First drive reports : wrap-up

Below is a summary I made from all the first drive reports I have read or listened to.

The 720S is as polarizing as the 12C was bland, as innovative as its ancestor was predictable. This is how Road & Track sums up the car and is a interesting introduction to this review.

Headlights are the most polarizing design feature of the car and only few commentators go as far as saying that this is a beautiful car. Autoblog stands out, stating that the 720S is a beauty of sweeping, organic shapes which makes the previous McLaren cars look heavy and dowdy. It’s certainly a car that makes more sense in the metal, with its new aerodynamics-led design language. However, the general opinion is that the 720S is the prettiest and most persuasive McLaren and looks like a complete, cohesive thing.

The car looks like a nightmare to live with but is anything but. The visibility ranges between excellent and unmatched, the storage space is very decent and the driving position very good, but space could be limited for tall drivers. The interior features better materials than the previous generations, but press-drive models have some finishing issues that hopefully will be related to pre-production model. Doors are very practical when parked next to another car as they don't need a lot of space to open and it is easy to get inside the car. 

Tire noise and mechanical thrum is negligible at regular cruising speeds. The 720S somehow combines the brutal ergonomic efficacy of a race car with the technical luxury of a contemporary GT. But some features still require improvements, such as the sat nav which drove mad some the testers, the touchscreen which is not as good as on many ordinary cars or the seat controls which are (very) difficult to reach. The standard seats are comfortable whereas the racing seats are not. Though many testers appreciated the interior and the nice looking switchgear, The Telegraph was not sold on the design, quoting "switches that look like G-Shock watches and mad surface changes - I counted 14 across the front of the doors". As a summary, and with the exception of the poor satnav/touchscreen, the 720S has a good, improved interior, on par with competition.

In Comfort, the McLaren 720S rides as smoothly as a decent saloon, which is exceptional for the level of performance of the car. This remains true on the lowest-quality Italian tarmac found during the press launch and cruising is freakishly quiet; even expansion joints on the Italian autostrada barely interrupt the calm of the cabin. With less tire noise than in a Porsche 911, the 720S is a surprisingly accomplished grand tourer on the highway. Ride and handling balance is best car in class. Steering is great, for many the best currently available, wonderfully geared and weighted without ever feeling nervous. This is a very forgiving car, with a mammoth control of its body and less nervousness in handling than for example the Ferrari 488: the 720S is brilliantly approachable and most drivers are certain to run out of talent long before the car does.

The chassis is superbly responsive to steering and throttle inputs, stability is significantly improved over the 650S and the interventions of the electronics are very limited and discrete. However, there are many doubts on the consistency of the variable drift control feature which somewhat overpromises and is nothing more than an intrusive nuisance to someone who really knows how to drive. Brake pedal travel is too long for normal driving conditions and requires a manly push but the stopping power is impressive. Car feels always stable, whether on acceleration or under braking, even on the bumpy track.

The engine is impressive, very quick to reach the redline and with very little lag (with a few reviewers reporting some lag below 3000rpm). It lacks a distinctive soundtrack with regular exhausts. Road & Track (as well as a few others like Autoweek) sees it as an issue to impress people but a good thing for long term/daily usage, considers sports exhausts are for people who drive the car 10 min and concludes by saying that engine note is not worse in the 720S than in other turbocharged engines. For many reviewers, the sound is not very special and obviously not the reason to drive the car, but completely opposite to most, Top Gear considers that as turbo motors's engine noise goes, the 720S is a new benchmark. The transmission is very smooth, at least in Comfort mode and offers seamless gearchanges in Track mode. In other words, the transmission is great.

As a conclusion, a Lamborghini may sound better, but it doesn’t have the unique-in-class carbon chassis, or the exotic doors that McLaren’s rivals reserve for their halo models. It can’t match the 720’s obscene performance, friendly but engaging handling or practicality. Tot the points up and the 720S is clearly ahead of the competition. But this time, it has the emotional appeal of proper knockout aesthetics – the thing the 12C sorely lacked - to back the decision up. What McLaren has built is what we always knew the 12C and 650S could and should be. 

Never before has so much speed, quality, refinement and entertainment been available under just one roof. 

To call it a successor to the 650S would be shortchanging it because the 720S certainly does feel like it skips a generation; the 720S is McLaren's best regular production car yet and one of the best supercars on the planet.

The Telegraph stands out being a little more negative, considering that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but certainly the Italian rivals are better looking and for our money, the cheaper and only marginally slower 570 cars are a better compromise between road and track".

It isn't as spine tingling as the 675LT but is close to the 911 Turbo's philosophy, a usable supercar with everyday GT credentials. This will not please everybody in this price range, but McLaren has obviously delivered a supercar with an astonishingly breadth of skills. The 720S can cruise with the composure of a Grand Tourer and demolish a track like a GT3 racer and its performance level is in a different league to almost anything else out there.

Youtubers, that McLaren largely invited to the launch but limited to road test, have a less positive response to the car. Many were expecting same level of involvement and drama than the McLaren 675LT, and complain about its more GT than LT positioning. It is lacking some drama, is almost too good : too easy, too fast, too comfortable... In other words, and to quote Supercar of London who would not sell his Huracan for the 720S, it displays an incredible speed but no sense of occasion. 

This is an incredible cruiser and a very nice place to be thanks to a lot of glass around, a usable daily driver car, not terrifying to drive around. The interior is great and a massive step-up compared to previous car or competitors, but air conditioning seems weak and struggled on the not so hot test conditions.

Brakes have impressed (fanstatic, unreal) a lot of those reviewers, only one complaining about the firm brake pedal. It blends (too much ?) the lines between GT and hypercar, with its smooth ride, relentless acceleration and impressive pace on the road. This is an hypercar's performance for supercar's price, the best all round daily driver supercar you can buy, but is it the car you want for that money? Most youtubers think it isn't.