Price, $283,925
"Not everyone has the pleasure of driving a million dollars worth of Surrey’s best. With a few hours of allotted driving time and a full tank of gas, I hopped into one of McLaren’s finest supercars, the 650S Spider"…
Surely, car enthusiasts and even the faintest of drivers out there know of the Formula 1 team based out in Woking, Surrey in the United Kingdom. Having harnessed decades of racing experience since 1963, entering the glitzy world of Formula One racing some three years later, McLaren has since been a household name for building some of the world’s truly electrifying super cars.
The McLaren 650S Spider is a no compromise open-top high performance sports car offering the same performance, handling and driver enjoyment, with the addition of a two-piece retractable hard top. The latest model is shown in Tarocco Orange, a new addition to the McLaren colour collection, developed with technology partner AkzoNobel.
The McLaren 650S Spider is mechanically identical to the 650S Coupé and is fitted with the unique McLaren M838T twin turbo V8 engine, producing 650PS (641 bhp) and 678 Nm (500 lb ft). This means a 0-100 km/h (62 mph) sprint of 3.0 seconds, identical to the Coupé, and 200 km/h (124 mph) is reached in 8.6 seconds, only 0.2 seconds shy of the fixed-head model. Maximum speed is 329 km/h mph (204 mph). Fuel consumption and emissions remain the same for the 650S Spider, returning 24.2 mpg (11.7 l/100km) on the EU combined cycle and 275 g/km.
Most competitors do not offer high performance iterations as convertibles due to the compromises that invariably plague open-roof cars. These models will be heavier and have substantially less torsional rigidity, to the detriment of handling and ride.
The carbon fibre MonoCell chassis at the heart of the McLaren 650S requires no additional strengthening or reinforcing in open-top guise, and gives the 650S Spider identical handling and ride, and virtually identical straight-line performance figures. The overall weight of the 650S Spider is 1,370 kg (dry), an increase of only 40 kg over the Coupé, with this additional mass coming from the Retractable Hard Top and roof mechanism, and is less than any other car in its class.
Quoting its designer, driver, engineer and inventor, Bruce McLaren, “the luck thing, really there’s no such thing as good luck. It’s good preparation and hard work.” Using its extensive wealth of know how, McLaren has churned out some seriously potent race cars in various racing disciplines that have gone down into the history books; such as Formula 1 and in more relative terms, the GT racing
series where the iconic McLaren F1 GTR exemplified McLaren’s full commitment to grand touring car racing.
Well-remembered for its glorious victory in the 1995 season of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the F1 GTR
finished tops amongst the usual scores of super car manufacturing rivals, making its indelible mark in the books of racing history. Fast forward to 2011, McLaren finally put an end to a 16-year hiatus by showing the world its latest, wholly-built production car, the MP4-12C. A truly state-of-the art vehicle, it would set the base for the 650S, a car that was built around the latter. Naturally, it would make no sense for McLaren if there were to build a car that only looked visually different from its
predecessor; thus, the 650S is a relatively big movement forward, even though its figures look slightly incremental because at such speeds, small numbers matter a lot.
I shall not delve much into these said numbers, but what needs to be known is that 25% of parts on the 650S are new and these include stiffer springs, a revised frontal aerodynamic look that mirrors its
brutally insane P1 hybrid-hyper car cousin and a dizzying list of recalibrated electronics for driving at high speeds. Speaking of speed, the 650S gets more speed, thanks to 641bhp from its twin-turbo V8 motor, 25bhp more than its outgoing MP4-12C sibling. The 650S Spider that I would be driving, tips
the typical weight of the 650S coupe by a mere 40kg, a figure contributed purely by
the weight of the convertible mechanism and some parts of the hard top itself.
Precariously climbing into the driver’s seat, the first impressions started to sink in; snug seats, carbon fibre-laced steering wheel, paddle shifters; the hallmarks of a thorough-bred racing machine. Not only was I positioned close to the dashboard, my feet were dancing across billeted pedals that
sank deep into carbon fibre cell that we were seated in and these were neatly centred, allowing the driver to take driving to the next level with left-foot braking, a racing technique often used by racing drivers to out-brake their opponents.
The dashboard was easy to read off, as the large tachometer roundel that tops out at 9,000rpm sat dead square in front of the steering wheel, a sign of what the force-fed M838T lump was capable of. My chaperon then cautioned my curious fingers off certain modes that were “not recommended” for immensely populated local roads. Soon after which, I fired up the massive twin-turbo V8 with the simple push of the engine start button, sending waves of aural delight through my body. As I gingerly peeled out of the narrow confines of Eurokars Supersports,
I was vaguely aware of the presence of super car spotters, who were rapidly firing the shutters off their cameras. Clearly, I was in a limelight of different sorts. But I wanted some real ‘alone time’, to experience the 650S Spider in all its glory, away from the scrutiny of the public eye, where the car would perhaps, reveal its true racing intentions to me.
We decided to head to an undisclosed location where green and wood grew in undisturbed harmony. There, the roads were the perfect environment to grasp the super car’s ability to take on any environment it was put through. At the said venue, the roof was ordered off and in a mere 17 seconds, I was cruising comfortably through refurbished colonial houses and abandoned, narrow asphalt that seemed to twist endlessly.
The steering was taut, not in an artificial manner, but what a true blooded sports car should feel like, allowing you the freedom of driving expression without the over-eager power-steering assistance
interfering. The adaptive dampers were soaking up the road imperfections with relative ease and there was little juggling of body fats, even though the passenger cell was made up of rigid carbon fibre.
Naturally with such a refined setup, speed bumps weren’t a problem for the 650S Spider, allowing us to ease up and glide across with relative ease.
Moving out from the tight foliage, we headed to open roads where we could finally stretch the 650S Spider’s legs. Just before the entrance to the highway, I engaged the super car’s Sport Mode and
almost immediately, the loud growl of the exhaust became extremely audible. I was encouraged to use the paddle shifters liberally, which I did very enthusiastically.
Not only were the gear shifts sharper than a ceramic blade, it felt as though a cap had been lifted off the rev limiter, as the tachometer needle swung past the vertical point. Even before it could bounce off the limiter, I found myself at the limits of my own human threshold, swapping acceleration for deceleration and found myself stomping on large piston brakes that provided ultimate stopping power, putting an end to what seemed like a Star Wars’ hyperspace jump scene.
Personally, I am one for full, hard-bodied coupes if it was going to be all about less flex, safety, rigidity. This 650S Spider though, changed that perception ever so significantly. Previously citing issues such as wind noise, additional weight and such, the 650S Spider however adds that lifestyle element into a race-bred machine without compromising much on its adrenaline-pumping factor.
I mean, 40kg of weight versus a typical 100kg of weight from a standard convertible is truly significant, so why not? After half a day’s driving, my reluctant heart and wearied mind dragged the
childhood dream of mine back into its rightful premise. Thanking my chaperon, I turned around, whipped out my mobile phone like any super car spotter would have and snapped a quick picture, a reminder of how dreams can come true. Thank you Bruce McLaren, Gordon Murray, for creating some of the most fascinating cars in my life.
Test Drive by Aaron Dude
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