McLaren 720S: Driver’s Seat

McLaren 720S: Driver’s Seat

Like most supercars, the McLaren 720S is not a car you just hop into and go. First you need to unlock the car via the middle button on the remote. This opens the driver’s side door and swings open the dashboard display. Next, pop open the front boot and unplug the battery conditioner. Now you can swing the medium weight door up, step easily over the smallest sill of any carbon fiber tub car I have owned to date and drop down into the driver’s seat. Pulling the driver’s door shut is easy, it swings down slowly, closing with a slight, reassuring “thunk”. With the door closed, you reach down on the front right of the seat to tap the settings memory button. The driver’s seat, steering wheel, and wing mirrors all them move into your preferred settings. Press your right foot down on the brake pedal with a decent amount of conviction and then punch the large red start/stop button in the middle of the dash. The 4.0L twin turbo V8 sitting behind your head rumbles immediately into life. Give the V8 a minute to clear its throat and then turn off the very annoying stop/start system, tap the “active button” to wake the “Active Dynamics” panel and put the car into “manual” mode. For driving around town I leave the handling in “normal” and powertrain in “sport”. Only when I hit the highway will the “aero” mode get activated and the rear wing raised. Reversing out of the garage is easy as the rear cameras take over the dash board display and the proximity sensors are displayed on the center infotainment consul screen. Once out of the garage and turned around, the front nose lift gets activated with a push of the button on the end of the smaller right-hand stalk on the steering wheel and then put into the raised mode by pushing the stalk upwards. A tug of the right-hand paddle puts the 720S into 1st gear and we are now off.

Until the oil and water temperature displays turn from blue to green, I try to keep the rpms under 3000. This usually only takes about 5 minutes as both come up relatively quickly. The other gauge I keep an eye on early in any drive is the tire temperatures, as the tires normally take quite a bit longer to warm. Cold tires combined with 710 bhp can easily lead to soiled underwear if you are not careful. Visibility in the 720S is outstanding. It has the smallest blind spots and best rear visibility of any supercar I have driven. The steering is beautifully weighted, and you feel very connected to the front wheels. The combination of great visibility with wonderfully responsive steering allow you to place the car on the road with a huge amount of precision. As you pick up speed, the level of feedback the car gives you increases which really builds confidence. The pedals are nicely spaced and there is little risk of accidently catching the wrong pedal when driving vigorously. The massive CCB brakes scrub off speed almost as impressively as the twin turbo V8 can pile it on. Both the brake and accelerator pedals are very linear in feel and easy to modulate. Of all the road cars I have driven, only the McLaren P1 has better stoppers.

What really sets the 720S apart from every other normal production supercar is what happens when you start to really squeeze the accelerator pedal. A highway entrance ramp is simply a short 0-75 mph runway. Keep your foot planted, pull the right-hand paddle three times in rapid succession and you are in jail bait territory before you have counted to 10. The 720S accelerates with such nonchalance and composure that it can be disconcerting. Keeping one eye on the speedometer is always wise. Gear shifts are smooth, seamless, and happen immediately when you pull the paddle. Long done is the lurching and 10 count between gear changes of the Ferrari Enzo era F1 gearboxes. Given the 720S’ capabilities when it comes to hurling itself at the horizon, a lightning fast gearbox is a must.

Ride quality has been an area that McLaren has excelled at since the launch of the 12C. The Chassis Control II system in the 720S is a further improvement over an already great system. For a car that always feels glued to the road, it handles the crappy pockmarked roads in our area extremely well. The couple of times we have let the 720S loose on a windy country road it has completely come alive and I quickly realized that I will run out of talent long before the 720S.

With the 720S, McLaren has redesigned the interior cabin and moved several of the controls to new positions. After multiple years driving 12Cs, a 650S Spider, and a 675LT Spider, which all use the same interior design, the new layout and logic took a bit of time to get accustomed to. Gone are the annoying menus on the left side of the drivers display that you need to scroll through to get to key information. The front nose lift is now activated by the push of a button. The traction and gearbox mode dials are now stacked vertically alongside the infotainment display. The drive, neutral, reverse plastic buttons have been moved forward into a more intuitive location and replaced by aluminum switches. While the seats are slightly more comfortable, the electric controls have been moved to the front right side of the seat and are far less intuitive to use. While the infotainment system is an improvement over prior versions, the “Homelink” controls for the garage doors need work. You can only access “Homelink” when the car is has been going forward. In reverse, the proximity sensors take over the display and you can’t access the controls.

Overall the 720S is just a brilliant car to drive. Blisteringly fast, outstanding handling yet comfortable and easy to drive all add up to why it is Mrs. SSO’s favorite McLaren.

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Koenigsegg CCR: Driver’s Seat

Koenigsegg CCR: Driver’s Seat

The Koenigsegg CCR is designed to be very, very, fast in a straight line and to do it with a relatively high degree of slightly quirky Swedish comfort. This it does quite well, even before you get out of 2nd gear. The dashboard layout is very different from any other car I have driven but works quite well once you figure it out. The dials and digital display are very readable in all light conditions, much better in fact than the digital display on the Ferrari F50. The center consul, which houses a large number of key controls, is baffling at first but has a understandable logic to it once you figure it out. Between how the immobilizer works and the startup sequence however, my concern for someone jumping in the CCR and driving off is about zero. In fact, jumping into the car is near impossible. The sill on the CCR is quite wide and opening the incredibly cool dihedral synchro-helix actuation doors takes a few seconds. You need to be careful that you don’t hit anything as the doors extend out from the car’s body as they roll forward when opening. The pedals are offset towards the center of the car and you sit low in the carbon fiber tub. The front windscreen is quite large, and it wraps around a large amount of the front end. The front corners are not visible from the driver’s seat and it does take a bit of time to get comfortable with the car’s dimensions on the road. It is a bit shorter than most supercars but feels wider. On a B road, it feels like you are occupying a significant part of the roadway. It is not hard to place on the road, but you are always aware of the width. The turning radius rivals that of a small supertanker and tight corners need a bit of advance planning.

What sets the Koenigsegg CCR apart though is what happens when you put your right foot down. Acceleration is fierce from the moment you pull away, however get aggressive on the gas and it just leaps viciously at the horizon. On top of being pressed back into the comfortable bucket seats, the sound of the supercharger spinning up (it is located right behind the driver’s head, an my youngest son calls it the “Hyperdrive”), is both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. Brakes are great, thankfully given the aggressiveness of the acceleration, and overall balance of the car is quite good. The gearbox however is demonic and the first couple times you drive it, finding the gears is an adventure. The gear shift lever is a tall steal shaft that protrudes slightly forward of where you would expect to find it. The space between the gears is very tight, therefore slotting from one gear to the next is a craft to be learned. As the CCR is geared for 240 mph, the gearbox is not something that you need to be constantly working. The clutch is medium weighted with a high bite point. Getting the bite point right serves to add a bit of extra excitement when initially trying to master the gearbox. The noise the 4.7L V8 makes is more guttural than Italian style screaming.

In the Koenigsegg CCR always feel both like you are sitting in something very special that could bite your head off you if you let your guard down for a second. That having been said, I have driven it at night on the highway in the rain, thru the middle of London during rush hour, on long country drives with friends, and to the supermarket. In all these situations it behaved impeccably. With the roof on, it is a bit cramped and claustrophobic, with it off, it is just great. In a straight line, it adds a whole new dimension to quick. In terms of a car to live with, I have kept it on a battery conditioner when not using it and have never had any of the electrical problems you hear about. The windows are programed to drop when you open the doors and sometimes seem to have their own agenda. The front nose lift has been very helpful in terms of getting over speed bumps, and it is fairly easy to get the roof on and off.

Net net, it is a very unique supercar. It is definitely a car that you can cover huge distances in very quickly and comfortable. Taking it out on a track would require more than a fair amount of intestinal fortitude. It can be hustled down a country lane smartly, but you always need to respect all 800+ bhp sitting behind your back.

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Ferrari F50: Three Drives

Sunday on the Coast

The weather was perfect. Not a cloud to be found and the mercury pushing north towards 70 F. A day made for waking up the neighborhood with the Ferrari F50. To start I headed off towards the highway to get Maranellos’ finest creation properly warmed up before tackling the mountains. The F50 in particular needs a good run on the open road to get heat in the tires. It’s a wise thing to do before heading into more challenging terrain where the road runs alongside a rather dramatic cliff. Just how good an idea this was became immediately apparent as we wound our way through a series of roundabouts and the chilled back end of the F50 was not gripping with conviction. A few miles on the fairly clear highway righted the situation quickly. As you don’t have to drive through any turbo lag on the F50, all the power hits the wheels immediately with a short jab of the right foot. This gives you an incredible ability to shot through gaps in the traffic and immediately reel the horizon in closer. Running down the deserted highway allowed for several good acceleration runs, spinning the engine up close to the redline once everything was full warmed up.

After the highway run, I headed up towards the mountains but not before running into one young troglodyte who insisted in filming a short study of a F50 driving down the road. I have no issue with people taking pictures of the car, but I do have major problems when they try to box you in so that they can get that “perfect” shot. The mountain road is roughly 20 miles with straight bits few and far between. The whole length is an exercise in moving back and forth between 2nd and 3rd gear, keeping the car balanced with the throttle, and using the brakes sparingly. Get it right and the whole run flows seamlessly. Get out of sync and it is a real struggle. Make a mistake, you will kiss a tree or go for a swim after long glide off the side of the mountain. As an added complication today, a local bike club was out in force. Fortunately, after about a third of the way up, we lost the bikers and fears of scooping one up subsided. The wide hips on the F50 make road placement in these conditions critical. On the other hand, the huge reserves of power allow you to shoot from corner to corner and pass stragglers safely on the short straight bits of tarmac.

After the invigorating run through the mountains, we headed back down into the valley toward the coast. All in all, a great way to start a day.

Spring Awaking

After way too long, the Ferrari F50 finally emerged from its long winter slumber for a jaunt in the countryside. Just getting the cover off was a splendid moment. Once that was done, it was time to initiate the ignition sequence. Alarm off, ignition key in and turned to the second position, dash powers up properly, wait several seconds, OK light comes on, clutch in, push the starter button………………and it fired up perfectly the first time and within seconds settled into a smooth idle. Hop back out of the car and now let it sit for a few minutes to warm up. With the water temperature at 100 and the oil temp gauge not far behind, time to head out quickly to clear roads. On the way, focus on building up a bit of heat in both the tyres and brakes. After 10 minutes, the road opened up with not another car is in sight so off we go. The gearbox in the F50 really is second to none. In rapid order, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and the horizon just got a lot closer. Ease off a bit and drop back into 4th, allowing the revs to rise back up. Smooth glide to the right and then back left through the switchbacks. The steering wheel is on the smaller side but just feels so right. The diameter and thumb grips are perfect. No messy bulge of an airbag in the middle, just all business. Quickly through a pair of roundabouts and then back up the far side of the triangle. Time to cut through the forest and to the highway. No piece of tarmac in this area is straight for more than 50 yards so it is all 2nd and 3rd gear with the big V12 just singing. Breaking out of the woods, it was then a quick sprint towards the highway. Closing on the entrance ramp, traffic was starting to build so off to the left we headed to cut back cross country. More 3rd and 4th gear as the road gently cut through the farms. Steering inputs in this area were modest as it is easy to balance it on the throttle while powering through the apex on each bend. Then all too soon, the drive was over and back to the garage we headed. While it is a big wide car, the Ferrari F50 completely shrinks around you and inspires huge amounts of confidence. The F50 moves so smoothly and responds instantly to all inputs. Every and any drive in the F50 is an event to savior.

Winter Run

It was a beautiful clear blue sky here today with the temperatures just north of freezing. Perfect day for a drive in the Ferrari F50, so after lunch, we did exactly that.

Despite not having moved in two months because of the weather, the F50 started right up on the first jab of the starter button. The startup sequence is always a bit of a deep breath moment when the F50 hasn’t been run in a while due to the dreaded dead dashboard threat. After a few minutes to let everything warmed up, we were off. As the roads (and tyres) were still quite cold, and in shaded areas probably frozen, we started off very gently with the right foot. Even at modest rpms, the F50 sounds like nothing else on the road. Run it up the dial and that F1 derived scream from the back is awe inspiring. After about twenty minutes, we hit an area with no traffic with a clear sun-drenched road and were able to open it up a bit. The steering and gearbox on the F50 are simply outstanding. The short throw stick is so smooth and fast your license is always at risk if you are not paying attention to the speedometer. With the CF tub, body roll is non-existent, and the nose does exactly where you aim it. Despite the width, the F50 always shrinks around you and is very easy to place on the road.

We did make one stop on the route today at a farmer’s market. The F50 is not quite a practical for the grocery run as you can only fit 3 small shopping bags in the front luggage bin. It was quite the sight seeing the low slung F50 parked up on a sea of giant Range Rovers.

On the way back, we hit one of my favorite pieces of pavement. There was not another car in sight so it was quite a spirited, engaging run. Long sweepers are ideal for the F50, and don’t think I even touched the brakes for the entire stint. It is so easy to drive using the throttle and gearbox to set up the corner and then power out the other side.

All in, we did around 30 miles. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

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Jaguar XJR-15: Driver’s Seat

Based on the Le Mans winning Jaguar XJR-9, the XJR-15 did not stray far from its roots. The XJR-15 is raw and quite brutal. Far more a Le Mans race car than a road car, it is completely lacking in creature comforts. When driving an XJR-15, full concentration is required at all times. Just getting into the XJR-15 is an event, and not one you will look particularly elegant doing. Open the right-side driver’s door, put one foot on the sill and the other on the seat, slide your left leg under the steering wheel, follow with your right leg and swing yourself across and drop into the seat in a single motion. Getting out is even more challenging. It involves lifting yourself slightly up, sliding onto the wide sill and then pulling your legs out from under the steering wheel while rotating your hips to swing your feet out towards the pavement. Once strapped down in the four-point harness, you then begin the multi-step startup procedure. First, crank the engine over on the starter until you have at least 2 bar of pressure, then you turn on the fuel pumps, and finally flick the ignition switch to fire it up. Once started, you need to put the earphones on. The complete lack of sound-deadening results in the cabin being a whole new level of loud. In fact, it is louder inside the XJR-15 cockpit than standing outside at idle. Slot the tight short gearshift located to the right of the driver’s seat into first (the XJR-15 is technically RHD but the seat is so offset that calling it a center driving position would be more accurate), get the revs up over 2000 and release the lightly weighted clutch. While some supercars are happy pulling from 1000 rpm, under 2000 rpm with the clutch engaged is not a happy time for the XJR-15. It is not an easy car to drive slowly. In fact, it is just not an easy car to drive. The thought of getting caught in traffic in a XJR-15 is near terrifying.

Once you are moving, running up the gearbox is both smooth and fairly easy to execute. Quickly mastering the gearbox is critical as it is all done by feel. The spacing between gears is very tight. Coming down from 5th, move the stick a couple of millimeters too far to the left and you are grabbing 2nd and not 4th. Do this at the wrong time and you will break the rear wheels free instantly. Once you build a bit of speed, the handling improves, and the steering lightens nicely. However, you do feel the XJR-15 is always a bit skittish and “smooth” is by far the best approach to driving it. Quick and violent inputs will result in a fast and likely very expensive swapping of ends. On a positive note, it does give you a lot of feedback constantly. Give it a bit of gas, and the power comes on quickly and the engine feels urgent. Getting past the national speed limit is easy 3rd gear territory at about 3500 rpm. Push it towards the redline and you are easily past 70 mph in 2nd. The gearing on the steering is definitely set up for the track and not the road. Moving along with a bit of speed, it moves through quick corners very well. Trying to maneuver in a tight place or parking is much more of a challenge. The suspension is tight with every flaw in the pavement gets communicated right up through the spine. Surprising, it does ride slightly higher up vs. other supercars so ground clearance is not as big a challenge. Visibility is actually quite good. The side mirrors provide some coverage both left and right. You can see back through the engine cover, and forward visibility across the wings is quite good. For a car it’s age, the AP racing brakes are quite good and scrub off speed effectively. The brake pedal is firm and progressive.

The level of concentration needed to drive a XJR-15, along with the cabin noise and heat, make for a very physically demanding experience. It is as far from a comfortable GT as one can get. Put in 150 miles in a XJR-15 in a day and you are left drained and more that a bit battered. It is good feeling though on a very primitive level. At the end of every drive in the XJR-15, as you slowly drag your body up and out across the wide driver’s side sill, you have the satisfaction that you have ridden the dragon and survived to drive another day.

Impressions from a Sunday Jaunt

I prodded the beast into life again shortly after two cups of coffee had done the same for me. It was the first time the XJR-15 would see the open road again in far too many weeks. I even coaxed my eldest son into coming out with me. Despite the long slumber, oil pressure came right up on the pre-start procedure, and it fired up on the first flick of the ignition toggle switch. Next came the extended warming up before heading out. On the XJR-15, you need to hold the revs at 2000 rpm and wait for the water temp to reach 70-80 degrees before hitting the road. It would make for a horrible getaway car. Everything warmed up right on cue and we were off on a 20-mile loop to give it a decent run.

The XJR-15 continues to get better the more it is driven, and the more you drive it, the more everything comes together. It is not a car you will bond with in a day or two, more like a long-term relationship that develops over many months. When it all come together, and everything flows smoothly, it is a unique exhilarating car to drive, really unlike anything else I have ever owned. As you roll down the road, all your senses are constantly engaged (or better be if you want to stay on the road). Raw, very fast, high strung, and beautifully designed for what it was made to do. Changing gears in particular is done really with nothing more than a flick of the wrist. You just need to appreciate it for what it is. While it is road legal, it is not really a road car. It is a very thinly disguised early 90’s LeMans race car. The steering is very precise, sensitive, and geared for a race track. The clutch is very exact and anything under 2000 rpms makes the drive train quite unhappy. Sound deadening is zero and the CF tub translates all noise directly into the driver’s skull. Put your right foot down and the XJR-15 takes off like a scalded cat. The 6-liter V12 is a very impressive power plant even by today’s standards.

This is a car that redefines raw and must be driven smoothly and with respect. One thing that struck me at the end of the drive when we were stopped, and I took a moment to look around the cabin, was how it reminded me of sitting in a fighter plane cockpit. It is tight but not uncomfortable, everything clearly marked and easy to read, good visibility forward and to both sides, and all the controls within easy reach with a minimum of movement. Do that and it is really thrilling to take out on the road……always highly involving and an experience. It is a car that is truly alive. A the end of the 20 mile loop, this time I wanted to keep going. Every time in the past, making it to the end has brought with it a feeling of relief ——-from surviving.

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