The launch of the McLaren 765LT prompted me to contemplate which is my favorite McLaren. Not the best, not the most comfortable, not the fastest, not the most extreme, not the horrible “if you can only have one” quandary, but simply which one is my favorite. Now “favorite” in my mind is something that is earned over time. It’s a label that comes after multiple years of ownership. Its built through drives in wide range of different conditions and across many great road trips. As such, the 2019s additions (720S Spider & Senna) do not qualify for consideration as they are far too new to have built up the required compendium of experiences. That leaves seven other eligible candidates from the last 8 years (Our McLaren History).
For those that know me well, the choice of the 675LT Spider as my favorite McLaren will hardly come as a surprise. The McLaren 675LT Spider just puts a huge smile on my face every time I take it out. The first time I drove our McLaren 675LT Spider I got out thinking this was the best car McLaren had built. It felt incredibly well put together and I was comfortable driving it hard very quickly. The configuration we decided upon was anything but subtle combining rather bright Tarocco Orange paint work with an orgy of carbon fiber. We spec’ed our 675LT Spider for road use with long road trips in mind. As such we opted for the more comfortable electric heated seats, electric steering column, vehicle lift and the full leather interior. I would have preferred the manual racing buckets, but Mrs. SSO was fairly prescriptive when it came to the seats referencing a not so pleasant 10 hours she once spent in the F40’s utilitarian buckets crossing the Swiss Alps. I also had the car fitted with the normal Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires vs. the track focused Trofeo R’s. While the Trofeo’s are great in the dry, rain is not their friend and we have spent plenty of time driving through major downpours on various road trips.
As good as the 675LT Spider was up in New England, it feels like it was designed for driving the mountain passes that surround our place in Montana. Wildlife adds in an additional level of complexity and you always need to be on the watch out for everything from deer to moose to big horn sheep and just about everything else in between. The McLaren 675LT Spider excels at the constant changes of direction, rapid acceleration, hard braking, and quick gear changes. The steering is perfectly weighted and incredibly precise. This allows you to put the car exactly where you want it. The 675LT neither under nor oversteers and the back-end stays glued to the road. On public roads I normally leave the handling in “normal” as I want the maximum amount of “nannying” as the long hard winters leave plenty of loose gravel on the roads. The transmission alternates between “sport” and “track” as I prefer the quicker shift times and enjoy the loud “crack” you get when shift up near the redline. While the large carbon-ceramic brakes are outstanding, so is the engine braking and in many cases a couple of pulls of the left-hand paddle is more than effective enough in scrubbing off speed going into the next corner. Opening the roof just increases the enjoyment of the whole experience. Especially with the top down, the 675LT sounds terrific and you can hear the engine soundtrack bouncing off the cliff walls. Six hundred and sixty-six horsepower makes passing almost too easy. Threading the 675LT Spider through a line of slower moving traffic heading up the mountain can be a fun bit of a sport.
Over many miles and multiple highly memorable experiences this man and that Tarocco Orange machine have completely bonded. The McLaren 675LT Spider is a car that I have complete confidence and trust in. Will it always be my favorite McLaren, only time will tell, but it certainly is now. Will the Senna or 765LT Spider replace the 675LT Spider as the favorite? Check back in a few years.
Thoughts and comments? Please see the comments section below.
Also please share, buttons are below.
The last line leaves us hanging for a blurb from Mrs. SSO saying why she prefers the 720S Spider.
[…] be the best of the breed. However, its predecessor, the McLaren 675LT, is a phenomenal car (My Favorite McLaren) so the 765LT has a very high bar to clear. Making matters even tougher for the 765LT is the […]