RE: McLaren 720S: Driven

[Notanotherturbo]

br d said:

So fking what if they require "so little ability", is anybody berating you for how much "ability" the car you drive requires?

Live and let live FFS.

I'm not berating anyone , it's down to the manufacturers. When it all goes wrong on a dark wet road it would be nice if the person driving the car with 500 bhp per ton knew what the fk they were doing wouldn't it?

[Daisy Duke]

br d said:

corozin said:

I'm sure McLaren customers have got enough money to not care but £220k for a car that doesn't even come with parking sensors as standard. That's about £2½k if you want those by the way. A small BMW has them as standard.

How fortunate for McLaren that thier customers presumably are wealthy enough that they don't mind being mugged off.

And Lambo customers, and Ferrari customers, as I said, it goes with the territory.
Of course 5 grand for a sports exhaust or 3 grand for an ICE upgrade is extortionate but that's how it works.
Do you think that small BMW isn't making a commensurate profit?

Nobody has a gun to their head.

Yes I agree, it's endemic in the industry unfortunately, so if a McLaren customer is being a mug, so is pretty much any supercar owner. In fact if you want to see real pisstaking atm, you just have to look at the option prices for the NFGT, and don't get me started on what BMW tried to pull on the i8 with us!

The scary thing is, is how quickly it becomes normal, and you find yourself saying things like "I suppose £3.5k for a luggage set is pretty good really"! Sometimes you have to take a step back to get some perspective, but at the end of the day, if you want it you have to pay it.

Notanotherturbo said:

br d said:

So fking what if they require "so little ability", is anybody berating you for how much "ability" the car you drive requires?

Live and let live FFS.

I'm not berating anyone , it's down to the manufacturers. When it all goes wrong on a dark wet road it would be nice if the person driving the car with 500 bhp per ton knew what the fk they were doing wouldn't it?

Yes it would, and it would also be nice if the idiots I encounter on the A13 knew how to drive their stboxes, quite a few real supercar drivers have actually done some driver training so know how to handle their cars better than most people of 'normal' cars too.

[br d]

Notanotherturbo said:

I'm not berating anyone , it's down to the manufacturers. When it all goes wrong on a dark wet road it would be nice if the person driving the car with 500 bhp per ton knew what the fk they were doing wouldn't it?

But you can't start limiting other peoples choices based on your opinion of their driving.

Anyway, very crappy day at work yesterday and took a bit of an edge at your post, I am one of the "mugs" who pays over the top for the extras.
Shouldn't have dropped the "FFS" attitude into my post, apologies.

[Notanotherturbo]

br d said:

But you can't start limiting other peoples choices based on your opinion of their driving.

Anyway, very crappy day at work yesterday and took a bit of an edge at your post, I am one of the "mugs" who pays over the top for the extras.
Shouldn't have dropped the "FFS" attitude into my post, apologies.

No problemo :0). I love all quick cars - have 2500 bhp in my garage. If you have the money to pay for the extras that's fine I just find it irritating how the premium brands so blatantly over charge for parts and extras. My friends 355 had a sensor on the electronic dampers go down and it was more to replace 1 sensor than a top quality Japanese coil over kit with 4 sensors and a controller, I just can't be party to that sort of profiteering whether I could afford it or not.

Theres lots of rubbish drivers out there in all sorts of cars - I do 30k plus miles a year in the South East and London and some of the stuff I see is staggering. But years ago you needed to treat powerful cars with a lot of respect or you simply ended up in a ditch - or worse , so when you went quick it really tempered the liberties you would take - and lack of passive safety like airbags and ABS meant you were a lot more likely to end hurt if you had a crash. Now passive safety means you will often walk away from accidents that would have been fatal so for some people that will mean you would push harder than you would have done. Add that to the fact that all the stability and traction controls make it very hard to get into trouble if driven remotely sensibly makes you feel invincible. I dread to think how fast I would have driven on the public road when I was younger in todays cars!

[tjlees]

st the bed the options list is fking expensive!

At this level and price they are all quick and handle well - the differences are minimal on the uk road and pretty expensive to be throwing around at 10/10s on track to really differentiate them!

so for me it's comes down the looks, noise and quality. The 570 may have nailed the quality but it's not pretty from a fair few angles (especially head on front and to a lessor extant the rear view) and the noise is sadly lacking any drama when compared to other rivals.

Ferrari, Lamborghini or Porsche GTx make better alternatives IMHO - even before starting to look at running costs, practicality and reliability.

[Ftumpch]

I think it's absolutely stunning, and in a way reminds me quite a lot of what is probably the best-looking car ever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_XJR-14


... but now how about McLaren concentrate a bit harder on making it's F1 cars competitive, rather than churning out toys for people who are going to use them up to their potential only about 3% of the time??

[Desert Dragon]

isaldiri said:

Desert Dragon said:

Is it true its nearer 800 PS? Also whilst the design is very clever not having conventional side scoops like 488 could perhaps cause issues with cooling , IATs etc. I'm getting super close to maybe buying an McLaren one day.

I'm definitely clueless but will attempt an answer to this anyway Couldn't say if it really was 800PS but tbh I very much doubt it. Mclaren are not exactly famous for giving stuff away for free, if it was truly 800PS I'm dead certain they would say so and charge for it. The car though is definitely stunningly quick but I think it's more a combination of the hydraulic suspension putting down power incredibly well (I can for example almost (if not quite) stamp on the throttle out of a corner like a rear engine 911 on track in the 12c and that's a full generation ago) and Mclaren moving the torque curve around to deliver more power earlier as they did in the 570. I don't exactly have another 800PS car lying around to compare as well to be fair though! I couldn't answer the issues about cooling although a friend was on a McLaren trackday at Portimao earlier in the summer in near 40 celcius and he didn't have issues which is quite remarkable as I can guarantee the 650/12c would definitely have had to take a fair few breaks due to overheating.

Thanks. Now I do take HP claims especially from the US with a pinch of salt but worth looking at this if you have not already seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJGkpHIJUVQ

[Pesty]

Vocht said:

In the right spec I think it's absolutely gorgeous. Objectively I think it's the best supercar out right now.

Oh yeah

Added to euro lottery win list.

[Desert Dragon]

impressive vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdJpthicsdc

[corozin]

Daisy Duke said:

br d said:

corozin said:

I'm sure McLaren customers have got enough money to not care but £220k for a car that doesn't even come with parking sensors as standard. That's about £2½k if you want those by the way. A small BMW has them as standard.

How fortunate for McLaren that thier customers presumably are wealthy enough that they don't mind being mugged off.

And Lambo customers, and Ferrari customers, as I said, it goes with the territory.
Of course 5 grand for a sports exhaust or 3 grand for an ICE upgrade is extortionate but that's how it works.
Do you think that small BMW isn't making a commensurate profit?

Nobody has a gun to their head.

Yes I agree, it's endemic in the industry unfortunately, so if a McLaren customer is being a mug, so is pretty much any supercar owner. In fact if you want to see real pisstaking atm, you just have to look at the option prices for the NFGT, and don't get me started on what BMW tried to pull on the i8 with us!

Although not one myself (alas) I know a couple of wealthy folks and none of them are tightwads when it comes to nice things and good service. It just seems strange to me that these manufacturers so openly "nickel and dime" thier clients, as the Americans would say. Just sounds a bit pathetic when you're selling a car at this price point to option so many items, full on in the knowledge that they have to be specced in order to preserve the future resale value.

The worst example of this is the "option" to have Cavallino shields on the wings of Ferraris. Literally thousands to have a badge put on...

[Desert Dragon]

775bhp according to dyno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI8cxjbuD1E