The mysterious disappearance of the 720s vs Senna video

[RacerMike]

A really good video was posted by Autocar yesterday with a 0-100-0 battle between the 720S and Senna. Perhaps controversially, the 720S was quicker to 60 and to 100mph, but lost slightly on the brakes. Overall I believe the Senna beat the 720S by a little over 0.3s in total I think.

Said video has now been deleted. Are we to assume then that McLaren weren’t happy? I find it bizarre. So what if the 720S is quicker to 100? Surely people haven’t bought the Senna for that, and surely anyone actually doing their research knows full well that any 720S that’s been near a dyno is showing closer to 800hp, so is it really that surprising that a car based on the same tub and engine gets largely identical performance figures when the power is largely the same?

I suspect the higher weight helps the traction of the 720S off the line and the stickier tyres of the Senna help it’s braking. I worked out that, from the times recorded, the Senna achieved 1.2g vs the 720S’s 1.1g, which would make sense in a Trofeo R vs Corsa comparison.

There was going to be a follow up with an Anglesey lap time, but I fear we won’t see this now if McLaren are getting sensitive about anyone daring to figure a car...

[MDL111]

In saw the video - was quite interesting

From McLaren's perspective, could one argue the video is actually good marketing for them as the Senna is sold out anyway (I believe) and they would like to sell more 720s? and as you say nobody who bought a Senna will particularly care

[Gandahar]

I was going to post same.

You can only think that Mclaren did pull it as did not beat the 720S up to 60, the Senna actually did beat the 720S to 100 even with that aero, so must have more power than the 720S, so presumably more than the "very healthy" 720's people have been getting.

As you mentioned, Senna is mainly for corners, only our USA brethren really get completely erect with acceleration figures and it is a shame the track viedo might get delayed now. Someone on the comments section said the driver was bad as did not get sub 3s 0-60, which shows how dumb people are now or don't realise with launch control there is little skill now.

It will be interesting to see how this develops. Has anyone tweeted autocar?

[Gandahar]

Note the stats are still here if anyone missed the video

https://www.motor1.com/news/267162/mclaren-senna-r...

No vid though of course. Note the sensationalist journalism there. When the 720S is quicker it reaches the times in "just" and then when loses it is only "by a blink of an eye". When it wins it is just by a blink of an eye too but they don't put that in there then. Apparently this is bad news for Senna buyers.

Now perhaps I understand why Mclaren did pull it...... ste writing

Edited by Gandahar on Wednesday 26th September 08:40

[RacerMike]

Gandahar said:

Someone on the comments section said the driver was bad as did not get sub 3s 0-60, which shows how dumb people are now or don't realise with launch control there is little skill now.

I saw that yes. Not even worth starting a conversation with people about that!

I seem to remember there was a similar issue with a P1 video a few years ago wasn't there? Was it EVO who did a lap time and the video was delayed because McLaren weren't happy they didn't complete it on the optional Trofeo Rs (and as such didn't beat the 918). Back in the early 2000's Ferrari were well known for their sensitivity to people figuring their cars, but generally only if it wasn't a press car (i.e. one that was slightly more equal than the production ones!).

It seems awfully paranoid to get so tetchy about magazines figuring your cars. It really flies in the face of people like Porsche who let people like Sport Auto try and set competitive times around the 'Ring which ultimately aren't close to their 'official' record. It makes absolutely no difference to sales though....

[isaldiri]

People who are always going to want to think badly of Mclaren of course have no problem doing so but until there's something better than 'I dislike Mclaren therefore they must have been pissed the Senna didnt beat the 720 and forced autocar to pull it', I think it's rather jumping to conclusions to believe it was pulled down to Mclaren.

And in any case given no one has a clue about the condition of the tests ie were the tyres warmed up, whether a few runs were down to average times esp with as small margins as 0-60, it's not exactly a precision test. It was a surprise that the car on trofeos (even with pretty firm rear suspension) would not get off the line faster than one on a corsa though.

Edited by isaldiri on Wednesday 26th September 10:45

[BlueIn2Red]

I don't see it as black and white as that at all - the OP was very balanced, simply asking an interesting question.

[WCZ]

case of paranoia here:

Autocar state:
"Nope, just a mistake on our part! The video will be back up in due course."

[RacerMike]

WCZ said:

case of paranoia here:

Autocar state:
"Nope, just a mistake on our part! The video will be back up in due course."

Well there we go! Mystery over and not caused by McLaren at all! Thanks for clearing up

[Gandahar]

WCZ said:

case of paranoia here:

Autocar state:
"Nope, just a mistake on our part! The video will be back up in due course."

Cheers, wonder how they can make a mistake on putting a video up? I guess a timing issue, but it took them a long time to notice it was up; they need to put notifications on

[justin220]

Really interesting video, shows what a performance 'bargain' the 720S is

[isaldiri]

RacerMike said:

Well there we go! Mystery over and not caused by McLaren at all! Thanks for clearing up

And what were you saying about McLaren again....'awfully paranoid'? Perhaps that should refer to you than them after all...

[RacerMike]

isaldiri said:

RacerMike said:

Well there we go! Mystery over and not caused by McLaren at all! Thanks for clearing up

And what were you saying about McLaren again....'awfully paranoid'? Perhaps that should refer to you than them after all...

Well. On the face of it, it seemed like it had been taken down, likely due to McLaren, hence the question on here! Low and behold, someone's solved the mystery....so asking the question was fairly useful. You'll notice I used 'awfully paranoid' after a couple of people had responded. My first post was fairly balanced, I'd hope!

[Gandahar]

RacerMike said:

isaldiri said:

RacerMike said:

Well there we go! Mystery over and not caused by McLaren at all! Thanks for clearing up

And what were you saying about McLaren again....'awfully paranoid'? Perhaps that should refer to you than them after all...

Well. On the face of it, it seemed like it had been taken down, likely due to McLaren, hence the question on here! Low and behold, someone's solved the mystery....so asking the question was fairly useful. You'll notice I used 'awfully paranoid' after a couple of people had responded. My first post was fairly balanced, I'd hope!

To me it was a fair question because

1. Past history is littered with manufacturers not being 100% of road tests in one form of another.
2. The length of time it was up before being removed.

Anyhow for now the mystery has not been fully solved as we do not know what the mistake was or when the video is likely to be put back up.


I bet we find the Senna a lot faster when we do get the video back ....




( a joke)

[RacerMike]

Gandahar said:

I bet we find the Senna a lot faster when we do get the video back ....




( a joke)

[nw942]

The video was just the tester (I thought it was Jethro Bovingdon) narrating over the individual tests.

The raw facts were there, but maybe they feel it needs some pieces to camera edited in too.

[Funk]

Surely what matters more is that the Senna will be significantly faster around a circuit and better to drive than the 720S - they're designed for different things. I also doubt very few humans this side of an F1 driver could identify the difference between 2.98sec to 60 and 3.14sec to 60 without the hardware measuring it.

[LotusJas]

Test round the circuit will be a meaningless comparison if the 720S is still on Corsas versus the Senna's Trofeo R tyres.


What's the point in a tyre comparison?


They need to compare the cars - on the same Trofeo R tyres.

[The Surveyor]

The video was back up last night, looked to be just the same as the one originally released. Same result in that the 720s was faster off the line and the Senna was quickest 0-100-0 overall.

[RacerMike]

The Surveyor said:

The video was back up last night, looked to be just the same as the one originally released. Same result in that the 720s was faster off the line and the Senna was quickest 0-100-0 overall.

Some kind of technical fault in the original video apparently! Not sure I noticed what that was! Will be interesting to see the lap time comparison.