The 600LT is the premier member of the McLaren Sports Series while the Super Series consists of a single nameplate in the guise of the 720S. On paper, the advantage of the 720S is clear to anyone with a passion for quarter-mile times and rolling drag races.
But on the other hand, how does the Hennessey-tuned 600LT stack up against a stock 720S out on the Texas blacktop? To quote a YouTube user who commented on the following video, “all were close but the 720S had the edge” every single time the two got serious.
John Hennessey is the owner of the 600LT in the clip, rated at 658 rear-wheel horsepower thanks to the Stage 2 upgrade and downpipes. If you were wondering, the baby McLaren is available with no fewer than three tuning packages, starting with the HPE700 and topping with the HPE1000 that pushes the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 to 1,001 ponies.
The 720S, as you’re aware from the endless and extremely varied drag racing on YouTube, is a beast of a supercar from the factory. Can you imagine how fast and how better the 750LT will be in the corners? For all intents and purposes, the second generation of the Super Series is probably the best road-going McLaren available right now.
From the get-go, the 720S develops 710 horsepower at the crankshaft of the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. A dyno run from earlier this year puts the rear-wheel horsepower at 675.8 or at a 4.82-percent loss from the engine to the road. Hugely impressive by all accounts, and also superior to the modified 600LT owned by the company's founder.
If it were completely standard, the 600LT wouldn’t have a single chance of besting the 720S in a straight line. Be it from a standing or a rolling start, the 720S comes on top thanks to the world-class engineering and software that went into the mid-engined land missile.
On that note, John might want to level up his Macca to 1,001 horsepower if he doesn’t want to lose against the 720S again.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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