McLaren is bringing its latest supercar, the 675LT, to the Geneva Motor Show next month. McLaren
“It was a car that needed to be built,” says JP Canton, a spokesman for McLaren. “The market demanded it.”
The car in this case is the McLaren 675LT, a powered-up, stripped-down, track-focused take on the 650S supercar. And the market is everyone for whom the 650S—which starts at $265,000— just isn’t enough. That’s saying something: The 650S delivers 641 horsepower from a twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V8. It has a top speed of 207 mph and runs from 0 to 60 mph in three seconds. It’s engineered to make anyone in loafers feel like a pro racer.
But some customers wanted a version that was more focused on performance but still street-legal (with things like headlights and airbags), so McLaren obliged. It modified the V12 to deliver a perfectly demonic 666 horsepower (that’s 675 PS, to use the British system) and cut out bits like the air conditioner to cut the car’s weight by more than 200 pounds, a 7 percent drop. Those who can’t handle sweat-soaked seersucker can have the A/C put back in at no cost.
It’s a track-focused by street-legal version of the 650S. McLaren
A full 33 percent of the parts used in the 675LT are new, and it’s all about improving performance. McLaren stripped down the interior and swapped out the leather-wrapped, cushy seats for racing versions that are 33 pounds lighter. It made the turbochargers from titanium, not stainless steel, to save weight. It used aluminum for the bolts on the 7-speed transmission. It set up the engine to switch gears faster and deliver better acceleration. The result is a track-destined machine that offers 1 horsepower for every four pounds it weighs, an impressive ratio.
The 675LT (LT is for “Longtail,” from the McLaren F1 GTR Long Tail that raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans) posts some wild stats. It hits 60 mph in 2.9 seconds, and 124 mph in 7.9. Top speed is actually down a touch to 205 mph, a downside of gearing that favors acceleration instead (which we prefer, since you’ll definitely do the 0 to 60 run, but probably never reach top speed). If you drive it carefully, it’ll go 20 miles on a gallon. Please never do this, because McLaren promises a limited run and we don’t want to regret letting your getting one.
We’ll know more about pricing (Spoiler: way more than $265K) and how many 675LTs McLaren plans to sell next month at the Geneva Motor Show.
As for looks, there’s nothing too crazy: The 675LT resembles basically every other car in its class, as individual design loses out to the physics or aerodynamics and immutable government safety regulations. But in the absence of a design for the ages, we’ll gladly take a vehicle that takes something good like the 650S and makes it even better.
Pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, but expect this thing to cost a bunch more than the $265K 650S. McLaren
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