This is it! This is the supercar everyone will want, the McLaren 720S Spider. You can forget all about Ferraris and Lamborghini for the next year because we have a Spider version of the most impressive toy south of a Bugatti.
Honestly, we're surprised that it took McLaren this long to come up with the 720S Spider. It's been about a year and a half since the coupe, but it was actually worth the wait.
The powertrain stuff is pretty predictable, so let's start our conversation with the esthetics. More specifically, we're looking at the perfect retractable hardtop, which consists of a large carbon fiber panel with one of those fancy pieces of glass that can turn opaque (electrochromic technology).
McLaren claims that it's the “fastest-operating convertible roof in the supercar class” with a time of 11 seconds. We want to believe them but just look at the gorgeous way in which the rear deck pops up to facilitate the roof mechanism. We haven't seemed something this cool since the 911 Targa.
Beautiful from all angles, the 720S Spider features twin "horns" behind the driver and passenger, much like its rivals from Italy. McLaren was careful to leave just enough exposed carbon fiber to make this feel exotic and lightweight.
Speaking of which, the roofless model tips the scales at
2,937 lbs (1,332 kg), which is a mere 108 lbs (49 kg) more than the coupe. As the name suggests, power still comes from a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine that delivers 720 PS (710-hp) and 568 lb-ft (769 Nm) of torque.
When the roof is down, you will "only" be able to do 202 miles per hour (325 km/h), but with it up, the top speed is 212 mph (341 km/h). Rather believing the official claim of 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds, you can just search "720S drag race" on our website.
While there are cars that can compete with the hardtop model, the 720S Spider is going to be the fastest roadster supercar you can buy for the money: $315,000 in the United States or £237,000 over in Britain. Come on Tesla; we need that drag race to happen, so put your Roadster in production already.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News