2016 McLaren 675LT review – Roadshow

The Good Purposeful looks wrap around a focused cockpit and an amazing engine. Performance on the road or track does not disappoint.

The Bad Some comfort compromises have been made in the name of performance.

The Bottom Line If you’re looking for something everyday, the 650S is a better bet. If you need something focused, this is your ride.

By all accounts, the McLaren 650S is a stunningly capable road car. Fast and powerful when you want, yet comfortable and livable when you need. Like the great McLaren F1 that came before, the 650S fits into your life in a way that few supercars can.

But it isn’t the most track-focused supercar out there. Though not lacking in swiftness, it carries a few slight compromises for streetability. The 675LT is what happens when you erase all that and refocus the car exclusively on closed-circuit performance. It’s a $350,000, 666-horsepower, hard-edged, weight-reduced, power-boosted, aerodynamically enhanced limited edition that will hurtle you around corners like a rock on a string before throwing you down the straights at terrible speed.

What’s it like living with such a machine? I spent a few days with one to find out.

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The tweaks

The name 675LT harkens back to the long-tailed version of the McLaren F1, the company’s road-going, Le Mans-conquering roadcar of the ’90s. Naturally, this new LT does indeed have a longer tail than the 650S upon which it’s based. A bigger nose, too, plus massive, carbon-fiber wings front and rear. Despite being noticeably bigger, that new rear wing is lighter, flipping up to provide extra downforce, and extra drag, when you put all your weight on the brake pedal.

Overall the car has shed some 200 pounds over the 650S, while those extra aerodynamic appendages result in a 40 percent increase in downforce, helping to suck the car to the asphalt, magnifying the grip of the meaty Pirelli Trofeo R tires on all four corners.

A daemonic 666 horsepower lurk back here.

Roadshow

When it’s time to go, an enhanced, twin-turbocharged, 3.8-liter V-8 churns out 666 horsepower, 16 up over the 650S. It inhales through a pair of massive, carbon ducts just aft of the doors that look poised to suck in small woodland creatures on either side of the road, then exhales through a new, titanium exhaust that has little sense of decorum. I’ve been in far louder cars than the 675LT, but it is far from quiet on the inside, and certainly easy to hear on the outside.

Like the exhaust, the brakes don’t really give a damn if your neighbors are still sleeping. Used lightly they will squeal with the sort of note that only race brakes can make.

When it’s time to stop, carbon ceramic discs provide prodigious force, backed by an ABS system that’s quite happy to make the tires squirm and complain as the car sheds speed. Like the exhaust, the brakes don’t really give a damn if your neighbors are still sleeping. Used lightly they will squeal with the sort of note that only race brakes can make.

On the road, around town, the droning exhaust and shrieking brakes quickly try your patience. But, turn up the wick a bit, delve a little deeper into the pedals on both the right and on the left, and all that ceases to matter.

Performance

Carbon ceramics? Very necessary.

Roadshow

The 675LT begs to be driven hard every day, those brakes making sounds like a whining puppy that’s upset because you won’t play. Give it the attention it deserves, drive it like you mean it, and the experience is incredibly rewarding. That sound of that lightweight exhaust morphs from slightly crass to a proper wail once the boost and the revs increase. It is a sound that immediately inspires thoughts of GT cars hurtling down the Hangar Straight at Silverstone, or doing their damndest to stay flat up Eau Rouge in Spa. It demands to be driven faster and harder and, should you be lucky enough to have a tunnel on your route, your ears will be treated to the kind of motorsport music that smiles are made of.

The brakes stop complaining when used hard and everything else in the world seems to quiet down, too. Driving either the 650S or 675LT is an unusual experience because the nose is so low that the windscreen seems to terminate at the asphalt. You can see the road immediately in front of the car, like riding a naked motorcycle. This happens to make the 675LT incredibly easy to park nose-in — at least, as far as supercars go. More importantly, it gives the illusion of flying through the scenery.