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McLaren 650S Spider: 4 Years as my Daily Driver

McLaren 650S Spider

McLaren 650S Spider: 4 Years as my Daily Driver

It has now been over four years since the McLaren 650S Spider became my daily driver. It gets used every day regardless of the weather. It’s spent plenty of time in the boiling Texas summer sun, been driven through light snow, handled ice, and survived plenty of thunderstorms without ever putting a foot wrong. For the majority of its life it’s been subject to short drives, lots of traffic and some pretty crappy roads. It’s really only this year that the 650S Spider had a chance to really stretch its legs on some longer drives, including the recent trip from Texas to Massachusetts.

There is a perception in some corners that supercars are fragile machines that need special pampering constantly to stay in good condition.  This is anything but the case with the 650S Spider.  In our four plus years together, it gets valeted once a year, washed on a semi regular basis, and the interior is vacuumed out about every 6-8 weeks.  This is no different from how the Porsche Cayenne S or Mercedes ML550 get treated. Despite the lack of being wrapped in cashmere every night after being feather dusted daily, the interior looks as good as it did the day I picked up the car at McLaren Dallas.  The paint work has also held up extremely well and a close inspection found only two very small stone chips on the front nose.  We opted not to have paint protection film applied when we purchased the 650S Spider and in this case, on a cost vs. benefit basis, I’m glad we didn’t.  The only other battle scar the 650S Spider has picked up is one lightly curbed wheel thanks to the lunar surface like roads of Dallas.  It was about $200 to repair.

In terms of my expectations for any daily driver; reliability is job #1. Here the McLaren 650S Spider has been perfect. It has never left me stranded and has been devoid of random warning lights that excel at driving blood pressure up unnecessarily. The only times it has seen the McLaren service center is for its four annual services. I’ve never had to add either oil or coolant between services but do check the levels on a semi regular basis. The wheels hold air pressure well and only need a small top up once a quarter. There have been a couple of recalls but all have been performed when the car was in for its annual service and none where for items I ever noticed. The only quirk I have run across is related to Iris, the infotainment system. It seems to have a massive distaste for large capacity Scandisk USB drives. If you insert a 64GB or large drive it crashes. Replace the USB drive with a smaller capacity one and Iris reverts to normal.

In terms of living with the 650S Spider on a day in day out basis, getting in and out of the car is a learned skill and easy once you have mastered it. The magical McLaren suspension soaks up imperfections in the road surface better than anything else in its class. Boot space is decent with room for at least a couple of duffle bags or a week’s worth of groceries.

The 650S Spider continues to show just how far supercars have come in terms of both reliability and usability. In the searing mid-summer Texas heat, the temperature gauge has never risen above normal. During the recent cross-country road trip we ran into a major traffic jam five hours into the drive. Despite going from hours of running at high speed to suddenly zero, the 650S Spider sat for over an hour far more calmly than the driver. The one surprising negative though has been the discovery on what happens when the car is left parked in the scorching sun for an extended period. The glue under the dash headliner vaporizes and leaves a nasty, very difficult to remove, film on the windscreen.
Overall though, the McLaren 650S Spider continues to be the best daily driver, and not just best supercar daily driver, I have ever had. The currently plan is to at least continue using it in this capacity for at least the next several years. In terms of both comfort and reliability, it has been outstanding.

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Supercar Market Update – Q3 2019

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Supercar Market Update – Q3 2019

Following up on the article on the car market in Q2 (Car Market Q2), I’ve continued to follow the Ferrari F355, Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona, and the Porsche Carrera GT, as I believe they are good bellwethers for the market in general.  I also tend to take a look on occasion at Koenigseggs and the Special Series Ferraris out of personal curiosity.  It’s wasn’t too long ago the F355 Spiders were regularly selling in the $90-100k range and market experts were predicting Daytona would be $1 mil cars shortly.  The one car that hasn’t retreated in value is the Carrera GT.  CGTs have been rock solid at $700k for the past year.  A car is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and certainly if you look at the results of the multiple auctions in Monterey, all but the rarest and best are retreating back to reality.

A few recent results of interest are:

82k- Mile 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, Not Sold at High Bid $461k

53k- Mile 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, Not Sold at High Bid $530k

NA- Mile 1970 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, Sold $533k

78k- Mile 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, Not Sold at High Bid $430k

5k- Mile  2005 Porsche Carrera GT, Sold $720k

4k- Mile  2005 Porsche Carrera GT, Sold $758k

18k-Mile 1996 Ferrari          F355 Spider 6-Speed, Sold $63k 

42k-Mile 1997 Ferrari F355 Spider 6-Speed, Sold $56,000

1k – KM  2015 Koenigsegg One:1, Sold $4,641k

1k – KM 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari Sold $2,204k

500 Mile 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari, Not Sold at a High Bid $2,400k

I believe the market is in a place where the speculators are now all long gone, and a generational shift is starting to really impact values.  The bloom is now definitely now off the last generation of limited edition hypercars (No Longer the New New Thing) .  The days of the $ 4 million LaFerrari and $2 McLaren P1 are long gone.  The people buying the cars today are collectors and enthusiasts.  The collectors only want the best examples and the enthusiasts want cars they can actually use, enjoy, and afford to keep on the road.  For this second group maintenance and running costs do matter.  A $8-10k cambelt change on a Ferrari Testorossa is a significant expense and has a real impact on values.  Time is also playing a role as many of the buyers today are younger.  Anyone can drive a Ferrari Enzo but the number who can drive a F40 without putting it backwards through a hedge, is significantly less.  These are the forces which are driving the market now.

When looking at the each of these cars, I do believe different factors are driving the values in each case.  Not too long ago a lot of speculators scooped up Daytona’s expecting them to be the next $ 1million Ferrari.  When that didn’t happen, a lot of these cars started reappearing on the market.  Sellers outnumbered buyers and prices started dropping.  The number of Daytona “no sales” at auctions over the last several years is exceptional high.  For today’s coming of age enthusiast, the Daytona was your grandfather’s Ferrari and hence has little appeal.  Throw in the fact that they are not easy cars to drive ( Driving a Daytona ), expensive to maintain, were produced in relatively high numbers and the future looks even dimmer than the present in-terms of values.  About two years ago I expected Daytonas to retreat back from $700k cars to $500k, now it looks like a $400k or less Daytona is not too far off in the future.  In the case of the Daytona, if you do yearn for one, it has, and will still, pay to wait.

Much to my chagrin as the Carrera GT has been high on my bucket list for several years now (Garage Goals), Carrera GT values are holding steady.  Many of the same factors that have been driving Daytona prices south, have been supporting Carrera GT values.  CGTs are the cars that the new generation of buyers grew up with on their wall.  In addition, new tire technology has made CGTs significantly more drivable.  CGTs are still quick by today’s standards and with new Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires, a track outing is now far less likely to be a terminal experience.  Owners do use there CGTs and they are a common sight at any major car show.  In many ways if the Daytona was the cool icon of the 60’s in the 80’s & 90’s the CGT fills that same role today. 

I believe the Ferrari F355 is today’s “starter” Ferrari (SSO’s Ferrari History ). With prices now holding very steady in the $50-60k range, the F355 is affordable (by Ferrari standards) and its modern enough so the learning curve is short.  For the generation that grew up not knowing what that strange third pedal next to the brake is, this was also the first regular production Ferrari to come with a paddle shift gear box as an option.  The F355 is an infinitely usable car with enough luggage room for a multiday trip which certainly aids in its appeal.  It doesn’t hurt that the F355 is one of the prettiest Ferraris to ever emerge from Pininfarina’s pen.  Ferrari build three different versions of the F355, a coupe (GTB), targa, (GTS), and Spider.  I personally think the Spider is the best looking of the three, but the roof mechanism is fairly demonic.  Given Ferrari built over 10,000 F355s there are always plenty for sale and a strong support community of owners.  F355 prices will always be held down by very high maintenance costs.  The every four year cambelt change is an engine out exercise, and the F355 has a host of known issues that are not inexpensive to address.  My guess is F355s are now well priced and will hold at current values.

Koenigseggs have operated in a very different value universe for multiple years now.  In less than a decade Koenigseggs have gone from little known to quite famous.  Prices on their new cars have risen astronomically and they have developed quite a following.  I’ve seen a number of used Koenigseggs move from dealer to dealer with ever inflating prices so what they are really worth to a buyer who actually is interested in owning and driving one, is hard to tell.  Two Koenigseggs have come up for auction this year, a CCX was a no sale at $875k, and a One:1 just sold for $4.6 million at a Bonhams auction in Switzerland.  What’s really interesting on the Koenigsegg One:1 was the fuss around the original estimate of $1.8-2.4 million.  When Koenigsegg found out about the estimate they had a small conniption (Koenigsegg Blog Post on Bonhams Estimates).  Auction houses get paid on a percentage of the hammer price so grossly undervaluing a car is just not in their interest.  What was clearly of keen interest though was for Koenigesgg to make sure the car sold for a significantly higher number, otherwise its whole pricing strategy would be at risk.  Not surprising, this is exactly what happened.  It would be very interesting to see where this car turns up in about 6 months.  

In summary, the Porsche Carrera GT has held very steady over the last 3 years and will likely continue to do so.  Both the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 “Daytona” and the F355 rode the market up in 2013-2016 and while the F355 has settled, the Daytona will likely still fall further.  Koenigseggs prices remain as opaque as ever and that’s not likely to change soon.

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Monterey Car Week Report 2019

Monterey car week 2019

Monterey Car Week Report 2019

This was our first time at Monterey Car Week.  I would probably best describe Car Week as combination of the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival spread out over multiple stunning locations and then supersized in the best American tradition.  We arrived on Wednesday late afternoon and departed the following Monday morning (see: McLaren 675LT Spider Road Trip).  In between, it was pure petrolhead sensory overload. The amazing thing is it happened at all. Two weeks before Car Week we were sitting in Montana without tickets to any of the key events.  Fortunately, a gentleman at McLaren stepped in and was able to help us secure tickets for the two main events, The Quail & Pebble Beach.

Our first full day in Monterey was Thursday.  I had a morning test drive with an Aston Martin DBS Volante scheduled so I headed down to their hospitality center in Carmel by the Sea.  Car Week traffic turned a 5-mile drive into a 30 minute crawl but at least the traffic was much more interesting than usual with a few Paganis and Koenigseggs scatter in the traffic.  Upon arrival at Aston Martin, I was initially turned away from the parking lot (I guess the McLaren 675LT Spider didn’t impress) and was told to go find street parking.  It was only after I mentioned that I had a test drive scheduled and would likely miss it if I had to go find street parking that I was finally allowed into the Aston center to park.  The DBS Volante was the only test drive I had scheduled for car week which turned out to be a good thing.  Given the plethora of activates and traffic, the test drive didn’t offer any opportunities to really get a feel for the car.  About the only thing I can tell you about the DBS Volante is its very comfortable and handles traffic well.  Post the test drive Mrs. SSO and a couple of friends joined me at the Aston Martin hospitality center.  While I was waiting for them to arrive, I had a very interesting conversation with the Director of Aston Martin Special Operations.  To say Aston Martin has ambitious plans going forward is an understatement.  The Valkyrie and Valhalla are just the start.  If they can pull it off it will transform the company.  Given Aston Martin’s financial results in the first half of 2019, my question is do they have the financial resources to properly fund their ambitious plans.

From Aston Martin, we headed over to Pininfarina for cocktails and to see the new Pininfarina Battista.  As you would expect for a car wearing the Pininfarina badge, it’s gorgeous. At $2.5 mil it’s also not exactly a bargain and I have no idea how well an all-electric car is going to age.  The claimed performance figures are off the charts as one would expect for a car with 1900 bhp.  While Pininfarina is designing and building the car, Rimac is providing the powertrain and battery pack.  I heard that Pininfaria has orders for 25 cars so far and while I wish them well, I think filling the 150 announced build slots will be a major challenge given the price point and electric drive train.  While we were there, we also had the opportunity to see a short presentation on the SUV that Pininfaria has in development.  The renderings looked stunning, very “yacht on wheels”.  I believe the price target is in the $300k range which would make it the “green” alternative to a Bentley Bentayga.  

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After Pininfaria it was off to the Singer Vehicle Design 10thAnniversary Party.  For the party, Singer rented out a spectacular estate about 15 miles outside of Carmel.  The Singer Porsches on display were spectacular.  Singer’s build quality is world class and each car Singer touches is a work of art.  The food at the party was both excellent and creative.  Mrs. SSO even sampled one of the handmade cigars that were being made by a Master Cigar Roller.  As good as the Singer Party was, my personal highlight though was following 3 Amigos (@epicwin_F50, @mrtrig, @dennis_akoyaking) in their Ferrari F50s on the way back to Monterey when we were leaving.  It had been a long time since I had the pleasure of following a few F50s.  I don’t know if they were pushing at all, but in terms of how technology progresses, keeping up with them in the McLaren 675LT Spider was not a problem.

Friday was Quail Day to be followed by cocktails with McLaren at Bernardus Lodge & Spa.  As we were warned that the traffic would be horrific, we arrived quite early and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the Porsche Center.  When the gates opened at 10AM, our first stop was the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus where after multi years of exchanging emails, I finally met the great man.  Jim could not have been more welcoming.  He spent a considerable amount of time showing us around both the new SCG Boot and the SCG 003S.  The fact that the Boot was even at The Quail was impressive given it was only completed the weekend before.  I am a big fan of what Jim and his team are aiming to accomplish in the next several years (Ambitious Plans of SCG).

From the SCG area, it was off to Aston Martin to finally see the Valhalla.  Good news, Mrs. SSO was impressed.  In fact, she jumped into the Valhalla before I even got a chance to. The cockpit layout and ergonomics are outstanding.  You feel like you are sitting in a single seat racecar just above the asphalt.  I can’t say I loved the front end of the car (the lights looked a bit small) the first time I saw pictures, but it is growing on me.  While the gray on the display car helps highlight the carbon fiber roof and wing, I think this is one car that will look good in brighter colors.  Probably the best angle to view the Valhalla is from the rear three quarters.  From that angle you will definitely not mistake it for anything else on the road. If I had one ask for the Valhalla as it enters the final stages of development, it would be to swap out the V6 for a V8. 6-cylinder British supercars don’t have a great record of success and tend to be highly controversial, even 25 years after they were launched.  

The presentation by McLaren was for the new Ultimate Series Roadster, currently designated the P26. From a purely design standpoint, it is just stunning.  If the Senna is hard and purposeful, the P26 is all curves and lustful.  The number of new cutting edge design elements being incorporated into the P26 is very exciting.  I just hope that current homologation rules don’t ruin the purity of the concept.  As lap times are not part of the brief, the P26 will have less bhp than the Senna but will also weight less which should make it even better to carve up an empty country road.  McLaren indicated that only 399 would be built, making it a rarer than the Senna and only slightly more common than the P1.  My only surprise was that the P26 is coming so soon after the Senna.  In the past, McLaren had put multiple years in-between the launches of the Ultimate Series cars.

Saturday was our day of rest and we needed it.  I overslept the 6AM meet time for a breakfast drive.  Hence, we missed out on what would have been a great opportunity to personally meet a few other guys that I have been trading messages with on Instagram. We spent most of the day just touring the area with short stops back at the Aston Martin Center for another look at the Valhalla and at McLaren’s base at Bernardus Lodge & Spa for lunch.  At the Aston Martin center we ran into one of my favorite auto journalists, @henrycatchpole.  We had a great conversation on EVO Magazine and a few other of his current undertakings.  The evening kicked off with cocktails at Bugatti.  What I was really interested to see is the place of pride that was given to the Bugatti Centodieci, Bugatti’s homage to the EB110.  It wasn’t too long ago that the reborn Bugatti (under VW’s ownership) wanted nothing to do with the EB110s.  From Bugatti it was off to the Rimac party to take a quick look at the C_Two.  Post our time at Pininfaria, I was quite curious to see what the Battista’s powertrain looked like in its original package.  

Following the same “beat the crowds” strategy as we did for The Quail, we headed off early Sunday morning to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.  Unlike The Quail where tickets are limited, Pebble Beach is open to anyone willing to spend $450 to wander around the 18thfairway for a few hours.  Hence the crowds are much thicker and moving around more of a challenge.  Fortunately, we had passes to the McLaren Brand Center which is where we camped for significant portions of the day.  Mrs. SSO enjoyed the continuous flowing champagne and the food was not too bad.  We had a great conversation with Mika Häkkinen who tried to talk us into adding a McLaren GT to the collection.  We also discussed the Pure McLaren Arctic Experience which is now high up on the bucket list of things we definitely would like to do in the next year or two.  It was also great catching up with two of my favorite McLaren Dealership Brand Managers and a few members of the McLaren Senior Management Team.

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The cars on the lawn at Pebble are truly the best of the best.  Each is an automotive work of art.  While I am not personally interested in owning the vast majority of these autos, it was still fun to wander among the old Bentleys, Alfas, Ferraris, etc.  My favorite car on the field though was without a doubt, Jim Glickenhaus’ stunning 1967 Ferrari 412 P SN 0854.  The 412 P is both insanely cool and just drop dead gorgeous. We had another great conversation with Jim and his son Jesse on SCG’s plans.  As an added bonus, we finally met @jasdhillon67 and his lovely wife.  Jas is a true enthusiast with a wonderful collection. He is the current keeper of the Jaguar XJR-15 (Our Jaguar XJR-15) we owned a few years ago.  

In the end it was a wonderful and exhausting several days.  I estimated that we actually ended up only going to half of the events that we could of and despite this still felt that we were constantly on the move. The variety of activities is enormous and so are the crowds in general.  The variety of rare cars, both modern and vintage, that you see just driving around the Monterey area makes the journey worth it by itself.  By far our favorite major event was The Quail and it is the one we would be most likely to return for in future years.  I’m very glad we went to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance but one visit is probably enough for us.  The number of $1 million plus supercars being presented which are in development by various manufacturers is overwhelming (article on this to follow).  Both Aston Martin and McLaren clearly invested heavily and put on very impressive shows for the week.  

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Ferrari F40 & the McLaren Senna

Ferrari F40 & The McLaren Senna

It’s probably not fair for me to be comparing the McLaren Senna to the Ferrari F40 quite yet.  We have owned the F40 for a larger number of years than we have weeks on the Senna.  However, my first impressions driving both back to back are vivid enough that I wanted to capture them.  On paper there are quite a few similarities between the two, to the extent both could have been developed off the same brief, just 31 years apart. Both the F40 and Senna are twin turbo V8s, both utilize a wide rear, narrow front tire set up, both take a very minimalist approach to creature comforts, and both demand complete engagement and concentration from the driver.  Under 3000 rpms, the F40 feels like a 328 in a body kit.  The same holds for the Senna, when driven sedately, it behaves like a civilized 720S with a massive wing on the back.

I still remember vividly the first time I drove our F40 (Collecting Our F40).  The rush of excitement and terror was intense, thrilling, and when we both (car & driver) had survived it in one piece, it was deeply rewarding. I’m sure every F40 owner remembers the first time they spooled the turbos up.  The Senna, while not quite as raw, still delivered the same rush of thrilling intimidation as the F40 the first time I took it out.             The instant response to every input coupled with the brain cell mashing acceleration, drove home that I was in something unique and truly special.  If the F40 has a single signature element, it’s the head snapping brutality of forward thrust when the turbos fully spool up.  In the Senna, 30+ years of progress has smoothed out the turbo lag.  The result is the feeling that you have unlimited instant power.  The Senna doesn’t accelerate from 0-60, it jumps from 0 immediately to 60.

Firm best describes the suspension of both the Senna & F40. You feel and hear every imperfection on the road surface.  Despite this it isn’t teeth rattling hard.  Steering feedback is best in class and near perfectly weighted in both cars.  The hydraulic steering system in the Senna is a work of art and far superior to any drive by wire system I have driven.  The unassisted system in the F40 is very heavy at first by lightens up wonderfully at speed. The Senna’s brakes are phenomenal, mash them at speed and you can feel your brain pressing against the front of your skull. The F40s brakes, well they date back to the Reagan/Thatcher era and need to be treated with caution and respect.

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The interiors on both the Senna and F40 are focused and minimalist.  Rearward visibility is fairly limited in both and might actually be slightly better in the F40.  The side mirrors on the Senna actually work well where the ones on the F40 look good, from the outside.  In terms of practicality, the F40 side mirrors are basically useless.  While the F40 looks like it is held together by green gel, the Senna’s build quality is outstanding.  Instrumentation in both is well laid out and easy to read at a glance. While both the Senna and F40 appear to be wide imposing cars from the outside, they both shrink around you when you drive them aggressively.  While both cockpits look to be about the same size, the Senna’s feels much larger due to the glass panels in the roof and doors.

Where the F40 has distinct advantages are in luggage space and mechanical simplicity.  The front trunk holds enough for two adults for a one-week road trip.  Something we have done multiple times.  The mechanical simplicity of the F40 saved us on a road trip in France a few years ago (France & a F40 Moment) when we had a problem with the ignition switch.  If this had happened in the Senna, back it would have gone on a flatbed.  In the Senna, the small area behind the top of the seats might hold enough clean underwear for two for several day but you would probably need to share a toothbrush.  The Senna is a road trip car for singles only.

I am very glad I don’t have to make a choice between the two. They are both incredibly special in their own right but also quite similar in nature, just a few decades apart in the concept execution.  To drive either is a special experience, to drive both back to back is petrolhead nirvana.

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