McLaren 720s: What It’s All About

When McLaren announced that they were replacing their highly-acclaimed mid-range supercar, the 650S, with an all new car, codenamed the “P14”, it drove the automotive world into frenzied excitement.

Why? Well, this was the first time ever the British automaker was ever replacing a car in its lineup. Secondly, the 650S was already such a brilliant car. Where could the company possibly go next?

In 2017, Project “P14” was officially unveiled as the McLaren 720S. Easily the most beautiful McLaren, since the legendary F1, the 720S was an orgy of mind-bending performance figures — all wrapped up in a stunning shell of carbo fiber.

Here are some technical highlights that make the McLaren 720S a truly unique super sports car.

The Engine

Underneath the 720S’s exquisite carbon shroud, you’ll find the 4.0-liter turbocharged ‘M840T’ V8 engine — an engine McLaren designed from scratch for this car. Although the new engine is only 200 cubic centimeters larger than the outgoing one, it produces significantly more power than the outgoing unit: 710 hp vs 640 hp.

So how has McLaren achieved that? Well, the 720S’s engine is equipped with all-new twin-scroll turbochargers that have low-inertia aluminum-titanium turbines. The spinning efficiency of these new turbos is much higher than the ones found in the 650S, which translates into more power and better throttle response.

The Suspension

The 650S was acclaimed by automotive journalists all over the world for its amazingly versatile suspension setup — a unique system that was as capable on the road as it was on the track. The 720S retains much of that system, but with a number of improvements. The dampers in the new car are equipped with pressure sensors on the bottom and accelerometers on the top so they can relay the driving conditions to the onboard computer in real time. The computer then ensures that the suspension system always remains in optimal settings.

Chassis

With a dry weight of 3,167 pounds, the 720S is an extremely light vehicle — and we all know that in the world of performance automobiles, lightness is everything. This amazing lightness is courtesy of the “MonoCage” chassis, which is essentially a monocoque made entirely out of the highest-grade carbon fiber. In addition to being extremely light, the chassis is also incredibly stiff.