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TopGear and The Stig Drive the Insane McLaren 720S GT3X for Speedweek 2021

No other car at TopGear Speedweek 2021 is as utterly feral as the McLaren 720S GT3X. Sure, there are some wilder ideas like the Dakar rally-focused Prodrive BRX. There's even a Morgan CX-t with off-road suspension and saddlebags. Still, none of it holds a candle to the power of the McLaren.
McLaren 720S GT3X 6 photos
Photo: Via TopGear
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Interestingly enough, this McLaren doesn't feature any more power than its road-going sibling. That's right, the 720S GTX3 with its wild aero and stripped-out interior has exactly 0 more horsepower than the 720S. What's the point, then?

TopGear presenter Ollie Marriage lets us in on a little secret. The X in GT3X is a small hint at the truth of this race car McLaren. While it's the same brakes, the same transmission, and the same aero... it's not legal in GT3 races. That's because it weighs too little.

As Marriage points out to us, GT3 cars typically carry quite a lot of ballast to meet regulations. The GT3X is, as Ollie says, "a GT3 car let off the leash completely". In fact, it's made in the same race factory as the sanctioned GT3 cars. It's not from the 720S production line.

That effort has paid off too. It's nothing at all like the 720S. The engine might be the same as the normal car, but its lower weight changes the game. 'Nothing should change direction like this... but that's because it doesn't weigh anything...this thing is only just over 1,200 kilos" says Marriage.

Watching the car rip around the race track is a good reminder of how far suspension technology has come. It has exactly zero body roll. The only time the nose dips or dives is under extremely hard braking or acceleration.

Of course, no TopGear test would be complete without seeing how the car does around Dunsfold. The Stig manages a 1:07.2 second lap. The only three cars to ever be faster are non-production race cars that customers can't buy. We can't wait to see what the rest of speedweek has in store. 
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