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McLaren 720S vs McLaren Senna Drag Race Has a Winner But Ends Undecided

McLaren is known to make some of the best drag racing machines despite the fact they only send their power - and they've got plenty of it - to those two massive rear wheels.
McLaren 720S vs. McLaren Senna drag race 9 photos
Photo: YouTube screenshot
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However, no matter how great they are at putting the engine's end product on the road effectively, it still means the vehicle's performance is heavily reliant on one key component: the rear tires. The same goes for any other performance model, sure, but in McLaren's case, it's all the more pivotal.

Grip means traction, and traction allows you to gain speed. Good tires provide grip, but they're not the only variable. The quality of the surface on which you race also warrants consideration, as does the ambient temperature as well as the tire temperature. Professional drivers don't zip from left to right during warmup because they're lost and can't make up their minds which way to go, you know?

It's also why so many drag races do a burnout before each race. Sure, it also looks cool and you could even play mind games with your opponent if he's easily impressed and your burnout was more spectacular than his, but the main reason is to warm up those tires and get them ready to grip the track.

Gripping the track is something the poor McLaren Senna would have desperately needed. The track-focused model from McLaren already looks out of place on the drag strip with its big wing and elaborate aero elements, but once it got going, that feeling only became stronger.

It's not like the Senna isn't quick to accelerate. After all, with 800 hp (789 bhp), it does make more power out of the same 4.0-liter V8 engine it shares with the 720S. And it's lighter. However, as Brooks Weisblat is quick to point out before everyone starts pointing fingers in the comments section, the Senna had one major disadvantage, and that was its tires.

Since it was late in the day, the track preparation was gone, and the outside temperature dropped as well. The Senna had its original Pirelli Trofeo R tires which, according to Brooks, need a serious warmup to get the most out of them. Since the Senna is made for track use, it should have no problem getting them up to speed with all the cornering that goes on there, but when drag racing, friction is limited.

The 720S, on the other hand, had a set of Toyo r888r tires that are less fussy about their optimal temperature, and it showed. As a result, the less powerful McLaren kept pulling runs in the very low tens, whereas the Senna was in the mid to high tens.

Given everything, we feel the result of these three races isn't entirely conclusive, hence the title of the article. But even if it does turn out that the Senna is slower than the 720S on the drag strip, that still doesn't take anything away from the magnificence of that machine, and Brooks would be the first to agree with that.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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