Dream Three Car Garage Guide — McLaren
Three Cars. One British Brand. No limits.
Ah, the British. Rulers of an empire. Wait sorry, Ex-Rulers of an empire. While they are not quarrelling amongst themselves over Brexit, the British have given us many great car brands including Lotus, Morgan, Aston Martin to name a few.
Amongst the elite name of supercar manufacturers U manufacturers in Britain (maths student would get this), there exists another famous brand: McLaren Automotive. Funnily enough, the McLaren group is eponymously named after it’s founder Bruce Mclaren, who is a Kiwi.
No, you fruit-lovers, Bruce didn’t grow from a plant. A person who’s called a ‘Kiwi’ is not green like the Hulk or contain many tiny black dots (unless they have blackheads), it means he/she hails from New Zealand. So eating a ‘Kiwi’ still constitutes as cannibalism.
Bruce here didn’t have Gotham to save in a black outfit. McLaren was a man who loved his cars and was a wildly successful racer, mentoring under Australian great Jack Brabham. He grew up to form his own company releasing successful race-cars, prototypes and Can-Am winning vehicles. Sadly, like the late Paul Walker, Bruce McLaren died in a car crash in 1970.
His legacy still lives on, however. McLaren has released great supercars in their comparatively short lifetime. But the question remains: What if you could only pick 3 McLaren cars to have for eternity?
Set A: The Ultimate McLaren Experience
McLaren only makes sports cars, supercars and hypercars, so there aren’t really any cars in the Woking manufacturers stables which would adhere to a family, but there are 2 cars which might:
1. The McLaren F1
The creme-de-la-creme of the McLaren group. The F1 was the brainchild of Gordon Murray, a designer well known among the car enthusiasts of this world. His goal was only to create the ultimate automotive experience ever known to man and et voila, out came the McLaren F1.
Powered by a BMW sourced naturally aspirated V12 engine mated to a manual gearbox, the F1 was a top speed record-holding car, achieving 243 mph with the help of the man who now helps Bugatti’s go fast, Andy Wallace. And it had 3 seats. Of course, it did.
2. The McLaren Senna
If you let the McLaren F1 be your sort of family car (that is if you have the guts to daily drive a car worth well over 10 million of the Queen’s money), then what about the car for the weekend track days? For that, you would need McLaren’s ultimate lap time shortening machine, the McLaren Senna. Based on the legendary Brasilian F1 driver, Ayrton Senna, the McLaren version was supposed to do what the Brasilian did so well in his heydays: carve apexes at top speed. The Senna is the ultimate function over form car.
It’s so different from any of your typical supercars. I mean sure, you could get the McLaren Senna GTR ( and maybe ask the French company Lanzante to somehow make it road-legal), but you have to admit, there is just something cool about driving the car to the race-track, bludgeoning the lap record, and then effortlessly driving back home in the same damn car.
3. The McLaren Elva
Why stop at a top-down experience when you can remove, the top, the windscreen, and basically anything protecting you from flies and rain? Well, 249 people thought that was cool and decide to part with an even cooler $1.7 million to own McLaren’s new Ultimate Series offering, the Elva.
Based on the same twin-turbocharged V8 which powers all of Woking’s cars, the Elva is an 804 horsepower two-seat speedster made for the British manufacturer’s extremely rich clientele. And since it does away with a windscreen, a roof and windows, the Speedster is McLaren’s lightest offering yet.
Set B: The Progressively Crazy
McLaren sells 3 division of cars, the Sports Series, the Super Series and the Ultimate Series. So what if you wanted to pick one from each division?
1. The McLaren GT
The McLaren GT is the brand’s latest offering in the Sport series and it’s quite self-explanatory. No, this isn’t McLaren’s collaboration with Polyphony to make Gran Turismo for the PS5, but this the manufacturer’s attempt at making a Grand Tourer.
Its unique point is the fact that the GT is similar to a mid-engined sports car. Traditional GT cars have an engine in the front and usually drive the rear wheels (but sometimes even all the 4 wheels), a-la the Bentley Continental or the Aston Martin DB11 and DBS Superleggera versions. Thus McLaren is using their mid-engine car DNA for a more luxurious, relaxed experience.
2. The McLaren 765 LT
Another latest offering, but this time for the Super Series. The 765 LT is the Long Tail version of McLaren’s hypercar killing 720S. What really is LT for a McLaren? Well, think of BMW’s M division or Porsche’s RS models. They take the standard car (if the 720S can even be called ‘standard’ ) and turn everything up a notch.
What is unique about a Longtail version is that it’s…um…longer than the standard version. The LT moniker was inspired by the F1 GTR and it’s a longer sibling, the F1 Longtail GTR. Whatever, the origin story may be, McLaren has a history of making their LT models the finest among its contemporaries.
3. The McLaren P1
This is another latest offer….SIKE. The P1 actually represents the automotive group’s first foray into actual ‘Ultimate Series’ cars. Based on hybrid technology, and part of the now-infamous holy trinity of the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Porsche 918, the McLaren P1 made over 900 hp to drive only 2 wheels.
Calling it a handful is probably an understatement.
SET C: The ‘I-like-to-take-it-easy’
This last set comprises the best and most comfortable McLaren models to date. For the one’s who like to spend their days cruising down roads rather than burning rubber on tarmac
1. The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren
Built-in collaboration with the neighbours across the English Channel, the SLR McLaren was a car built to hit speeds over 200 mph in total and complete comfort. The car was such a success that it had various spin-offs including a roadster edition, a limited run 722 version, and an even more exclusive Stirling Moss version (built to commemorate the great British F1 driver)
The car is almost 17 years old yet it’s ageing like fine wine. And it has a freakin built-in-phone.
2. McLaren Speedtail
The McLaren Speedtail is the brand’s proper successor to the legendary F1. Although this has not been designed by Gordon Murray and doesn’t contain a high revving naturally aspirated V12 engine, the Speedtail’s main party piece is it’s long and slippery bodywork, aimed to reduce drag.
This is what helped the car hit 250 mph. Consistently. Now, 250 mph is not Bugatti or Koenigsegg level but which actual car owner is going to get even close to that with their million-pound hypercars, eh? Plus, the Speedtail, like the F1, also has 3 seats.
3. The McLaren 720 S Spider
The McLaren 720 S is an amazing machine. It costs nowhere close to a million pounds but its performance is equivalent to hypercar levels. What McLaren really does better than it’s competition is it’s chassis and ride quality, meaning most if not all their cars are very easy to live with. But obviously, you need a convertible in your garage, and a standard 720 S won’t cut it. Enter the 720S Spider.
Because the standard 720 S’s carbon tub is already as stiff as a board, the convertible is not much heavier than the hard-top, meaning handling, ride quality and outright performance is never compromised to a noticeable degree. Plus, it just looks stunning.
So, what will your pick of the 3 sets be? Or do you have any other sets/car suggestions in mind?
Let me know in the comments below!
