2021 McLaren GT
Discussion
So, the day has finally arrived and I signed the paperwork to buy a new car to replace the M5. I've failed spectacularly to keep previous ownership threads updated but this one I'm really going to try and keep up to date (I promise!)
Before I talk about the car, a little bit of back story. Like a great many people, the last two years have been pretty tough for me. My Mum is terminally ill and my Dad has had some very scary health issues, both of which have basically robbed them of their lifelong retirement plans. I have decided that, while I am keeping half an eye on my retirement, I'm going to push the boat out and achieve an achievable dream now while I am able. I've wanted a "special" car in various forms since I was old enough to know what a car was so I thought well **** it, lets go buy one. Carpe Diem and all that.
I wanted a car that I could have loads of fun with on a weekend so initially went down the road of looking at Lotus Exige S3s. The mrs rightly suggested that we'd want to use it for long trips away and so on and an Exige would be a living hell for that. I didn't want another M car - as good as they are and as much of a BMW fanboi as I am, I wanted something much more special. My attention turned to a long term dream car of mine, a Ferrari 599. Unfortunately, they are just a little bit too old, not all that great to drive due to the F1 gearbox and the sheer size of the thing and the running costs can be berserk. I really wanted to like the California T and Portofino but they fell a bit flat for me. Great engine to drive but a bit soulless for a Ferrari and the interior quality isn't all that great IMO in terms of perceived quality. The Aston Martin DB11 AMR was another serious consideration. I loved a lot of things about the DB11 - the engine is absolutely ridiculous, the 'aura' around the car and the prestige of the brand is top notch as well. The seats are super comfortable and the split personality between GT mode and Sport/Track is the starkest of any car I can recollect meaning it is great to just pootle around in but fast when you want it to be. Unfortunately, it weighs quite a lot and can't hide it so when pressing on I was left with the impression that I'd be disappointed when I got off the autobahn/autoroute/autostrada and onto more fun roads. Merc ruled themselves out from consideration with their ridiculously rude service on multiple occasions. I'm never going back to them as a brand in future, bridges fully alight there. A shame, as I like the look of the GT R and it sounds like God gargling on spanners down a megaphone.
I've had a few conversations with people over the months and was repeatedly nudged to actually take a look at a McLaren 570GT and, for a bit more cash, a 720S. A lot of YouTube later and I had a booking in to go test drive a McLaren GT.
Sometimes, you get into a car and you just know its the one for you. That is what it was like for me with the McLaren GT. It is sporty enough to have serious fun - more than enough on the roads at least - without being absolutely totally bonkers like the 720S. 612bhp and relatively low weight means it isn't exactly slow even if it is 100+hp down on the 720S. It is at least as refined as the M5 in terms of ride comfort albeit very slightly noisier over savage bumps but is so so much sharper to drive, faster absolutely everywhere and feels just insanely special to be in and around.
So there we have it, my new car is a 2021 McLaren GT Luxury in MSO Defined Papaya Spark. It has the MSO Black Pack (largely good except the black wheels which are getting sorted) and some interior CF bits like the wheel and paddles which won't have been cheap knowing McLaren. There are other must-have options like the practicality pack, premium pack and panoramic roof as well, so the spec is pretty much exactly as I'd want it.
Dealer pics as I've not collected it yet:
Somehow I need to find a way to sleep between now and collection day!
N.B. X-posted from elsewhere so a few initial posts to catch things up here!
Before I talk about the car, a little bit of back story. Like a great many people, the last two years have been pretty tough for me. My Mum is terminally ill and my Dad has had some very scary health issues, both of which have basically robbed them of their lifelong retirement plans. I have decided that, while I am keeping half an eye on my retirement, I'm going to push the boat out and achieve an achievable dream now while I am able. I've wanted a "special" car in various forms since I was old enough to know what a car was so I thought well **** it, lets go buy one. Carpe Diem and all that.
I wanted a car that I could have loads of fun with on a weekend so initially went down the road of looking at Lotus Exige S3s. The mrs rightly suggested that we'd want to use it for long trips away and so on and an Exige would be a living hell for that. I didn't want another M car - as good as they are and as much of a BMW fanboi as I am, I wanted something much more special. My attention turned to a long term dream car of mine, a Ferrari 599. Unfortunately, they are just a little bit too old, not all that great to drive due to the F1 gearbox and the sheer size of the thing and the running costs can be berserk. I really wanted to like the California T and Portofino but they fell a bit flat for me. Great engine to drive but a bit soulless for a Ferrari and the interior quality isn't all that great IMO in terms of perceived quality. The Aston Martin DB11 AMR was another serious consideration. I loved a lot of things about the DB11 - the engine is absolutely ridiculous, the 'aura' around the car and the prestige of the brand is top notch as well. The seats are super comfortable and the split personality between GT mode and Sport/Track is the starkest of any car I can recollect meaning it is great to just pootle around in but fast when you want it to be. Unfortunately, it weighs quite a lot and can't hide it so when pressing on I was left with the impression that I'd be disappointed when I got off the autobahn/autoroute/autostrada and onto more fun roads. Merc ruled themselves out from consideration with their ridiculously rude service on multiple occasions. I'm never going back to them as a brand in future, bridges fully alight there. A shame, as I like the look of the GT R and it sounds like God gargling on spanners down a megaphone.
I've had a few conversations with people over the months and was repeatedly nudged to actually take a look at a McLaren 570GT and, for a bit more cash, a 720S. A lot of YouTube later and I had a booking in to go test drive a McLaren GT.
Sometimes, you get into a car and you just know its the one for you. That is what it was like for me with the McLaren GT. It is sporty enough to have serious fun - more than enough on the roads at least - without being absolutely totally bonkers like the 720S. 612bhp and relatively low weight means it isn't exactly slow even if it is 100+hp down on the 720S. It is at least as refined as the M5 in terms of ride comfort albeit very slightly noisier over savage bumps but is so so much sharper to drive, faster absolutely everywhere and feels just insanely special to be in and around.
So there we have it, my new car is a 2021 McLaren GT Luxury in MSO Defined Papaya Spark. It has the MSO Black Pack (largely good except the black wheels which are getting sorted) and some interior CF bits like the wheel and paddles which won't have been cheap knowing McLaren. There are other must-have options like the practicality pack, premium pack and panoramic roof as well, so the spec is pretty much exactly as I'd want it.
Dealer pics as I've not collected it yet:
Somehow I need to find a way to sleep between now and collection day!
N.B. X-posted from elsewhere so a few initial posts to catch things up here!
Picked it up earlier today. Couldn’t be happier!
I’d managed to keep it a secret from my partner as well, so I’m pleased to report that I am still alive and unhurt. A Jo Malone candle might have influenced that outcome somewhat!
L322 Range Rover, Mk7.5 Golf and a McLaren GT. Not a terrible 3-car garage
I’d managed to keep it a secret from my partner as well, so I’m pleased to report that I am still alive and unhurt. A Jo Malone candle might have influenced that outcome somewhat!
L322 Range Rover, Mk7.5 Golf and a McLaren GT. Not a terrible 3-car garage
Given that I moved house on the Saturday and collected the car on the Monday, the garage was in something of a state. I cleared enough room to get the car in but had about 1" front and rear clearance between the racking and garage door. Last night I spent some time clearing a much bigger space, moving the racking etc etc so now I've got about 2ft of room front to back.
Future plans are to seal and tile the garage floor in something like ribtrax, insulate/board the walls and ceiling and replace the doors and window. The walls are just a single skin of brick so I want to at least try and keep the temperature above the outside temp in the winter to some extent. Not so much for the car but for the other stuff in there. I've got a dessicant dehumidifier on the go in there in the mean time to take the edge off any moisture in the air. It doesn't feel particularly damp but still, it'll help.
Future plans are to seal and tile the garage floor in something like ribtrax, insulate/board the walls and ceiling and replace the doors and window. The walls are just a single skin of brick so I want to at least try and keep the temperature above the outside temp in the winter to some extent. Not so much for the car but for the other stuff in there. I've got a dessicant dehumidifier on the go in there in the mean time to take the edge off any moisture in the air. It doesn't feel particularly damp but still, it'll help.
One week update!
Had a few minor issues First one was that every single time I started the car I'd get a call from the tracker company. Seemingly a litany of random BS issues from the GPS signal being weak in the garage to being around tall buildings or it moving before the engine was started (wtf?!) etc. That is until I spoke to someone there who knew what they were doing and correctly diagnosed it as a weak battery in the tracker fob. Replaced that, did a reset and all my tracker woes were resolved! Second issue was that I was struggling to get it to lock and unlock sometimes but not always. After the tracker fob issue I thought I might as well try a new battery in the key and again, instant resolution of those issues. BMW replaced the batteries in my keys (where possible) on handover of previous cars so I'd presumed McLaren would have done the same but clearly not.
My only other issue so far is that the angle/height/curve of the front plate clearly disagrees with some ANPR systems I regularly use. This is a minor gripe but extremely irritating as doing something as simple as getting your arm out the window to wave a fob/card/whatever at a regular-height post is actually quite hard. In previous low cars (and I've had a few!) you could simply pop the door open a bit to get some more lean angle but that is impossible with dihedral doors... First world problems and all that but still...
Everything else is mega - the performance is more than adequate, the interior is a nice place to be and to live with on a long journey, the B&W sound system absolutely rocks and on a steady cruise at regular motorway speeds in regular motorway traffic over 200 miles it returned 32.2mpg which I did not expect. I have of course averaged somewhere around 11mpg elsewhere as it is definitely not frugal when you open the taps! One pull 0-60 saw the predicted range drop from 225 miles to 45 miles
The positive attention it gets is really surprising - so many people who love McLaren through the F1 team or the road cars have come up to ask to take photos of/with it. Obviously it is hardly subtle being bright orange and I expected it'd get the odd bit of attention but not quite this much. Especially because it is a GT which isn't top of the list for most people when it comes to desirable McLarens.
Took it to a couple of events over the weekend, one at The Motorist near Leeds and the other to Cars and Coffee Cheshire. Both events were superbly run and well attended and I'd recommend both to anyone into cars.
Had a few minor issues
First one was that every single time I started the car I'd get a call from the tracker company. Seemingly a litany of random BS issues from the GPS signal being weak in the garage to being around tall buildings or it moving before the engine was started (wtf?!) etc. That is until I spoke to someone there who knew what they were doing and correctly diagnosed it as a weak battery in the tracker fob. Replaced that, did a reset and all my tracker woes were resolved! Second issue was that I was struggling to get it to lock and unlock sometimes but not always. After the tracker fob issue I thought I might as well try a new battery in the key and again, instant resolution of those issues. BMW replaced the batteries in my keys (where possible) on handover of previous cars so I'd presumed McLaren would have done the same but clearly not.My only other issue so far is that the angle/height/curve of the front plate clearly disagrees with some ANPR systems I regularly use. This is a minor gripe but extremely irritating as doing something as simple as getting your arm out the window to wave a fob/card/whatever at a regular-height post is actually quite hard. In previous low cars (and I've had a few!) you could simply pop the door open a bit to get some more lean angle but that is impossible with dihedral doors... First world problems and all that but still...
Everything else is mega - the performance is more than adequate, the interior is a nice place to be and to live with on a long journey, the B&W sound system absolutely rocks and on a steady cruise at regular motorway speeds in regular motorway traffic over 200 miles it returned 32.2mpg which I did not expect. I have of course averaged somewhere around 11mpg elsewhere as it is definitely not frugal when you open the taps! One pull 0-60 saw the predicted range drop from 225 miles to 45 miles
The positive attention it gets is really surprising - so many people who love McLaren through the F1 team or the road cars have come up to ask to take photos of/with it. Obviously it is hardly subtle being bright orange and I expected it'd get the odd bit of attention but not quite this much. Especially because it is a GT which isn't top of the list for most people when it comes to desirable McLarens.
Took it to a couple of events over the weekend, one at The Motorist near Leeds and the other to Cars and Coffee Cheshire. Both events were superbly run and well attended and I'd recommend both to anyone into cars.
Jerry - I am thinking of just buying a set like yours so I can retain the OEM wheels in the correct finish. That's going to cost an arm and a leg though so I am leaning toward getting them refinished in a colour similar to BMW Ferric Grey or another gunmetal type colour. I want to get it right so I'm waiting a bit longer to see where my mind lands.
D1on - An iPhone 13 Pro Max! I sold my complete "pro" photography/studio setup over the winter and I reckon for at least 75% of the time my iPhone is good enough for lifestyle/travel stuff. I am probably going to end up with a small mirrorless of some sort, probably a Fuji.
D1on - An iPhone 13 Pro Max! I sold my complete "pro" photography/studio setup over the winter and I reckon for at least 75% of the time my iPhone is good enough for lifestyle/travel stuff. I am probably going to end up with a small mirrorless of some sort, probably a Fuji.
D1on said:
That's brilliant, I'm on android presently but i think your pictures have swayed me to get an iPhone
Do you use any image apps on there or is that straight out the camera?
Straight out of the camera, save for the first one where I obviously crudely blanked the plates. I would say they are representative of how "snaps" come out unedited.Do you use any image apps on there or is that straight out the camera?
Update time!
I am coming up to about 600 miles driven now which is plenty of time to get to know things on a better level than any test drive could give you. I could write a very long post here but I will try to keep it brief.
I am still getting used to the way the numbers on the speedo increase. On paper and certainly at lower speeds it shouldn’t be all that different to the M5 - but it is. Significantly. It doesn’t actually feel all that much faster in a strange sort of way except at full throttle beyond 6k rpm - but if I accelerate so that I feel like I’m getting shoved at about the same rate as I did in the M5 and actually look at the speedo, it is absolutely insane how much faster I am travelling. I need to completely recalibrate my senses as I cannot yet quite fathom the immediacy with which big speeds appear on the dashboard. I think the refinement of it all helps mask a significant chunk of the speed which I wasn’t expecting at all.
The steering is sublime and gets better the more I get used to it. Initially, to me it felt a bit like it weighted up too quickly and made the car feel “heavy” but that’s just years in FR cars and compromised steering to train out of my brain. I need to remember my previous mid-engine car ownership experience and consciously apply it - and when I do I am very much rewarded. It is a total joy to actively thread down a country lane at legal speeds (or indeed at any speed).
The ride is superb. I don’t mean “for a McLaren” or “for a sporty car” I mean in general, compared to almost anything it is eerily good. It is definitely better than anything else I was looking at, better than the M5 and probably on par with the Range Rover. Not as quiet by a long chalk but in pure physical comfort terms it is sensational. How they’ve done it I don’t know but it is magical to be in a car like this driving down cobbled streets in total comfort.
Finally, the measure of customer service is rarely when buying something and invariably when things go wrong does the truth of an organisation emerge. I have noticed a slight (and I do mean slight) clicking when I open the driver side door. The passenger side is silent so I put a call in to the dealer to ask if it is normal/expected for such a noise to be there. They offered me a slot straight away to come down and demonstrate the noise to them and get an opinion on it. I only had to open the door once for them to confirm that no, the noise is not normal. The master technician said it would be only the second time he’d seen the issue in his many years of working on these cars and the gas strut needs to be replaced. While I was there I also asked him about a couple of other absolutely minuscule items I had noticed (like the frunk being more difficult to close than I anticipated but only when it is a cold day) and all of them were acknowledged, understood, diagnosed and are being addressed without question. Frankly I wouldn’t have even bothered with anything so trivial on any previous car I’ve owned but they are bending over backwards to help as they want the cars to be absolutely perfect. The entire experience was superb and exactly the opposite of what The Internet would have you believe about dealing with warranty stuff at McLaren.
I am coming up to about 600 miles driven now which is plenty of time to get to know things on a better level than any test drive could give you. I could write a very long post here but I will try to keep it brief.
I am still getting used to the way the numbers on the speedo increase. On paper and certainly at lower speeds it shouldn’t be all that different to the M5 - but it is. Significantly. It doesn’t actually feel all that much faster in a strange sort of way except at full throttle beyond 6k rpm - but if I accelerate so that I feel like I’m getting shoved at about the same rate as I did in the M5 and actually look at the speedo, it is absolutely insane how much faster I am travelling. I need to completely recalibrate my senses as I cannot yet quite fathom the immediacy with which big speeds appear on the dashboard. I think the refinement of it all helps mask a significant chunk of the speed which I wasn’t expecting at all.
The steering is sublime and gets better the more I get used to it. Initially, to me it felt a bit like it weighted up too quickly and made the car feel “heavy” but that’s just years in FR cars and compromised steering to train out of my brain. I need to remember my previous mid-engine car ownership experience and consciously apply it - and when I do I am very much rewarded. It is a total joy to actively thread down a country lane at legal speeds (or indeed at any speed).
The ride is superb. I don’t mean “for a McLaren” or “for a sporty car” I mean in general, compared to almost anything it is eerily good. It is definitely better than anything else I was looking at, better than the M5 and probably on par with the Range Rover. Not as quiet by a long chalk but in pure physical comfort terms it is sensational. How they’ve done it I don’t know but it is magical to be in a car like this driving down cobbled streets in total comfort.
Finally, the measure of customer service is rarely when buying something and invariably when things go wrong does the truth of an organisation emerge. I have noticed a slight (and I do mean slight) clicking when I open the driver side door. The passenger side is silent so I put a call in to the dealer to ask if it is normal/expected for such a noise to be there. They offered me a slot straight away to come down and demonstrate the noise to them and get an opinion on it. I only had to open the door once for them to confirm that no, the noise is not normal. The master technician said it would be only the second time he’d seen the issue in his many years of working on these cars and the gas strut needs to be replaced. While I was there I also asked him about a couple of other absolutely minuscule items I had noticed (like the frunk being more difficult to close than I anticipated but only when it is a cold day) and all of them were acknowledged, understood, diagnosed and are being addressed without question. Frankly I wouldn’t have even bothered with anything so trivial on any previous car I’ve owned but they are bending over backwards to help as they want the cars to be absolutely perfect. The entire experience was superb and exactly the opposite of what The Internet would have you believe about dealing with warranty stuff at McLaren.
As promised elsewhere, here is a mini review of my courtesy car, a 2022 McLaren 720S!
As mentioned, the GT has a few little things that need to be sorted so while they are attending to that I have use of this 720S. I did shortlist a 720S Luxury but decided it was a compromise too far from what I needed the car to do so this is a great opportunity to really see what life would have been like had I gone the other way.
This car is in an interesting spec and not one I personally would have gone for myself but they did it for a display of "you can have the car configured any way you want if your pockets are deep enough" I think. It is McLaren Orange (not Papaya Spark like my car) with a dark grey metallic frunk lid, spoiler and rear bumper with a dark blue stripe running front to back down the middle of the car. There are other dark blue bits here and there. I'll take some better pictures of the front when I get some time and you'll get a better idea of what I'm talking about. The interior has the manual seats which are not especially uncomfortable but neither are they comfortable. They hold you well enough in the right places but they are very firm. I certainly prefer the comfy electric memory seats in my GT!
Speaking of things that are better in the GT, the infotainment and screens are much better than in the 720S. I honestly don't think I could live with the system in the 720S, it is pretty much as bad as the system in my Dad's Mitsubishi Outlander. The screens are visibly dated by any modern standard and coming from the GT it is immediately quite noticeable. With this being a 2022 car I thought they might have filtered the newer screen tech into the parts bin for the 720S but no. Audio is still B&W in this car but it is different, the speakers look smaller and it is either not quite as good or the extra road noise of the 720S makes it harder to hear music when on the move. Other than that, despite McLaren's claims the GT cabin is roomier and so on, it isn't. Or at least not in any meaningful way. My head is about 1.5cm from the roof in the GT and it is about 4cm from the roof in the 720S which probably helps that feel. Width is not noticeable inside the cabin but on the road the 720S definitely feels narrower.
Performance is stratospheric. As fast as the GT is, this is on another level entirely. I was convinced by my test drive that the 720S was too much car to be responsibly enjoyed on UK public roads and this extended experience is just confirming it. I know the measured numbers say the 720S is 7.8s to 124mph and the GT is 9.0 but it feels at least 50% faster than the GT even if it isn't. Part of that is down to how refined the GT is in comparison, part of it is the extra 100bhp, part of it is the way the power is delivered. Part of it might be McLaren heavily sandbagging the performance claims. Whatever the recipe might be, the overall impression is of a car that is sensationally fast. I truly cannot begin to convey in words the reality of what this is like to someone who hasn't experienced it for themselves. I don't think I have driven anything on the road quite as potent as this car. For reference, the new M5cs does 0-124mph in 10.4s, a Ferrari F40 did it in about 11s and the "holy trinity" hypercars were all just under 7s. Rapid.
Noise is seemingly always a "thing" when people talk about McLaren. The 720S sounds very different to the GT in tone and loudness and I think overall it is a bit more brash. I love how in-your-face the noise is, it is a lot higher pitched than the GT which is more of a baritone sound. My GT has the optional sports exhaust and I think this 720S has one too and I would say that the 720S in its quietest mode is as loud as the GT in Sport. Full chat in the 720S is a wonderful noise to my ears. No, it isn't a Ferrari V12 or anything like it but it is still a supercar soundtrack to relish while we still can!
Overall, very happy with it as a courtesy car (but come on, how could I not be?!). I do think I've made the right call buying the GT for what I want from a car plus it won't ruin every other car for me in terms of performance like a 720S long term would...
As mentioned, the GT has a few little things that need to be sorted so while they are attending to that I have use of this 720S. I did shortlist a 720S Luxury but decided it was a compromise too far from what I needed the car to do so this is a great opportunity to really see what life would have been like had I gone the other way.
This car is in an interesting spec and not one I personally would have gone for myself but they did it for a display of "you can have the car configured any way you want if your pockets are deep enough" I think. It is McLaren Orange (not Papaya Spark like my car) with a dark grey metallic frunk lid, spoiler and rear bumper with a dark blue stripe running front to back down the middle of the car. There are other dark blue bits here and there. I'll take some better pictures of the front when I get some time and you'll get a better idea of what I'm talking about. The interior has the manual seats which are not especially uncomfortable but neither are they comfortable. They hold you well enough in the right places but they are very firm. I certainly prefer the comfy electric memory seats in my GT!
Speaking of things that are better in the GT, the infotainment and screens are much better than in the 720S. I honestly don't think I could live with the system in the 720S, it is pretty much as bad as the system in my Dad's Mitsubishi Outlander. The screens are visibly dated by any modern standard and coming from the GT it is immediately quite noticeable. With this being a 2022 car I thought they might have filtered the newer screen tech into the parts bin for the 720S but no. Audio is still B&W in this car but it is different, the speakers look smaller and it is either not quite as good or the extra road noise of the 720S makes it harder to hear music when on the move. Other than that, despite McLaren's claims the GT cabin is roomier and so on, it isn't. Or at least not in any meaningful way. My head is about 1.5cm from the roof in the GT and it is about 4cm from the roof in the 720S which probably helps that feel. Width is not noticeable inside the cabin but on the road the 720S definitely feels narrower.
Performance is stratospheric. As fast as the GT is, this is on another level entirely. I was convinced by my test drive that the 720S was too much car to be responsibly enjoyed on UK public roads and this extended experience is just confirming it. I know the measured numbers say the 720S is 7.8s to 124mph and the GT is 9.0 but it feels at least 50% faster than the GT even if it isn't. Part of that is down to how refined the GT is in comparison, part of it is the extra 100bhp, part of it is the way the power is delivered. Part of it might be McLaren heavily sandbagging the performance claims. Whatever the recipe might be, the overall impression is of a car that is sensationally fast. I truly cannot begin to convey in words the reality of what this is like to someone who hasn't experienced it for themselves. I don't think I have driven anything on the road quite as potent as this car. For reference, the new M5cs does 0-124mph in 10.4s, a Ferrari F40 did it in about 11s and the "holy trinity" hypercars were all just under 7s. Rapid.
Noise is seemingly always a "thing" when people talk about McLaren. The 720S sounds very different to the GT in tone and loudness and I think overall it is a bit more brash. I love how in-your-face the noise is, it is a lot higher pitched than the GT which is more of a baritone sound. My GT has the optional sports exhaust and I think this 720S has one too and I would say that the 720S in its quietest mode is as loud as the GT in Sport. Full chat in the 720S is a wonderful noise to my ears. No, it isn't a Ferrari V12 or anything like it but it is still a supercar soundtrack to relish while we still can!
Overall, very happy with it as a courtesy car (but come on, how could I not be?!). I do think I've made the right call buying the GT for what I want from a car plus it won't ruin every other car for me in terms of performance like a 720S long term would...
justin220 said:
Interesting comparison, I'd love to try a 720S to see just how much better it is than the 540C. Although I know it might get the man maths calculator out again!
If you can afford to make the switch but are undecided then go test drive the car and let the man maths do the magic. If you're not really wanting to buy a 720S after a test drive, I'd probably suggest you don't test drive one... 
Super, super happy with how the wheels have turned out. BMW Ferric Grey II remains one of the best wheel colours to my eyes and that is *exactly* what these wheels are painted in. Not a colour match, I gave them the paint code and they ordered the correct BMW paint.
I was a bit nervous as to if the colour would work with the Papaya Spark or not but I needn’t have worried, it works amazingly well and pops even more in the flesh than it does in photos.
I had been without my car for a few days short of three months when I collected it on Wednesday evening and gave the 720S back. Crazy how time flies and I was so excited to have my actual car again. As great as the 720S is, driving someone else's car just isn't the same. That said, I did cover around 1800 miles in it and I drove it as nature intended and I've got some fond memories to look back on
What an awesome few days I have had since getting the car back!
Firstly, a quick stop to get my black seatbelts changed to orange. The interior is very black - black leather, black stitching, carbon fibre etc etc and it needed a lift and something to connect the interior to the exterior. The belts are extremely orange and shiny, so much so that it is hard to get a photo of them where they look like they do to the eye. They are a slightly different orange to the exterior of the car - partially because Papaya Spark can be anything from a darkish orange like McLaren Orange to an almost yellow in blazing sunshine. The other "issue" is that to get quality belts made in a particular colour requires you to buy 1000m of material, which is as expensive as you might imagine. I am happy with the slight compromise and from looking at other McLarens with orage belts they aren't a precise match either
This isn't the best photo ever but you can see the belts against the papaya here better than any other photo I seem to have
Secondly, I called in to see The Surman Collection at Bag World. They make bespoke luggage for cars and I've specced up a 5-piece luggage set for my car in carbon fibre with orange contrast stitching and some other little touches. Inexpensive compared to the McLaren offering and actually, given it is bespoke to me and my car I think it is fantastic value for money.
After that I called into C&M for a bite to eat and saw an incredible convoy of cars heading to Supercar Fest the following day. F40LM, Enzo, F430 16M Stradale, 360CS, Carrera GT. Got a nice pic of the GT in the shady bit under the trees.
Finally... Supercar Fest - The Runway. Incredible event, one of the absolute best car days out I have had as it had the sort of Goodwood vibes but even more interactive as owners and the public are all mingling and chatting about their cars. The weather being glorious definitely helped matters as well! I only managed 3 runs up the runway as the queues were pretty lengthy most of the time and by the end of the day when the queues had died down a bit as people started to leave I was knackered, sunburned and facing a 2.5 hour drive home so I decided not to do another. Still, I hit 156mph which is a pretty reasonable speed I think. I was definitely taking too tight a line on the bend which cost me some speed and I think I could have braked a fair bit later and combining the two I think I could have easily cracked 160mph - maybe I'll find out next year.
Hotel Parking Goals:
What an awesome few days I have had since getting the car back!
Firstly, a quick stop to get my black seatbelts changed to orange. The interior is very black - black leather, black stitching, carbon fibre etc etc and it needed a lift and something to connect the interior to the exterior. The belts are extremely orange and shiny, so much so that it is hard to get a photo of them where they look like they do to the eye. They are a slightly different orange to the exterior of the car - partially because Papaya Spark can be anything from a darkish orange like McLaren Orange to an almost yellow in blazing sunshine. The other "issue" is that to get quality belts made in a particular colour requires you to buy 1000m of material, which is as expensive as you might imagine. I am happy with the slight compromise and from looking at other McLarens with orage belts they aren't a precise match either
This isn't the best photo ever but you can see the belts against the papaya here better than any other photo I seem to have
Secondly, I called in to see The Surman Collection at Bag World. They make bespoke luggage for cars and I've specced up a 5-piece luggage set for my car in carbon fibre with orange contrast stitching and some other little touches. Inexpensive compared to the McLaren offering and actually, given it is bespoke to me and my car I think it is fantastic value for money.
After that I called into C&M for a bite to eat and saw an incredible convoy of cars heading to Supercar Fest the following day. F40LM, Enzo, F430 16M Stradale, 360CS, Carrera GT. Got a nice pic of the GT in the shady bit under the trees.
Finally... Supercar Fest - The Runway. Incredible event, one of the absolute best car days out I have had as it had the sort of Goodwood vibes but even more interactive as owners and the public are all mingling and chatting about their cars. The weather being glorious definitely helped matters as well! I only managed 3 runs up the runway as the queues were pretty lengthy most of the time and by the end of the day when the queues had died down a bit as people started to leave I was knackered, sunburned and facing a 2.5 hour drive home so I decided not to do another. Still, I hit 156mph which is a pretty reasonable speed I think. I was definitely taking too tight a line on the bend which cost me some speed and I think I could have braked a fair bit later and combining the two I think I could have easily cracked 160mph - maybe I'll find out next year.
Hotel Parking Goals:
bolidemichael said:
I reckon that you'd do well to liven up the number plate with a four dots effort -- to enhance an already wonderful car.
Should I replace the four dot plate that's already on there? 
Last week I set off to attend the French Grand Prix. From my home in the North West to Le Castellet via Reims (to get the above photos from the historic pits) on the way down and Dijon on the way back the route was a little over 2,000 miles so would put the GT's GT credentials to the test. The frunk swallowed up two large and fully packed soft bags with ease and the "privacy" area in the back held two reasonable sized cool bag backpacks. I could easily have got more in - two more bags the same as in the frunk at least - but we chose to pack most of the stuff into another car that was going with us.
Day 1's goal was to get to Reims. We set off a little before 8am, stopping at a services at about 10am for a bite to eat around and a dash of fuel to ensure we could get to Folkestone without the need for a further stop. We elected to fill up at Tesco in Folkestone before the train to avoid having to stop anywhere in Calais. Fuel economy was exceptional on the run:
Unfortunately, the Eurotunnel was stuffed and it took 6 hours for us to get on the train. The 'support' car ended up crossing an hour before me so we needed to try and make up time through France which dropped the fuel economy figures significantly
Overall, the GT was superb over the 600 miles, proving very comfortable over extended periods at any speed.
Day 2 was supposed to be a day of blasting down France as fast as possible without getting into trouble with the law... Despite being entirely sensible, trouble hit on the way to Lyon - an engine warning message popped up on the dash but the car was driving absolutely fine so the decision was made to drive cautiously to the next services, have lunch and see what happened after it went to sleep during the stop. About 5 mins later and just a few hundred metres from the services, a mild misfire started which forced me to the hard shoulder. A quick "switch it off and back on again" attempt cured the misfire and we got into the services. I was thinking it could be dodgy fuel - we'd filled up with Excellium 98 at a 2-pump Total in Reims and although that was hundreds of miles back there was still a chance it might have caused the issue. The services we'd stopped at sold Shell fuel so a full tank of V-Power went in and we set off. Zero warning messages, car driving absolutely fine. Excellent, dodgy fuel confirmed and we were back on track. Sadly, 130km later, the issue returned only this time it was REALLY bad. Any throttle input at all and the car felt like it was going to shake itself to pieces. Of all the places for this to happen, this was in the tunnels underneath Lyon! By some miracle I managed to get out of the tunnels and off the A7 safely and into a layby in an industrial area. McLaren Assist took the car off to the nearest dealer (in Geneva...) and I took myself to a nearby Sixt to get the replacement hire car in the form of an Audi A4 - the last car they had available at all that day.
That's all she wrote! The car is in Geneva, McLaren Assist will deliver it back to me when it is fixed but at the moment there is no word on what's wrong with it or when it will be delivered back to me. I'll update you all when I know more - I expect it is something trivial like a sensor or something like that as it drove up onto the low loader absolutely fine but we'll have to wait and see...
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