RE: McLaren 720S Nordschleife lap: Time For Coffee

RE: McLaren 720S Nordschleife lap: Time For Coffee

Friday 11th January 2019

McLaren 720S Nordschleife lap: Time For Coffee?

Sportauto's resident superstar finally gets his hands on the Super Series - can it match those pesky Porsches?



While Nurburgring lap times are nothing new, seeing a McLaren lap the Nordschleife is pretty significant. That's because, while McLaren does use the track for testing, it has famously never published a lap time - even when the P1 was rumoured to have lapped in less than seven minutes.

So here we have a standard 720S at the circuit everyone has an opinion on, running a Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyre (i.e. something less sticky than the Trofeo R offered on the 600LT, or Michelin's Cup 2R) and sportauto's ever-entertaining Christian Gebhardt behind the wheel. The conditions could hardly be better, the lap set in the late afternoon of a June day (why it's taken until now to be published we're not sure) and the driving as near-to-flawless as ever.

The result? Are you sure you want to know? Last chance to look away now... The 720S lap time is 7 minutes and 8 seconds, or 7:08.34 to be precise. In the sportauto rankings that put the car ahead of an AMG GT R (7:10.92), 488 GTB (7:21.63) and Corvette Z06 (7:13.90), but behind the Huracan Performante (only just though, with 7:07.99), and the two Rennsport Porsches - 7:05.41 for the GT3 RS and 6:58.28 for the GT2.

Various theories abound in the comments about just why that is, with tyres cited as the chief contributing factor. Still, that close to seven minutes on a 'regular' tyre is nothing to turn your nose up at, and makes for a video well worth watching. Bring on that faster, lighter, grippier Longtail...

 

Author
Discussion

theRossatron

Original Poster:

1,028 posts

231 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Can we just start being proud of Mclaren please? thanks guys

Todd Bonzalez

2,552 posts

161 months

Friday 11th January 2019
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That's a pretty heroic lap. Doesn't look easy. Love it! biggrin

MDL111

6,895 posts

176 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
that is quite impressive, wonder what it would have achieved on the Trofeos.

It was faster than the GT2 RS, again on the Corsas, at the Hockenheimring I think in a SA test sometime mid last year

isaldiri

18,418 posts

167 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
SportAuto did practically the same time with the Performante which was on a trofeo ie faster tyre. Yes that supposedly 6:52 factory lap Performante. That is a bloody good time that the 720 did with SA....

ghost83

5,476 posts

189 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
And I bet the 7xxLT will blow them all away

great_kahn

83 posts

85 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
720s butchers that lot for outright straightline pace. Pretty embarrassing how fast the 720s compare with its so called competitors.

xjay1337

15,966 posts

117 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
great_kahn said:
720s butchers that lot for outright straightline pace. Pretty embarrassing how fast the 720s compare with its so called competitors.
Proper super car compared to a sports car with a big engine.

J4CKO

41,287 posts

199 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
great_kahn said:
720s butchers that lot for outright straightline pace. Pretty embarrassing how fast the 720s compare with its so called competitors.
Lot of comments that its nearer 800 bhp than 720 on that video.

Guvernator

13,109 posts

164 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Lots of people singing it's praises yet it's beaten by a Porsche that's £70k cheaper and down at least 220bhp on power.

Just sayin. wink

MX6

5,983 posts

212 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Awesome drive, seat of one pants stuff. It's a quick machine of course. I've thought the 720S looked good, but that seems even more appealing in the blue, tasty.

cib24

1,115 posts

152 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
J4CKO said:
Lot of comments that its nearer 800 bhp than 720 on that video.
It frequently dynos at about 680-700 wheel horsepower on American dynos which implies around 790-820 brake horsepower. Of course American dynos tend to be a little optimistic but in any case there is enough evidence out there now to reasonably assume that the car makes more than the 710 bhp advertised.

MDL111

6,895 posts

176 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Guvernator said:
Lots of people singing it's praises yet it's beaten by a Porsche that's £70k cheaper and down at least 220bhp on power.

Just sayin. wink
Different type of tyre though - the Corsa is really more of a road than track tyre

roadsweeper

3,786 posts

273 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Guvernator said:
Lots of people singing it's praises yet it's beaten by a Porsche that's £70k cheaper and down at least 220bhp on power.

Just sayin. wink
Of course, you're not comparing apples with apples. The 720S is a road-focussed, everyday supercar; the GT2 RS is a track weapon that is also great on the road (albeit unlikely to be comfortable enough as a daily drive for all but the most fabulously hirsute) and is equipped with tyres that would make a huge difference. If the LT-derivative of the 720S does not beat the GT2 RS, and then by a decent margin (assuming 'equivalent' drivers), that is a different matter.

WCZ

10,492 posts

193 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Guvernator said:
Lots of people singing it's praises yet it's beaten by a Porsche that's £70k cheaper and down at least 220bhp on power.

Just sayin. wink
wasn't on trofs which didn't help and lets not forget sport auto times vs manufacturers

7:13 Porsche 918 Spyder (sport auto)
6:57 Porsche 918 Spyder (porsche)

16 seconds!

all things considered it's a very very good time

ghost83

5,476 posts

189 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Guvernator said:
Lots of people singing it's praises yet it's beaten by a Porsche that's £70k cheaper and down at least 220bhp on power.

Just sayin. wink
Both Porsche’s are modified and track honed I will bet my bottom dollar that both those Rennsport Porsche’s cost as much as a 720s plus the gt2rs and gt3rs are limited specials anyway whereas anyone can walk into Mclaren and buy a 720s,
Same goes for the huracan it’s honed for the track and has 4wd and is only just ahead! I’m guessing a pista will also be quicker than the standard 720s

BUT wait until Mclaren bring out there special edition LT that will have specific tyres and aero and more power quite frankly they will obliterate the others and I think it’s a testament that the 720 which came out a couple of yr ago is still as quick as Porsche’s Lamborghinis and Ferrari’s brand new current cars!

theRossatron

Original Poster:

1,028 posts

231 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Guvernator said:
Lots of people singing it's praises yet it's beaten by a Porsche that's £70k cheaper and down at least 220bhp on power.

Just sayin. wink
I think the list price becomes irrelevant when you can't buy one new!

Streetrod

6,468 posts

205 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Another thing to consider on the tires front is that the Porsche tyre are not only track optimised but they are considerably wider than the 720s tires.

Porsche 265/35 front 325/30 rear

720s 245/35 front 305/30 rear

So not only was the Porsche running a sticker tire but a much larger ones as well which makes the 720s time look very impressive

RobM77

35,349 posts

233 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Guvernator said:
Lots of people singing it's praises yet it's beaten by a Porsche that's £70k cheaper and down at least 220bhp on power.

Just sayin. wink
Engineering cars is always a compromise; at one end of the spectrum you've got pure racing cars, which are extremely fast on track, but utterly rubbish on the road, even with MoT requirements met; and at the other end you've got road cars that are rubbish on track, even with a setup to suit and the right tyres. The Porsche and McLaren just occupy different parts of that spectrum.

Onehp

1,617 posts

282 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Impressive considering the tyres and the fact that SA tests usually are a lot 'slower' than the manufacturer lap records and usually done with the same driver and therefore more comparable. Saw a TG vid on YT where the 720s was only 0,5s slower than a P1 around the same track (which name I forgot)...

isaldiri

18,418 posts

167 months

Friday 11th January 2019
quotequote all
Streetrod said:
Another thing to consider on the tires front is that the Porsche tyre are not only track optimised but they are considerably wider than the 720s tires.

Porsche 265/35 front 325/30 rear

720s 245/35 front 305/30 rear

So not only was the Porsche running a sticker tire but a much larger ones as well which makes the 720s time look very impressive
It's also Mclaren's own choice to run tyres that size. That the Porsche has wider tyres is neither here nor there.

Cup2 Rs that Porsche are using (and AMG before) are a game changer wrt to the silly laptime battle the manufacturers are engaged in.