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McLaren 720S: British Supercar Engineering and Racing Heritage

McLaren's Road Car History Since 1992

McLaren built its first road car — the legendary F1 — between 1992 and 1998. The F1 used a BMW V12 engine, a central driving seat flanked by two passenger seats, and a carbon fiber monocoque chassis that kept the car's weight below 1,140 kg. Only 106 F1s were built. When one sold at auction in 2021 for $20.5 million, it set a record for the highest price ever paid for a British car at auction. The F1 was designed by Gordon Murray, who applied lessons from McLaren's Formula 1 championship-winning cars directly to the road car.

McLaren returned to road car production in 2011 with the MP4-12C, establishing the Surrey-based company as a standalone supercar manufacturer rather than purely a racing team. The 12C shared its twin-turbocharged V8 layout and carbon fiber construction philosophy with all subsequent McLaren road cars, including the 570S, 650S, and the 720S that replaced the 650S in 2017.

The 720S Platform and Aerodynamic Design

The 720 in the car's name refers to its engine output — 720 PS, which is 710 horsepower in the American measurement and 530 kilowatts in the metric system. The twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter M840T V8 engine sits mid-mounted behind the two-seat cabin, as in most McLaren road cars, giving the 720S near-perfect 47/53 front-to-rear weight distribution. From standstill, the car reaches 60 mph in 2.8 seconds and 124 mph in 7.8 seconds.

The 720S body was designed around a concept called Optimal Aero Balance — shaping every surface to generate consistent downforce at high speed without requiring large fixed wings. Air enters through the front intake, flows through the car's side channels, exits through louvers behind the front wheels, and generates a low-pressure zone that presses the car's nose into the road. The headlights are integrated into the front duct openings, saving weight by eliminating the need for separate duct structures.

Carbon Fiber Construction and the MonoCell II

Every McLaren road car since the MP4-12C uses a central structural tub made entirely of carbon fiber, which McLaren calls the MonoCell. The 720S uses the MonoCell II, a second-generation design that weighs approximately 80 kg and forms the safety cell that surrounds both occupants. Carbon fiber is roughly four times stiffer and five times stronger than steel at one-quarter the weight, which gives the 720S its exceptional rigidity without the mass penalty of a conventional steel or aluminum structure.

The dihedral doors attach directly to the MonoCell II at the A-pillar. Because the door opening is integrated into the structural tub, the 720S has no traditional B-pillar — the central door post common on most cars — giving the occupants an unusually open and airy cabin with excellent outward visibility for a low-roofed supercar.

The 720S on Track and Road

McLaren developed the 720S at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany and at the company's test facility at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey. The car runs on a fully adaptive suspension called Proactive Chassis Control II, which continuously monitors body movement and road surface data to adjust damper stiffness at each corner faster than a driver can react. In Track mode, the car drops its body height by 37 mm below its Comfort ride height and firms the dampers for maximum lateral grip. The active rear airbrake deploys at speeds above 80 mph to add downforce during cornering and acts as an aerodynamic brake under heavy deceleration, reducing stopping distances compared to fixed-wing equivalents of the same size.