Where can you see 5 brand new McLaren supercars driving in a formation? On a McLaren launch event of course. The company gathered a bunch of high profile YouTubers and car bloggers to Arizona. Then each was handed a 720S Spider and sent off to enjoy their day.
Yesterday, Mr. JWW published his first look of the McLaren 720S Spider. McLaren banned journalists from sharing performance details and driving impressions for a month.
However, we still got an interesting video. Mr. JWW went over a number of the car’s interior and exterior features. We got a story and even some cactus trivia.
The weather was excellent for testing the folding functionality of the roof. At 11 seconds to collapse, the 720S Spider officially has the quickest roof conversion of any supercar.
We got a good look at the design of the flying buttresses which support the roof. These structures usually obscure the driver’s vision when backing up or parking.
McLaren found an ingenious solution – make them out of glass. Looking from the top, the glass panels are opaque and you’d easily mistake them for carbon fiber. But if you look from the inside of the vehicle, you can see right through them, alleviating the blind spot problem.
They also feature channels that allow air to pass from the sides of the monocoque and flow to the back. When you design a sharp drop in the shape like the rear window, you usually end up with a lot of turbulence forming in that area and generating lift. The air channels in the buttresses streamline the airflow to prevent that from happening.
This helps the McLaren 720S Spider retain virtually the same performance as the coupe:
- Acceleration 0 – 62 mph: 2.9s
- Acceleration 0 – 124 mph: 7.9s
- Top speed with the roof – 212 mph
- Top speed without the roof – 202 mph
Throughout the video, we got a good sample of the exhaust acoustics. The 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 engine sounds amazing.
We also see the “electrochromic” sunroof in action. At the switch of a button, the window switched from tinted to completely transparent and back. It’s a spectacular feature to witness.
The doors were also a subject of substantial re-engineering. The coupe version takes a section of the roof with the doors as they open. In the Spider, with the roof expanded, you have a hard line where it connects to the windshield. To mitigate potential discomfort, the designers changed the stance of the doors, providing more room to move as you go in and out.
Overall, the car is spectacular. The Belize Blue color, which was created specifically for the 720S Spider, is gorgeous. We can’t wait to get those driving impressions next month.