McLaren 750S final orders being taken – get one while you still can
The ten-year run of McLaren's 720S and 750S concludes next year as production of the supercar ends
The second generation of what McLaren once called its ‘super series’, is about to end. The 750S, which was introduced in 2023 and was evolved out of the 720S of 2017, will end production next year, with final orders being taken now. This, as McLaren looks optimistically into a new era – one that will consist of a new generation of supercars and supporting models following a £450million rejuvenation of its base that it once again owns.
The 720S was a revelation on its introduction in 2017, with a new more versatile generation of carbon monocell chassis, a new 4-litre version of the familiar twin-turbo V8 engine, an updated dual-clutch transmission and iterations on the hydraulically cross-linked dynamic chassis control, active handling and aerodynamic systems. All the ingredients were on paper similar to those of the 12C and 650S that came before but, like the hardcore 675LT that saw out that generation of cars, the 720S was an altogether more complete, involving and thrilling product.
It had dramatically evolved looks to boot. Not everyone got on with the so-called ‘eye sockets’ that fed side-mounted heat exchangers and housed the beady lights, but the way the 720S funnelled air through its flowing bodywork and that extraordinary silhouette, were more hypercar than supercar. So was its performance, the 710bhp 720S able to beat the iconic F1 not just to 62mph (in 2.9sec as opposed to 3.2sec), but to 124mph too, in 7.8sec compared to the F1’s 8sec-plus. Potency helps toward that but so too no doubt, commendably low weight – just 1419kg at the kerb.
Its extraordinary performance was only one in the 720S’s broad range of talents, though. For a car with so much punch, it was as precise as it was playful and exploitable, not to mention compliant and involving on a much wider range of roads than you might expect. It’s defined by dumbfounding versatility. To paraphrase former road test editor James Disdale, commutable as an executive saloon, exhilarating as a base jump.
On our 2017 evo Car of the Year test, editor-in-chief Stuart Gallagher concluded that ‘The 720S is the product of a manufacturer that hasn’t changed its focus on wanting to build the most exciting, thrilling and best performance cars it can despite any obstacles it has faced along the way. McLaren Automotive has defined itself as one of the greats, and in the 720S it has created the best of the best’.
The 720S soon got a Spider open-top variant and then, the hardcore 765LT – lighter, sharper and faster, the latter thanks in parts to extra power (755bhp) and shorter gearing. An awe-inspiring machine, if not as complete a package as the 720S.
Then came the 750S, complete with 30 per cent all new parts, which we perhaps hoped would split the difference between the rabid 765LT and the 720S it was to replace. In reality, it’s certainly a firmer, more focused car for more of the time. But even with the added performance and refinement, we found it to be no faster on track, the 740bhp 750S unable to surpass the old 720S around the Anglesey Coastal Circuit in our testing. The platform will bow out with the ultra-limited MSO 788 HS, of which just 200 will be made.
That the 750S is still, even as it departs, the most thrilling supercar on sale, speaks the greatest volumes of just what an achievement the 720 from which it was developed was almost ten years ago.
Here’s hoping that McLaren’s re-jig in pursuit of more sustainable profitability doesn’t mean the cars in its future are bereft of that same relentless brilliance that defined this outgoing era of its supercars.
