2020 McLaren 720S Spider is a Supercar Inside and Out
McLaren’s droptop version of the 720S is a rolling example of how a supercar should be, right down to the way its engine sounds.
What is a supercar? It’s easy to say that the Lamborghini Aventador or a Bugatti Chiron is. Fair enough, but that’s not what we’re getting at. What is a supercar in an elemental form? How should it look and sound? There’s a quick answer for that – literally. It’s the 2020 McLaren 720S Spider.
Yuri and Jakub, the guys who co-host the popular YouTube channel The Straight Pipes, recently got their hands on one. So what makes the 720S a supercar?
1.) Just look at it! Yuri’s and Jakub’s press loaner is bright orange. So are its brake calipers.
2.) It’s doors swing up. Enough said.
3.) You can carbon fiber (almost) all of the things. If you spec the 720S the right way, you can get carbon fiber “eye sockets” around the headlights, on the lower front fascia, side mirror housings, steering wheel, and even on the occupant-facing side of the A-pillars.
4.) Cool gauges. The main screen shows the information you need for Comfort and Sport driving. In Track mode, that screen flips back to reveal a strip that displays your gear position, revs, and speed. Yuri says, “In Comfort, it prioritizes your speed in the middle and then, in Sport, it’ll prioritize your gear to be displayed. Then when you go up to Track, it’s going to flip down so all you see is your speed and your tach and your shift lights.”
5.) Going up. You can press a button to raise its front end. Because it’s so low that you need to do that if you want to make it into certain driveways.
6.) Check under the hood. The 720S doesn’t just look like a supercar. It has the power to match. Its twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 is mounted in the middle and cranks out 710 horsepower and 568 lb-ft of torque. The 720S Spider is more than fast, though. It sets itself apart from other high-performance European cars through its acceleration. After putting his right foot down hard and getting his head pushed back into the headrest, he says, “I think I like the acceleration in McLarens the most. The Lambo [Huracan Performante] is good. The [Porsche 911] GT2 RS is good. This is just a little bit better than all of them.”
7.) Drift away. Every supercar has its share of cool tech. The 720S may not have Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, but it has Variable Drift Control.
8.) Open your ears. The 720S Spider is raspy and loud, especially when you go to a lower gear. Jakub can’t help but hear the fury coming out of the dual exhausts that exit from the middle of the rear end. “You downshift and sometimes, I’ve been getting this like WHA-BAM!!! – just whiplash crackle. And it’s so rare and it’s the best. It sounds like a gunshot.”
9.) With great power comes…great cost. The 720S Spider Yuri and Jakub test has a price tag of a $472,413 CAD (~$355,000 USD).
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