over a blank cheque.
In McLaren’s business, if someone hands you a blank cheque, you get to work.
MSO calls this one-off 720S “Stealth”-themed, although with its exposed carbon fiber accents and contrasting red paint, it’s anything but stealthy.
The exterior is painted MSO Defined Sarthe Grey which is the same color worn by the 1995 Le Mans-winning McLaren F1 GTR. Vermillion Red accents line the hood, air intakes, window line, and wheels in an effort that took over 200 hours for McLaren to paint entirely by hand.
Exposed carbon fiber let the audience know this car means business. Those elements include the front air intakes, side mirrors, engine cover, rear air intakes, and rear diffuser. A set of 10-spoke super lightweight alloy wheels are done in same colors as the exterior with the same hand-painted red lines that hopefully won’t come off being that close to the road.
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On the inside, the carbon fiber and red theme are continued with carbon fiber on the steering wheel while everything else is covered in black Alcantara with red leather accents. Apex Red stitching holds everything together and provides another contrasting element so everything isn’t just a sea of grey.
This particular 720S is being sent to the McLaren London dealership where it will surely find a good home among London’s economic elites. The 720S normally starts at around $330,000, but this much hand-painted accenting will probably push that number will past the half-million mark.
There have been no performance upgrades this time, so the 720S still produces 710 hp and 568 lb-ft of torque thanks to a 4.0-L twin-turbo V8. That extra paint probably didn’t appreciably change the car’s weight, which means zero to sixty is still done in just 2.7 seconds--a feat we’ve seen the 720S perform in a few drag race videos.