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Bad Driver & the McLaren 675LT Spider

Bad Driver & a Morning With the McLaren 675LT Spider

Bad Driver & the McLaren 675LT Spider

Editor’s Note: Below is a work of fiction. Hope you enjoy the output from a vivid imagination of my son. ‘Bad Driver’ has had plenty of seat time in the 675LT Spider, and despite the pen name he has given himself, he is quite a capable and responsible driver.

Today is finally the day I imagined would happen. After two long months on being grounded, living in the basement, and cut off from the world, my Dad finally let me out and gave me my electronics back. I forgot what the sun looks like, but it feels good on my skin. He kept the basement cold, so it was weird to feel warm again. I shouldn’t complain about the situation though because it really was my own fault that I was in that situation. It all started two months ago when we were hanging out in Montana. The nice thing about Montana is that there is nothing I like to do when it is not covered in snow, so my Dad and I did the one thing we could: go for drives. Given the fact that I still cannot drive a manual, every time I got behind the wheel it was in the McLaren 675LT Spider. We went out a couple times where I was driving so I got pretty confident behind the wheel. Then the fateful morning came.

I’m not sure why I woke up so early and despite trying, I just could not get back to sleep. After staring at the ceiling for 10 minutes, I decided to just get up and start my day rather than trying to turn back over one more time. After I showered and grabbed a quick bite to eat, I sat trying to figure out what I wanted to do while the whole world slept. Then it dawned on me. What my Dad didn’t know was that I was watching every time he opened the safe, and I could get into it if I wanted to. I walked into the garage and cracked the safe open. There it was, sitting in front of me. The key to the 675LT Spider. I knew I would have to be quick in hopes that my Dad wouldn’t find out. I opened the garage and plopped myself down in the driver’s seat. Meanwhile, my father was fast asleep in the master bedroom a few floors up. That came to an abrupt end when he was rudely awakened by the sound of 666 bhp roaring below him. I had forgotten to check if the master bedroom windows were open as I was trying to take it out without him knowing.

I got out of the garage and knew I was toast. As I drove off, I looked up at the windows in the house and was met with the icy glare of my dear Dad, absolutely fuming. I knew at this point that I was probably going to be disowned, so I decided to make my ride a bit longer than I had originally planned to enjoy my last few moments of freedom and financial security.

I took off down the road and headed straight for the mountain pass where I knew I could get some good driving in before I was sentenced to a grim future. Once I got into the mountains, I switched the handling and power modes to the sport settings and went for it. As I was carving down the windy roads, I noticed a few things about the car. Firstly, the car moved instantly wherever I move the wheel, no matter how quickly I was going. Taking on some of those sharp corners was a breeze. I don’t think I’ve ever driven a car that comes remotely close to handling like the 675LT does. Secondly, being the Bad Driver that I am, sometimes I come out of corners a bit too fast, especially if the corner tightens on the exit. Luckily, the 675LT sticks to the road like it is on rails. Its limits are clearly much higher than mine. The brakes are outstanding, I went from 65mph to a standstill when wildlife intruded, and I was still a good 25 yards from the small animal in front of me. Finally, the paddles and gearbox are awesome. While I can’t operate a manual clutch yet, I have a bit of a feeling for when to shift gears, and obviously how to do it with paddles. Growing up playing racing games on my Xbox really helped. It also helped that McLaren made it easy. The gearbox was super smooth on all shifts and threw me into a new gear in a split second. McLaren made it easy for me to drop down to get more torque going into a corner and then easy to power up and upshift coming out and back down the straight away.

Since this was my third McLaren I have driven and the one I have the most seat time in, I could definitely see how they were getting better over time. They must have my demographic in mind (Bad Drivers) when designing their cars. Really anyone can plop down in a McLaren and drive it fairly competently despite the immense capabilities of the car. None of the McLarens have that “I am probably going to kill you” feeling my Dad’s Koenigsegg used to have every time we took it out. The 675LT is probably not the best car to learn on, but if you have the opportunity to, why not.

As I made my way through the mountain passes back to our house, I knew my life as I knew it was basically over. I slowly sauntered back with dread. As I pulled up the road and into the driveway, I could see my Dad on the phone, and I had a hunch that he was speaking with his lawyer getting the disownment papers written up. He looked out the window and suddenly disappeared. I knew he was headed for the garage and as I pulled into the spot, I could see him glaring right at me. I didn’t want to get out of the car, but knew I had to face the music. Dad looked right at me as I was climbing out of the car and said, “next time, try not to wake us”……..I was stunned, euphoric, as this was the last response I expected.

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McLaren 675LT Spider: 1200 miles in a day

Montana to Texas in the McLaren 675LT Spider

McLaren 675LT Spider: 1200 miles in a day

Having driven the Porsche 911 GT3 RS from Texas to Montana, it was the McLaren 675LT Spider’s turn to carry SSO Jr. (aka Bad Driver) and I on the 1573 mile journey back to Dallas. We needed to bring the McLaren back down as it was due in for its annual service and I really trust the team at McLaren Dallas.  As this was essentially the 675LT Spider’s return voyage, after a year’s vacation in the mountains, I had little concern that the car could make the trip.  The challenge this time was more on the drivers as we would be doing 1230 miles on day one as we needed to be back in Dallas by 1PM on day two.  Unlike on the recent all Porsche trip North where we took 2 cars, Bad Driver and I would be splitting the driving duties on the way South.

As Bad Driver hadn’t driven the 675LT Spider in well over a year, I did need to get him both comfortable and confident behind the wheel of the mighty Mac before we headed off.  In the days before we headed south, we took the 675LT Spider out for a few long runs in the valley to get him reacclimated and then headed up into the mountains for a bit more of a challenge. It didn’t take Bad Driver long to get comfortable and he had the McLaren flowing down the road nicely after just a few runs out.  The runs up empty mountain roads were really helpful as we worked on sightlines, braking points, and cornering.  For a young driver, he is quite smooth and keeps the car nicely balanced.  This is a far cry from his brief career in carts when I don’t think Bad Driver ever touched the left-hand pedal and he spent more times sideways than pointing forward.

The 675LT Spider was a great car for Bad Driver to be learning more “spirited” driving skills in. Visibility is excellent, and it is a very easy car to place on the road.  The controls are all simple and intuitive.  The traction control system is excellent while not being intrusive like some of the earlier systems I remember from 1990s Ferraris.  The brakes and accelerator both have great feel and are easy to modulate.   The gearbox paddles move with the steering wheel, so you never need to take your hand off the wheel to hunt for them.  It is also a car that shrinks around you as your progress increases.

The drive back down, while long, was delightfully uneventful.  We set out early on Thursday morning, and made rapid progress from Montana to the Wyoming border.  Once in wide open Wyoming, it was Bad Driver’s turn to take the wheel.  With nearly no traffic and nothing but wide-open road in front of us, we were able to pick up the pace even a bit more.  The car responded beautifully and seemed to really enjoy running at a good clip for a few hours on end.  The larger fuel tank and better gas mileage in the 675 vs. the 911 GT3 RS also allowed us to cut the number of fuel stops by half vs. the drive north.  At the Wyoming Colorado state line, we switched seats again and I got the less fun task of getting us down to and around Denver at the beginning of rush hour. With traffic slowing to a crawl about 15 miles north of Denver, we opted to take a detour which looped us out to the airport and then back south around the city.  This added about 15 extra miles but probably saved us an hour in bumper to bumper traffic.

Once free of the grip of Denver traffic, we got back on the pace down towards New Mexico.  A short stop for a driver change, dinner, and gas in Pueblo was extended by a few minutes when a SUV pulled up next to us in the gas station.  A family piled out of the SUV and the mother came running up and asked if we would mind if her son took a few pictures of the car as he was a huge McLaren fan and had never seen one up close.  We of course obliged before hitting the road again.

The final part of the day 1 drive was the most challenging.  Shortly before crossing into New Mexico, the last rays of light disappeared, and we were into a moonless night.  While the headlights on the 675LT Spider are outstanding, they do little to illuminate what might be lurking on the side of the road and there are plenty of deer in this part of the country.  Once in New Mexico, it was off the Interstate Highway, another quick stop for a driver change, and we were now on smaller roads for the final 200 miles. This was the most intense part of the drive.  Bad Driver was on deer watch duty, and I was just trying to get us to the hotel as quickly as possible and in one piece.  1230 miles later, two deer sightings on the side of the road, and after one last pit stop, we arrived in Amarillo for a short night’s rest.

The final 343 miles down US-287 in Texas were uneventfully.  It’s a combination of divided 4 & 2 lane highway in the countryside that connects a series of small towns that have plenty of speed traps hiding on the outskirts.  We did make it to Dallas by our 1PM target on day 2.  What didn’t make it were the thousand or so bugs covering the nose of the McLaren.  Over the 1573 miles, the 675LT Spider performed magnificently.  It was comfortable, exciting to drive, and a great place to send a day and a half in.  Over the course of the trip, we average 26.8 mpg at an average speed of 74mph. Not too shabby.

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McLaren 675LT Spider in Montana

Montana & the McLaren 675LT Spider

McLaren 675LT Spider in Montana

The McLaren 675LT Spider has been living up in the mountains of Montana for the past year and a bit. This has had both positive and negative implications for the car. When the weather is good, and the roads are free of snow, I can think of no car I would rather be driving on a windy mountain road. On these type of days, the 675LT Spider sees plenty of road time, and I will come up with all sorts of excuses on why I need to take it out. The challenge is the other 7 1/2 months of cold fluffy white stuff that covers everything and makes driving anything a lot more challenging. During this period, the poor 675LT Spider just has to sit patiently and wait for the temperatures to warm. I hate letting cars sit so I have even looked into fitting the 675LT Spider with snow tires, but none come in the right sizes. I also don’t believe McLaren ever intended the 675LT to be driven in snow as it does not come with a “Winter” mode as per the 650S.

The good news is the roads are now clear and the mighty McLaren has gotten plenty of exercise in the past few days. We have several different routes mapped out depending on if we are looking for a longer or shorter run. All the routes wind through the mountains with rarely more than a few hundred yards of straight tarmac between the corners. Personally, these are the types of roads I enjoy the most and they help highlight the exceptional capabilities of the 675LT Spider. Right foot, fingertips, and arms are all constantly in motion as driver, car, and asphalt are all in constant engagement as the geography serves up constant challenges. 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. We have even taken the McLaren down to Yellowstone for a picnic.

The 675LT Spider feels like it was designed just for these types of drives. It 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 snow leaves plenty of loose gravel on the roads when it melts but the transmission alternates between “sport” and “track” as I prefer the quicker shift times. 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. Six hundred and sixty-six horsepower make passing almost too easy. Threading the 675LT Spider through a line of slower moving traffic heading up the mountain has turned into a bit of a sport.

We spec’d our car with the electric, heated seats and electric steering column which I am now glad I did. It makes getting in and out of the car easier and the touring seats are more comfortable for long drives. I also had the car fitted with the normal Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires vs. the Trofeo R as it sees much more road than track use. While the Trofeo’s are great in the dry, rain is not their friend and storms can come up quickly here. The other must have option is the front nose lift for both speed bumps and potholes. I can’t think of a drive where we didn’t need to use it at least once.

The plan going forward is to keep the 675LT Spider up in Montana for the remainder of the summer and then bring it back down south for all well-earned service in the fall. It will be joined up here shortly by the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. I am very much looking forward to seeing how the two cars compare on some of my favorite roads. If the weather cooperates, we will be taking both across the Beartooth Highway (which is easily one of the top ten roads in the US) and possibly the highly challenging but stunning Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park August. All this summer road time should make up for the long winter hibernation the 675LT Spider had to endure.

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How we ended up with our 1st McLaren

How we ended up with our 1st McLaren

How we ended up with our 1st McLaren

By Karen……..

It was a lazy Sunday brunch in our solarium at our house just outside London. We had invited a few “pistonhead” friends over for an early morning drive followed by brunch. As usual it was plenty of great food, a bit of champagne, and lively conversation. This time the majority of the conversation centered on the recently announced new McLaren road car.

The guys are normally quite into their car talk. This time however it was more intense than usual. They were talking about how McLaren was getting back into the road car game. To this day, one of SSO’s greatest regrets is not buying a McLaren F1 back in 2005 when they were selling for less than 10% of what one would cost you today. The group was going on about on how great it would be to finally have a successor to the F1 and real competition for Ferrari in supercars. I was very intrigued as I didn’t know much about McLaren but it had to be special to get all these long term Ferrari owners so excited.

A few months later, SSO took me to the new McLaren ‘store’ in Knightsbridge. I guess you guys call it a showroom, for me, it was a store, a place you could buy something, or at least that was my perception. He had arranged for me to take a test drive in the new McLaren MP4-12C Spider. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon. SSO sat in Hyde Park while I headed out. I told him I’d likely be back in no more than 15 minutes.

We left London and headed west on the M4 for the test drive. Well, an hour later I found myself (and the ever so patient McLaren sales guy) closer to Bath than London. I was enjoying the MP4-12C so much I had totally lost track of time. The roof was down, the sun was shining, it wasn’t too hot, there wasn’t much traffic and I had the car in ‘auto-auto’. I doubt SSO even knew this was an option, why would you drive like that, I could hear him say. Then my phone rang, it was SSO “Where are you, is everything ok?” Indeed it was more than OK, I was having the time of my life. He dryly suggested I turn back in the near future as he was sure McLaren would want their car back before nightfall.

I arrived back at the McLaren showroom and seriously suggest to SSO that we consider getting a MP4-12C. We went inside and sat down to spec out what we considered to be our ideal 1st McLaren. I picked the exterior colour, the interior colour, the wheels and ticked what I thought were the right options to finish off the car nicely. After going through the entire process, the saleman gave us an estimated delivery date about 12 months later. At that point, I understood the difference between a “showroom” and a “store”. I really didn’t want to wiat that long so I asked SSO if he thought we could buy the demo car as it was very close to what we had spec’ed out. He went over and asked the sales man about the demo and after a bit of back and forth, the deal was done. A week later it was parked proudly on our driveway.

Little did I know then that this was the beginning of a new relationship with McLaren. Over the years, multiple more McLaren’s have been added to the garage, including both a P1 and a 675LT Spider and we are now waiting eagerly for our Senna. Through trade-ins, one by one all of the Ferrari’s went except SSO’s F40 (I still don’t understand the fascination with that car, it doesn’t even have electric windows or a proper door handle but a wire to pull on to open the door – but hey, who am I to judge?) I am trilled and enjoy driving them all (except the P1 as I just couldn’t get my head around driving something more valuable than most houses, doesn’t seem to faze SSO in the least) with the 720S being my current favorite.

I understand now what the guys were so passionately discussing that Sunday several years ago. McLaren’s really are epic.

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