750s or...?

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<incoming first world problem trigger warning>

I have a deposit down for a 750s spider. I do not, as yet, have a confirmed delivery date or spec lock date. As the weeks go by without an update on either, I can't help thinking that the money (about £330k) provides quite a wide range of alternatives.

Whatever I buy doesn't have to be new. It does need to be a convertible. It also needs to be very fast and a genuine pleasure to drive and own. It needs to look good - which is of course entirely subjective. It doesn't need to be loony hypercar fast, although I don't want to feel too much as though it's a step down from a McLaren.

I don't especially care about residuals. I will drive the car a good deal - my current 720s coupe has 21.5k miles and I'll probably add another 5k this year. It must be both reliable (don't laugh, my 720 has been faultless, ymmv) and usable - not an Aventador or something else that's hopeless around town. It needs to have at least as much luggage space as a 7x0s spider - not very much, but more than some - and a little more capacity would be a nice thing.

I would like to get it no later than next spring, and I don't want to have to pretend to like social media or play other stupid games in order to be permitted to buy it.

I have other toys, so please no "you could get a GT3RS and have change for a used [insert car here]". I have a GT3RS - so although competent track performance would be a nice to have, I won't be routinely tracking the car. I also have a couple of old Porsches - I'm not looking for a classic.

To save time I'll rule out the 992 Turbo S (boring and see above regarding Porsches) and the 296 because I think it's ugly. I quite like the looks of the 488/F8 but haven't driven either - and I think the Roma is a rather excellent looking thing, but is it sharp enough? So many other choices, though...

Sticking with the 750 order is of course an option, but WWYD?

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samoht said:

On the Ferrari front I'd look at a lightly used 812 GTS, more different from another McLaren and would seem reasonably usable
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202212282...

This Huracan looked pretty special in the metal, if you fit in the Huracan/R8 Spyders may be worth considering
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202206176...


I'd probably end up getting a 720 Spider, since I'm not convinced the 750 will be better enough to pay ~£100k more for, and if it turns out later that it is, you can always pick one up nearly new then. But if you want to buy new, then why not.

I can't find a 720 spider in the spec I want. That was always the plan originally but after more than 6 months of looking I jumped at the 750 instead. Weirdly the spec I like (grey or blue over light tan leather) is quite common in Ferraris, but almost all McLarens have the pretend racecar black alcantara thing going on. There seem to have been almost no luxury spiders, and of that almost none, even fewer have a light interior. The extra £100k+ is indeed not obvious value - in fact for me the use of the 765 ratios is a step back, not forward.

I feel as though the 812 is a much bigger and less wieldy car - but perhaps I should go and look at one. The R8 doesn't excite me and I have a slightly prejudiced view of Lamborghinis. What actually prompted the post was a YT video of the new DB12 - not yet a convertible, obviously, and not necessarily my thing, but the closing segment where they talk about the expected price reminded me that if I'm prepared to pay for a 750 then I can consider pretty much everything else in the supercar/super-GT segment.

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AndyC_123 said:

Pista Spider?

Aren't those rather more expensive?

...your edit noted. Quite.

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Nuttbelle said:

Hold out for a 720S spider in a spec you like unless you are " comfortable" spending almost twice the
money and immediately losing £100k on a new 750S which looks like a mild face-lift IMHO.

Not much beats a £200k 720S spider.

Indeed. But you find a spider in a non-shouty colour with a light luxury interior, electro roof, exterior carbon 1 and interior carbon 1 & 2 and B&W. [Seriously if you find one, I'll buy it].

Frankly at this stage I'd take one with a black lux interior if I had to. There's a silver car at Ascot that might do the job in extremis (wrong interior completely and no interior carbon 2) but they're remarkably aggressive on cost to change. Maybe I should just suck that up. I've missed a couple of cars that approximated what I'm looking for from them because they wouldn't move on price and underbid me £15k on my car (compared to other Mcdealers). It's not the money so much as the principle - and no, I can't explain why overpaying £25k for a used 720 puts me off when instantly losing £100k on a new one is somehow fine.

The whole dark grey alcantara on everything approach leaves me cold - or worse, the dark grey alcantara with shouty orange inserts thing. I do wish McLaren produced more cars with Ferrari-like interiors. I like a bit of light-coloured leather with interesting upholstery detail - this is pretty much the spec of my 750 order: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202304066...

I might have to go and look at it but I'm just not a Ferrari person, I think

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justin220 said:

For that money, could you get into a 765LT spider?

Edit, maybe not quite.. but wow what a thing!

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2023031050...

Prices are falling, but not that fast. Also subtle spec and 765 are not words often found in the same sentence.

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RSbandit said:

Maserati MC20 Cielo? Wouldn’t be as quick as the 720/750 but beautiful looking thing and it’s a Maserati !

That is a thought, although I don't know about availability. Also isn't the rear boot more of an oven than a sensible place to keep madam's shoes?

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RSbandit said:

Not sure on luggage space ! I thought you had put a deposit down on a 720s Spider at Hatfield that had a tan interior ?

No - I had a deal on an Amaranth (interesting purply black) spider with a dark interior as a reluctant compromise (and because it was good value) but they couldn't get the car to work properly, so I never bought it. Eventually that led to an order for a new 750 instead. I've even looked at getting a car retrimmed, I might revisit that if my 750 order gets pushed out a long way.

They are supposed to be looking for an interim 720 spider. James was dangling a Volcano red car with an almond lux interior at me, but he doesn't actually own it and apparently the owner doesn't want to sell. So I'm still in the coupe.

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fridaypassion said:

With that budget the only car for me would be the 458 Speciale

For more modern cars there's not much to touch the McLarens but I would probably go for a 764LT you'll certainly have more of a chance of it holding money the 750 will burn 100k the second you own it.

The only 458 Speciale Aperta in the classifieds is £700k, so I'm not sure it's quite in budget.

The trouble with 765s is that they tend to be, erm, individual specifications. I'm not a huge fan of the looks, either. They're also still somewhat over budget but prices are falling, so I'm not sure they're as a safe a bet as you think - especially since I like to drive my cars and 765s are hugely mileage-sensitive.

I'm really not that bothered about residuals, though. I grew up buying cars before the market went silly, so my general expectation is to lose my shirt on all of them. As a consequence, though, I have no fear of putting miles on them either. It seems a terrible shame to me that so many cars are barely driven - all these 458s that have done 10,000 miles in 10 years (the *highest* mileage Speciale in the classifieds has done 13,000 since 2014). I did 30,000 miles in four years in a 993 RS back in the day, including about 5,000 on track. Still the best driver's car I've ever owned, but I sold it for £26,000 (in the early 2000s) which represented about a 40% drop from what I'd paid for it.

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TP321 said:

What was the price with spec for the 765lt coupe and spider? Are they still overs?

Still a little over, I think - about £380k for a spider without loony MSO options, £320-£350k for a coupe. I'd guess coupes specced out to about £280-300k, with spiders coming in around £30k more. Although Glasgow has a coupe for under £300k, which is the first time I've seen that - not that I've been following prices that closely.

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rawenghey said:

Assuming if you bought the spider then the coupe would get traded in, as I don't see the point in keeping both.

If you're keeping the coupe, then I think the 812 GTS would be a great partner in crime. Ballistic in a straight line with the NA V12 sound track, looks the business and properly upholstered with the lighter leather options. I'm with you on the preference for light coloured leathers over wannabe racecar alcantara nonsense too.

Either way, a wonderful position to be in. Well played

Thank you. Interesting that you bring that up. I've certainly told my wife that I will be trading in the coupe. But I think the coupe is a better resolved design than the spider and I'm very fond of mine. I usually end up regretting selling my cars (and look like the world's worst investor - 993RS sold for £26k, 964 Turbo 3.6 sold for £35k, GT3 mk1 sold for £45k, shall I go on?). So I am tempted to squirrel it away somewhere. Which does raise the question of whether I actually need two McLaren 7x0s. I'll have to go and look at an 812, and at the 488. And, I suppose, at an MC20 although I think the bootspace issue will be a problem.

Interesting that no-one has mentioned Astons. No love for the DBS or the new DB12?

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rawenghey said:

Starting from scratch I'd prefer something like a 488 coupe and a McLaren spider due the carbon tub. I also prefer Ferrari's slightly more subdued styling overall. I do wonder how different they're all going to feel from each other, though, when they're all 200mph+, mid-engined, high-powered turbocharged monsters. Hence the FR V12 suggestion. You're right on the Astons actually, maybe they would provide a different experience.

On the buying and selling side, it sounds like you have the right attitude to be honest man. Buy them, enjoy them, sell them. Nobody's gonna give us a score card once all is said and done. Interested to see what you end up in.

It's a horses for courses sort of thing - I have:

• a purple 991.1 GT3RS for track days - it's too lairy for my purposes elsewhere, although I'll have to bring it to one of the PH GT days at some point;
• a rather lovely (though I say so myself) and rare 964 widebody cabriolet that I have just had fully rebuilt and restomodded for noodling about on the continent and general posing; a car on which I have lavished care and expense far in excess of its value;
• an ex-HSCC racecar 356SC that's been put back to road spec but with the race engine. I don't know what this is for, really, but I love it - perhaps its main value is that you can hoon it flat out round Goodwood without scaring the bejesus out of yourself and look period while you're at it. Oh, and for going to the Revival;
• a variety of boring family things - Ovlov Chelsea tractor, BMW milk float for my wife to smoke about in smokelessly, delightful old new Fiat 500 for unsuitable locations and offspring learner driving duties;
• ...and a Peugeot 304S cabriolet that is technically my wife's, lives in France, and is almost certainly terminally broken. Again. Classics. Feh.

So the McLaren/Ferrari/Aston/whatever needs to be a) an actual car that works all the time for actually getting to places without death from SUV-induced boredom b) also suitable for continental touring (because who tries to have fun on the roads in the SE of England?) and therefore equipped with almost enough luggage space for all the shoes and c) capable of organ-rearranging levels of maximum attack when an appropriate mountain road presents itself during (b). I don't really need two of these - nor would I have the time to drive them, nor would I want the agony of choosing which to take.

But when did necessity ever feature in these calculations?

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Interim (at least) solution now inbound. Will update on Wednesday...

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Interim solution.

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RSbandit said:

V nice …Ludus blue? did they give you a guaranteed trade in price once the 750s is ready ?!

Belize. And no - different dealer. That was originally the plan, but they couldn't source the right car.

On the other hand, this was at the time the cheapest 720 spider in the country, so I think I bought it fairly well. Although the trade-in price on my coupe was matchingly painful. I suppose I could have sold it myself, but I can never be bothered with that. I did think about keeping it, but even I couldn't come up with a good reason to own two 720s.

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samoht said:

Oh wow, that's gorgeous. The colour, the wheels, the contrast to the black bits. And do I spy a leather (not alcantara) interior also?

Great stuff - I'll be interested to hear how ownership compares with the coupe you've swapped out of, esp regarding the luggage space / open air trade-off.

Yes - luxury interior was a must-have. I would have preferred almond white, but not in a belize car. There is one almond white lux spider available, but it's volcano red (I think the car's at McBrum, from memory). That's not a combination for me on a McLaren - too Ferrari-esque. So a black (well, dark grey, if we're honest) lux interior in a light exterior was a good second choice.

WRT luggage space I've started to find tours that have a separate service vehicle that carries your luggage from place to place. Given that noodling about in a supercar is already fairly indulgent, adding that doesn't seem too ridiculous. Otherwise I guess I'll just have to pack lighter still to leave room for all the shoes.

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Welp. Just bought the 720 spider because no news about the 750. Today I get an email confirming the slot and promising November delivery. November this year. Possibly the 720 wasn't the most intelligent purchase of my life, then... Since I'm mostly travelling this year, I may be looking at an all-time record for depreciation per mile driven. Oops.

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FOK date (production complete) 21/11/2023. Car with dealer end of month. Car with me second weekend in December.

This is beginning to feel exciting...

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Well, it's been built.

In PDI:



On its way to the PPF installer:


I should be collecting next weekend, all being well with the PPF.

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It's here. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

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Looking good, my friend. I'll admit to adding the soundtrack to my video partly to replace my inadvertent comments. Email me your vid if you want the same treatment. Which red is that?

I see you went for the louvres. I havered and then decided I preferred the look without. What's your impression now you've seen it in the flesh? I note that all of the press cars had them.