There’s only one place to start with this review, and that’s with the numbers. The McLaren 750S is powered by a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that produces 750bhp (hence the name) and 800Nm of torque. While those are massive numbers, we’re used to massive numbers by now. Cars are insanely fast these days. You can buy a brand new hot hatch that will outrun a supercar from 20 years ago. The industry has progressed as quickly as the cars it produces today. Even a 0-60 time of 2.7 seconds, while absolutely insane, isn’t quite as impressive as perhaps it should be. It’s insane because in the McLaren 750S you’re never more than three seconds away from losing your license. So what’s the kicker?

Well, some things are impossible to explain. I am probably revealing my limitations as a journalist if I simply state that the McLaren 750S forces you to strain to utter swear words. It is fast in a way that numbers cannot do justice to. You expect it to be fast, but The fast? There is no other way to describe it: it is damn fast.

End of review? Maybe. If £300,000 is all about going as fast as possible, this is it. What’s more, it’s hypercar money and you can add a zero to your bill. However, if the search for acceleration is your only goal, you could get an electric car and cruise around complacently. However, like all great supercars, the McLaren 750S is about so much more than pure speed. So I drove it to Leeds and back, covering 628 miles and doing the hard work so you don’t have to. You can thank me later.

What is life like with the McLaren 750S?

One of my cousins ​​recently had a baby. My wife was very excited because it was an opportunity Dispose of lots of unwanted baby items be generous. “Can you take this to Leeds?” I explained that I would be driving a McLaren 750S, not a Ford Transit, so it was best to temper her expectations. It only has 150 litres of storage space.

Even that doesn’t do the car justice. I picked up not only baby stuff from home, but baby stuff from my mom as well. While I wouldn’t expect Amazon to switch to a fleet of McLaren 750Ss anytime soon, it’s surprisingly practical.

It was surprisingly comfortable too. McLaren doesn’t build cars that are overly hard to drive, but the setup here is different to the McLaren 720S. Comfort mode is just that: comfortable. It feels a little harder than its predecessor, but McLaren’s Kevin explained that things have been cranked up a little so Track mode is reserved for track use. This makes sense and plays out in reality. I cranked the suspension up once for track use and that was probably once too many on a British road. It was all done in the name of serious journalism, though.

The “Sport” setting is also a bit stiff for road use, but for everyday use you’ll probably opt for the “Comfort” setting.

The McLaren 750S is also a car you could use on a daily basis. It’s extremely easy to use, everything is within easy reach of the steering wheel, which itself has, thankfully, no buttons. Two annoyances: the indicators’ self-cancellation function is weak and the infotainment doesn’t support Android Auto, even though it’s an Android system and Android sponsors the F1 team. Luxury problems.

How does the McLaren 750S drive?

But you won’t buy the McLaren 750S for its self-cancelling indicators or infotainment system. You’re looking for elaborate aesthetics, loud noises, steering with lots of feedback and something that makes you feel like Lando Norris.

In terms of aesthetics, I must admit that I have trouble telling McLarens apart. I know I’m looking at a McLaren, but I’m usually not sure which one. I don’t usually care, and neither does anyone else. The Tanzanite Blue McLaren 750S pulled a lot of attention. Deep, smooth and striking, it absolutely looks the part. It sounds the part too, with the bark that only a V8 can produce on start-up, and the powertrain’s Sport mode brings it to life while driving too. You could argue it’s a bit ostentatious, but who doesn’t enjoy a few pops and thuds every now and then?

You can roll down the rear side window behind the cabin to make the most of this. As it turns out, this was also useful on the motorway, as it lets in fresh air without having to open the windows or remove the roof. Oh yes, the model tested is the Spider, as you may have noticed by looking at the pictures.

The remarkable thing about the McLaren 750S, which distinguishes all McLarens, is that it performs well in almost any driving situation. You don’t have to go flat out to enjoy its charms. Find a winding road and you’ll experience glorious ups and downs. This is thanks in no small part to McLaren’s insistence on retaining electro-hydraulic steering. The steering wheel is always alive in your hands, responsive to your every input. There are no dead zones, just feedback and interaction.

But how does it really drive?

This constant interaction immerses you in the driving experience. It’s a similar story with the pedals. The accelerator is pleasantly progressive and so is the brake pedal. The brakes obviously play a pretty important role and they work well. The popping up of the rear wing under heavy braking adds extra entertainment. Superfluous? Perhaps, but it adds to the aesthetics of such a car.

Acceleration is where you really learn about the McLaren 750S. From any speed, it just picks up speed and goes. In automatic mode, downshifts can fall a little short of your intentions, but bring the extended paddle shifters into play and you can always get to the rev range you want. They flick through nicely, which further encourages their use.

On the highway, where I spent much of my 628 miles in the McLaren 750S, it performs stunningly. Simply put, it’s just faster than everything else around it. Joining the highway, creating gaps, overtaking people in their super SUVs who think their cars are supercars (why is it always them?); the 750S just leaves it all behind effortlessly. It’s here, among “normal” cars, that you realise how extraordinary cars like the McLaren 750S are.

But you will long for the B-roads. Open the roof, let in nature and the sound of the V8, and become one with the road. It’s all very conscious and present, a form of meditation that few cars can offer.

If you muster the courage to scroll through the display and step on the gas, you can be sure that, at least for those brief moments, everything else will fade into the background. It pushes you back brutally and the speedometer switches through the numbers at an unreadable speed.

Diploma

A question I get asked a lot is: what is the best car you have ever driven? It’s a complicated question as different cars serve different purposes, but I usually say the McLaren 720S. It ticked all my boxes. Supercar looks, GT ride quality and incredible performance that completely connects you with the driving. The only downsides were a few issues with the build quality but absolutely nothing that would put me off buying one (if I could afford one!). The driving experience is right up there.

With that in mind, I was a little nervous about testing the McLaren 750S. Could it be as good as its predecessor, let alone surpass it? The 720S wasn’t exactly slow, so what would the performance upgrade do?

The compromise is perhaps most noticeable in the ride quality, but then again, this isn’t a GT, it’s a supercar. The emphasis is on performance, which it delivers with gusto in both power and handling. The ride quality is hard to call bad either. Build quality has also gone up a notch. The infotainment is easy to use, the Bowers and Wilkins stereo is strong, and nothing felt like it was about to fall off.

You have to remember sometimes that McLaren is still a young road car manufacturer. There have been mistakes and imperfections, not to mention several changes in management, but the McLaren 750S really feels like a strong step in the right direction. Performance and commitment were never in question, but the 750S feels like McLaren has everything else that matters, too.

But what you remember most is that it’s damn fast. You enjoy every kilometer and that overrides all other considerations.