#8: 2017 McLaren 720S
McLaren steals the show once again, topping its own 12C with the next entrant on our list: The 2017 McLaren 720S. To be sure, the P1 is a tough car to beat by nearly any measure – how well does the 720S hold its own? For starters, we can look to its raw figures: Zero to 60 in 2.5 seconds (some claim to have done it in 2.4 seconds, like the P1).
Zero to 100 takes just 5.3 seconds, and thanks to calipers that were likely forged from Kryptonite, the 720S can get from 100 to a dead stop in just 3.5 seconds. It even beats the LaFerrari and Veyron in the quarter mile and properly tops the charts at the drag strip, trapping 9.7 seconds at 148.5 MPH. Let it loose on a runway, and the 720S will climb to 212 MPH. To get the job done, its 4.0L, twin-turbo V8 makes 710 horses and 568 torques.
2017 McLaren 720S
But straight-line speed is just an appetizer for buyers of the 720S. The main course can be found, well, inside any apex of the most challenging corners. Throw it into some figure-eights and it’ll make up to 1.06 G’s, the highest record of any production car. Ever. Designed quite literally by drawing on the figure of the Great White Shark, the 720S is about as nimble on land as its derived apex predator is underwater. One of the world’s most advanced, compact, and lightweight carbon fiber monocage frames (taken from the P1) encapsulates the driver and allows the 720S to grace the scales at just 2,829 lbs. dry.
But these broad strokes are just the tip of McLaren’s engineering iceberg. Other considerations show just how much time and creativity went into maximizing the 720S’s every parameter. If you glance at the exterior, you’ll find no gaping vents or strakes. Instead, every inch of the exterior was honed in a wind tunnel to divert air directly to the engine’s intake. Of course, all suspension is computer-controlled using the same gyroscopic technology as the Huracan while incorporating hydraulically linked suspension.
