2024 McLaren 750S review: International first drive
Has British supercar brand McLaren done enough to make the new 750S supercar a worthy rival to the Ferrari 296 GTB and Lamborghini Huracan STO? Glenn Butler straps in to find out.
- Performance leaps ahead, and yet is more manageable
- Is actually comfortable on the road
- So much more driver immersion
- No Android Auto
- Options costs will fleece the unwary
- Getting in and out is not easy, but that's the price you pay for sexy doors
2024 McLaren 750S
It’s not so much the neck-snapping brutality of the initial acceleration. That’s implied by the supercar silhouette, and the minute you see the 750S you’re expecting nothing less.
It’s more in the way that rampaging raw fury continues through the second hundred and beyond.
Yet it’s more than just the raw straightline speed. It is also the way the 750S sheds that speed like a cat ruining carpet before slicing around the next corner. It’s the way the 4.0-litre V8 thunders like an avalanche right behind your head and the way its new high-mounted exhaust roars with primal savagery.
It’s the way the 750S’s updated styling looks both familiar and also more menacing, and the way the updated cabin makes it feel even more like a race car for the real world.
But again, it’s more than that. Crucially, this McLaren has a personality. This supercar is characterful and engaging, and that’s not a statement we have always been able to make about McLarens.
That last one is the icing on the supercar cake because ‘character’ is what transforms a lifeless mechanical tool into a living, breathing collaborator. Supercars are fast, but the really good ones are fun, too. They engage on levels both substantive and intangible. They make you ‘feel’ the speed, the excitement and the emotion of a great drive in your heart.
The McLaren 750S will make you forget past complaints that the brand’s supercars were too clinical and too aloof. It will also make you forget questions about build quality and craftsmanship. The McLaren 750S can also make you giggle out loud, sometimes like a carefree kid and sometimes like a mindless loon. If you don’t believe me, watch the video.
Key details | 2024 McLaren 750S Coupe |
Price | $585,800 plus on-road costs |
Colour of test car | Ludus Blue |
Options | TechLux interior – $16,995 Elite Exterior Paint – $12,315 Black Pack – $8568 Stealth Wheel Finish – $3563 Coloured Brake Calipers with McLaren Logo – $2960 Sound Comfort Windscreen – $2633 Satin Finish Sill Trim – $7290 Double Glazed Engine Window – $12,935 Carbon Fibre Race Seats - Touring – NCO Orange Seatbelts – $1452 Bowers & Wilkins 12-speaker Sound System – $9866 *Australian option pricing, based on overseas specification |
Price as tested | $664,377 plus on-road costs, estimated |
Rivals | Ferrari 296 GTB | Lamborghini Huracan STO | Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series |
The McLaren 750S, successor to the 720S which launched in 2018, arrives in Australia in the first quarter of 2024 in both coupe and spider body styles. Prices start from $585,800 for the coupe, and $654,600 for the Spider, up from the $508,650 of the 720S coupe and $566,650 of the 720S Spider. All those prices exclude on-road costs, so factor that in if you’re doing the sums.
Those prices are a touch more than the Ferrari 296 GTB, which starts at $568,300 and a bit less than the Lamborghini Huracan STO, which starts at $596,000 (again, before ORCs).
I’ve driven the Lamborghini Huracan STO on a racetrack. The McLaren is better. I’ve also driven the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series on a racetrack. That car is all kinds of thunder and lightning, and has no shortage of personality. The McLaren 750S is not as evocative, but it’s no shrinking violet either, and it is sharper and faster.
I’ve also driven the Maserati MC20 on a racetrack, and again the McLaren is better. But I’m not sure comparing the 750S with the MC20 is a fair fight. The MC20 feels like the beginnings of a 750S rival in the same way a Commodore V8 was the beginnings of an HSV in the old days. Perhaps, if Maserati build the 544kW / 1320kg MC20 GT2 racer as a road car, then the Modena maestros will have a dog in this fight.
The one glaring omission from this on-paper comparison is the Ferrari 296 GTB, which I have not driven on road nor track. My colleague Trent Nikolic attended the Ferrari 296 GTB on-road launch in January 2023, and he declared the 296 GTB “up there with the best”.
This is the car the McLaren will eventually need to beat to be declared king of the supercars. But for now, all it has to do is prove itself better than the 720S.
2024 McLaren 750S | |
Seats | Two |
Boot volume | 150L front 210L rear (Coupe) 58L rear (Spider) |
Length | 4569mm |
Width | 1930mm |
Height | 1196mm |
Wheelbase | 2670mm |
McLaren started work in earnest on the 750S two years ago, targeting improvements in three key areas: Performance, comfort and emotion.
Before I dive into the many changes McLaren has wrought on the 750S – they claim 30 per cent of the components are new or changed – I’ll finish up my range overview first with a quick look at the Spider.
I drove both the Coupe and the Spider on-road at the launch in Estoril, Portugal and surprised myself by enjoying the Spider more. Both cars share the same overall styling, equipment and engineering upgrades. Both cars share the same rampaging 552kW, 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine mounted amidships and mated to a seven-speed sequential transmission driving the rear wheels.
The Spider has two advantages over the coupe. The first is a retractable rear window that lets in more of that wonderful engine sound inside the cabin when the roof is up. Or owners can go one step further, drop the retractable hard-top roof in 11 seconds, and get an even richer experience.
The Spider’s doors are hinged differently because of the different roof structure, and they don’t have integrated window frames or form part of the roof, obviously. The flying buttresses look brilliant, too, especially when the roof is down.
The mechanisms required by the folding hardtop and the addition of a rollover protection system add 49kg to the vehicle’s kerb weight. McLaren says no additional body bracing was needed because the 750S’s carbon monocoque is more than rigid enough to withstand the removal of the roof.
Spider buyers can opt for an electrochromic glass roof panel so that even when the lid is on, you can see the sky and dim it.
The compromise to performance is negligible on the road. It may be a touch more obvious on track, or not, but we didn’t have the chance to find out.
Okay, now let’s look at the mechanical upgrades in more detail. On the performance front, McLaren has given the engine more power, dropped in a shorter final drive ratio for faster acceleration, reduced weight, and adjusted the suspension to improve dynamic grip.
The extra 30hp (for a total of 750hp, hence the name) and 30Nm (for a total of 800Nm) may not sound like much, but by increasing turbo boost, fitting lighter pistons from the 765LT, adding a second fuel pump to keep up with high-rev demand and updating the engine control module, the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 feels more bullish throughout its 8500rpm rev range.
That final drive ratio change helps, and so does a 30kg weight reduction (1389kg kerb weight), primarily due to new front seats (-17.5kg) and alloy wheels (-3.5kg per wheel), a 1.8kg lighter windscreen, and a 1.6kg lighter driver instrument display.
As a result, the 750S accelerates faster in every measure. It takes 2.8 seconds to go from 0-100km/h, 0.1sec faster than the old 720S. Zero to 200km/h takes 7.2sec (720S: 7.8sec) and can cover the standing start 400m in 10.1sec (10.4).
Crucially, the 0-100km/h time is 0.1sec faster than the 610kW Ferrari 296 GTB, as is the 0-200km/h time (Ferrari claims 7.3sec). But to be fair, the hybrid-powered 296 GTB is 193kg heavier than the McLaren, so it’s impressive that Ferrari could achieve those times despite the weight penalty.
McLaren claims a 0-300km/h time of 20 sec, at which point the car is covering 83 metres per second. That’s the same as from the MCG’s batting crease to the boundary fence, and it takes a Glen Maxwell six at least three times as long to cover the distance.
The downside of a shorter final drive is a lower top speed, not that ‘only’ 332km/h instead of 341km/h will be a problem for law-abiding Australian owners.
The McLaren 750S’s optional carbon ceramic brakes are derived from the McLaren Senna limited-run hypercar and come with a new booster and vacuum pump. They can stop the car from 100km/h in just 30 metres – a typical family hatchback takes 42m to do the same, so the difference is roughly a bus in length.
The brakes showed absolutely no sign of fatigue during our track sessions, which is impressive but it’s what you’d expect of a supercar. Still, it’s nice to know that a car with this accelerative capability has an equally effective stopping solution.
McLaren has swapped out the 720S’s steering rack for a faster ratio and made changes to the hydraulic power-assistance pump to improve feel and refinement.
Fuel Consumption - brought to you by bp
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20240509232955im_/https://images.drive.com.au/driveau/image/upload/c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,h_125,q_auto:eco/v1/cms/theme/bp-fuel-logo.png)
Fuel Useage | Fuel Stats |
Fuel cons. (claimed) | 12.2L/100km |
Fuel cons. (on test) | 14.8L/100km (on-road) |
Fuel type | 98-octane premium unleaded |
Fuel tank size | 72L |
Suspension changes are aimed at both ends of the dynamic spectrum, making the 750S more comfortable on-road and more capable on track.
Lightweight dampers and springs (softer at the front, firmer at the rear) combine with a generational update to McLaren’s hydraulic linkages that do the job of traditional anti-roll bars to soften the transition between grip and slip considerably.
No longer does this knife edge cut deep if you overstep. Now it’s a defanged demilitarized zone where drivers can play with greater abandon.
And yet the McLaren is impressively comfortable to drive at sedate everyday speeds and not at all fatiguing like some supercars can be.
Obviously, the suspension’s three dynamic modes – comfort, sport and track – are key to the 750S’s broad dynamic bandwidth.
The same three presets can be applied independently to the powertrain via rocker switches on the driver’s instrument cluster cowl. The differences here don’t just amp up the aggression; they’re targeted at driving styles instead, and could equally be called Cruise, Hooligan and Hotlap.
Comfort puts the powertrain in its most benign mode, softening throttle response and gear changes to ruffle occupants as little as possible. But when I say ‘softening’, it’s like putting a felt cover on a sledgehammer.
Sport mode turns the 750S into a real showman, sharpening throttle response and adding gurgles, pops and bangs to every gearchange – complete with a back-slapping physical whack with every hard-throttle change.
Track mode does away with these theatrics and tunes every component for maximum performance instead. For example, a back-slapping whack on a racetrack when you’re fully committed could upset the car’s balance. Instead, Track mode seeks to change gears as quickly as possible without any adverse impact on balance.
One other suspension change doesn’t help dynamic performance one whit, but it does make life easier. A new vehicle-lift system reduces nose-lift duration by more than half to four seconds, meaning you’ll linger a lot less before entering driveways and clearing bigger speed bumps.
Styling is basically carryover but updated with aerodynamic enhancements to improve downforce and aero balance without overly increasing drag. Changes include a longer front splitter and an active rear wing that can change its angle of attack to either reduce drag or act as an air brake. The wing is also 60mm higher than on the 720S to give the McLaren P1-derived single exhaust more clearance.
The interior has been updated with a new driver-centric column-mounted instrument display (similar to that debuted on the Artura hybrid), flanked by relocated rocker switches to control the active dynamics settings.
Nappa leather or a combination of leather and Alcantara trims are available in TechLux and Performance grades. The Bowers & Wilkins sound system has been upgraded with a more powerful amplifier and updated speakers.
The 750S's steering wheel is deliberately free of buttons, allowing the driver to focus on feel and feedback from the road. All interaction with the car's infotainment is via the centrally mounted touchscreen, which has satellite navigation, phone pairing, media playback and climate controls. The system can also be interacted with using voice commands.
The 750S has wired Apple Carplay but not Android Auto. McLaren says it prioritised the less popular Apple system over the Android system because that plays to the majority of the owner base. Android Auto may come in a year or two, but because the 750S does not have Over-The-Air (OTA) update capability, it won't be a seamless addition.
Then there’s the Speed Kiwi button, which is McLaren’s humourous yet historically relevant take on BMW M Division’s M button. The Speed Kiwi button puts the powertrain, suspension and aero settings into the driver’s favourite preset with one touch.
Key details | 2024 McLaren 750S |
Engine | 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 petrol |
Power | 552kW @ 7500rpm |
Torque | 800Nm @ 5500rpm |
Drive type | Rear-wheel drive |
Transmission | Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic |
Power-to-weight ratio | 397kW/t Coupe 383kW/t Spider |
Weight | 1389kg Coupe 1438kg Spider |
Spare tyre type | None |
Performance times | 0-100km/h: 2.8sec (Coupe and Spider) 0-200km/h: 7.2sec (Spider: 7.3sec) 0-300km/h: 19.8sec (Spider 20.4sec) 0-400m: 10.1sec (Spider: 10.3sec) |
Braking performance | 200-0km/h: 113m 100-0km/h: 30m |
On paper, the 750S is just an update to the 720S, but in reality, McLaren’s modifications evolve this supercar’s appeal in all measures, tangible and intangible.
Great supercars are a winning triumvirate of performance, craftsmanship and connection, and each must deliver beyond the expectations of the world’s most discerning and demanding clientele. If you’re spending $600-700K on something, near enough or second best is not good enough.
Equally, engineering excellence would amount to little if the emotional connection wasn’t there. A supercar must connect emotionally with the driver or it will forever remain a tool to be deployed when needed but never cherished.
Supercar craftsmanship must be beautiful, not just in its execution but also in its depth and audacity. Owners must be reminded every day that the car they paid dearly for is worth every cent and more, even when it's sitting still.
The 750S takes a big leap in the realm of driver connection, and that’s saying something because McLaren’s advances in performance and craftsmanship are both worthy of deep respect.
If McLaren wanted to prove to the world that it finally understands that truly great supercars are an interwoven web of those three traits, the 750S does so.
I think McLaren’s biggest achievement has not been to endow it with elevated dynamic capabilities. That’s kind of a given with any updated high-performance machine. Instead, they’ve done all that and made this car so playful and rewarding.
I’ve never felt this empowered to explore the limits before. In high-end supercars from other brands, there’s always a lingering fear that straying beyond the limits of your ability will result in a slap and a spin … or worse… a very big and expensive crash.
The McLaren 750S doesn’t ever make you fear it. It’s the absolute opposite, in fact. The McLaren 750S invites you to leap out of your comfort zone and dance with the devil at the edges of existence. Because that’s where the magic really happens.