First Drive: 2021 McLaren Speedtail Review

Yes the new McLaren Speedtail has a central driving seat and, of course a passenger seat over each shoulder and, yes, McLaren will only build 106 of them just like the legendary F1, but it is not, absolutely not that car’s somewhat belated replacement. Or at least that’s what the McLaren people will tell you. And to prove their point they’ll observe that the F1 was as famed for its exploits on track as on road, at which you might counter ‘ah yes, but it was still never intended to be a racing car…’ Does this actually matter, especially considering everyone has long since sold, even at £2.1 million a pop? Possibly not, except that the longer you spend behind its wheel, the more it reminds you of its illustrious, perhaps we should say legendary forebear.

The Speedtail, says McLaren is instead ‘a hyper-GT’ and we will see how credibly it stacks up in that role in just a moment. For now let’s consider what we have here: like all ‘Ultimate Series’ from the F1 past the P1 and Senna to this and the Elva beyond, the Speedtail has not only a carbon-fibre tub, but all carbon bodywork too. The tub is similar to that used on the 720S and Senna, but modified at the front to provide the central driving position. At the rear the car’s wheelbase has been slightly extended to accept the hybrid drive system, including the electric motor that sits between its 4.0-litre V8 engine and seven-speed double-clutch gearbox. That extension has other benefits too, of which more shortly.

Unlike, for instance, the Ferrari SF90 Stradale, the Speedtail does not have an electrically driven front axle. It wasn’t needed to hit the power target and McLaren didn’t want the additional weight, mechanical complexity and inevitable hit on carrying capacity. The result is a car weighing under 1,500kg with a total system power output of 1,070PS. That, in combination with a gorgeous teardrop body extended fully half a metre further rearward than that of standard road car McLarens is enough to spear the Speedtail to 250mph and, doubtless, some distance beyond were it not electronically limited. Why not let it run unhindered? Because to provide the additional tyre and wheel strength, braking capacity and aerodynamic modifications would have added to the weight and subtracted from the appearance in pursuit of an ultimately meaningless statistic.

The Speedtail posts the same 2.9 second 0-62mph time as a 720S costing almost £2 million less. Surprised? Don’t be: both cars are traction limited all the way there. This also explains why its 0-100mph time is a fraction more than 5 seconds flat, rather than considerably less. By 124mph (200km/h) it’s getting into its stride with a time of 6.6 seconds (remember when that was a fairly dramatic 0-60mph time?) but the most ridiculous number of all is 0-186mph (300km/h) in 13 seconds dead. Not even the 1,500PS Bugatti Chiron can match that. So yes, from the moment traction is no longer an issue to the moment the electronics cut in at 250mph, the Speedtail appears likely to be quicker than a Chiron.

So much for bald figures. Most of the time when you’re driving the Speedtail, it feels merely immensely rapid, quick for sure but in an understandable and almost conventional way. And that’s because McLaren’s traction control is so good, you are entirely unaware of its operation, apart from the fact the car seems to have little more get up and go than other McLarens. But then you take it somewhere safe and drive it at a speed where traction doesn’t matter and you’ll find there is an entire other place, a parallel universe of performance where you seem not so much to accelerate toward the horizon as it being ripped towards you. Whether it is a shout, a scream, a howl of laughter or just a dumbfounded gasp, when you feel for the first time what the Speedtail can really do, you will make noises.

And yet it is that same powertrain that first suggests this may be a GT more in name than reality. Like every other McLaren to which it has been fitted over this last ten years, the V8 is a raw and urgent powerplant, quite brilliant for pure sports, super and track cars, but for a long legged, languid GT? Not so much.

The second clue lies in the car’s handling. I’ve never driven a GT that attacks the open road like this. Indeed I’d say that however impressive the Speedtail may be in a straight line, its performance actually plays a supporting role to its chassis. Why? Because for perhaps the first time since the F1, McLaren has been able to set up a car for the road alone. Which means not only is its ride superb, but its damping is simply exquisite. It doesn’t feel tied down on its springs, nor is there the slightest suggest of float or wallow. It does enough to maintain its ride height almost come what may, yet is superbly compliant and tolerant of small bumps. Dynamically this is an exquisitely judged car.

Which comes with an equally well judged interior in all regards save one. And it’s important: the packaging is flawed, more so than in the F1, because if a tall driver pushes his or her seat back it devours the inboard shoulder room of any passenger sitting behind. If that passenger is a child or even maybe just a small adult that might not be too problematic, but two let alone three six footer are going to struggle in here. Happily there is at least plenty of space or storage, both in the nose and behind the engine.

And for the driver, the environment is superb. Forget any difficulties accessing or departing the central seat, for there aren’t any. Once ensconced you’ll realise at once how natural it feels, so much so that when you get back into your conventional street machine, it is that and not the Speedtail that feels slightly awkward. And while there are a smattering of buttons, none is in your natural sightline. There are just three screens: one ahead for driving information flanked by one for entertainment and one for navigation functions. It is simple, elegant and brilliant.

The Speedtail is awash with clever tech. For example and although you cannot run the car on electricity alone, you can charge its batteries without plugging it in, via an induction pad supplied with the car that sits in your dehumidified garage. It is the first car of which I am aware that can be charged this way. The body is very clever too: McLaren wanted it to have no wings on its upper surfaces at all, but aerodynamic stability is clearly incredibly important for a car capable of these velocities. What to do? McLaren has incorporated two ‘ailerons’ into the rear bodywork – flaps of carbon-fibre that are actual parts of the body and which sit flush with it when not deployed but which, when needed, bend upwards as if someone were bending the bodywork itself. It looks extraordinary and you think it must sooner or later break or at least ripple the paintwork, but test mules have so far completed over 70,000 deployments without trouble.

There’s no such thing as an equipment list for a car like this. There’s a base specification after which you work with McLaren’s designers to kit it out in the style and with the materials you want. How much might this set you back? Well to give you some idea, one of the more expensive paint jobs available for the car would set you back £100,000.

The McLaren Speedtail is not a GT, hyper of otherwise and it’s all the better for that. Indeed despite its postmodern appearance and state of the art technology, philosophically it’s actually something rather traditional: a pure road-going supercar, just wound up so far the knob’s come off in your hand. Think cutting edge, thousand horsepower Ferrari Daytona and you’ll know where it sits, conceptually at least.

To know it any better than that is to possess an unimaginable sum of money and be on very good terms with McLaren top brass. Is it worth £2.1 million? The fact they’re sold proves that they are. Just remember that what they’re buying is not just that thousand horsepower or inspired seating position, but also the satisfaction in knowing only 105 others in the world have one. Having spent just one day in it, I am jealous of each and every one of them.