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McLaren made it clear when the 720S was released–this thing is $@#%$#% fast. It’s got 710 brake horsepower and weighs next to nothing thanks to the Woking automaker’s Carbon Fiber Monocage II construction, resulting in a blistering 0-60 time of 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 212 MPH. While all of that is good and well, you’d expect a car with about 300 more horsepower to spank it in a roll-race. But as you can see when the Macca took on this Heffner-tuned, 1,000 horsepower Ford GT, that just isn’t the case.
When things kick off with the rev battle, it’s hard to tell who might come out on top. While the forged-in-iron American V8 sounds radical with its set of snails mounted midship, the McLaren’s 4.0L has the type of rumble that lets you know it’s up to something.
In the first of two races, the McLaren takes off after the initial shift. Even though it’s at a major disadvantage as far as power goes, the 720S’ sub-3,200 pound curb weight is enough to offset the difference. The extra 300 pounds or so took a toll on the Ford and eventually led to a tally in the loss column come time for the second run.
As for the next round, the two take off at about the same speed, launching to the top end of their powerbands. Perhaps the most impressive point is the punch that the McLaren packs at such high RPM given its low end torque. For the sake of legality and everyone involved, there are no shots of the speedo or indication of how fast they were going, but just think of the oomph the 720S has when it can do this from highway speeds.
Now that more and more McLaren customer cars are starting to pop up, it’ll be interesting to see what else the new Super Series model will be able to beat. Rumor has it that the 720S has already been whooping up on Bugatti Veyrons and Porsche 918 Spyders.
