McLaren 675LT 2015 Review

Remember when sports car makers used to battle to produce cars with the highest engine output? According to McLaren, that was just so 2012. The company has switched its emphasis to the other side of the power-to-weight ratio, shaving mass from its cars whenever it can.

As its name suggests, the new 675LT is only fractionally brawnier than the existing 650S, with 497kW playing 478kW. But it is a stonking 100kg lighter, for an official EU kerb weight of just 1230kg.

The 650S Coupe was already the lightest car in its segment by a considerable margin (and so the 675LT is quicker to 100km/h – by one-tenth – at just 2.9 seconds), and on McLaren’s numbers the LT is 60kg lighter than the Ferrari 458 Speciale.

The diet hasn’t been easy; grams have been hunted down all over the car with the sort of obsession that comes close to compulsion. For example, the switch to titanium wheel nuts has saved 39 grams apiece for a total of 780g across the whole car. Every little bit helps, but this really is weight reduction at its most fastidious.

The myriad small changes have had a big effect. Excepting the three-times-as-expensive P1, the 675LT is the most exciting road car that modern-era McLaren has made, a massive step on from the emotion-lite 12C that was launched just three years ago. It’s genuinely hard to believe that two cars sharing the same core architecture can drive so differently.

From the outside the most obvious difference is the arrival of a new aero pack with huge diffusers at both ends and a polycarbonate engine cover at the back. This is the slightly tenuous justification for the LT name – referencing the McLaren F1 Long Tail that was built to homologate the later F1 sports car racers.

The 675LT isn’t actually any longer than the 650S, but it does get a considerably larger pop-up air brake at the back as well, sitting above two exhaust outlets with the calibre of Howitzer barrels. Subtle it definitely is not.

Move into the cabin and you could be forgiven for thinking the 675LT is just an expensive 650S with every carbon option box ticked, at least until you start the engine. It doesn’t feel like a hard-core track special; the only obvious concession to weight saving is the loss of the door-mounted controls for heating and ventilation, these functions now taken on by the central touch-screen.

The majority of surfaces seem to be covered in carbon-fibre trim, and most of those that aren’t are trimmed in Alcantara. The steering wheel is a gorgeous synthesis of both. The seats are lightweight sports buckets with weight-saving carbon frames, but still comfortable.

Air-conditioning and sliding runners for the passenger seat are both no-cost options; most buyers will take them but if you want a 675LT that meets McLaren’s official kerb weight figure you have to do without.

Instrumentation is the same as the 650S, as is the central control console with separate buttons to switch the chassis and powertrain between ‘normal’, ‘sport’ and ‘track’ modes.

The LT fires up with a lumpy idle and a rortier exhaust note. Despite the similarity of its power output to the 650S, the engine has been extensively reworked with lightened internals to improve response together and milled ultra-light impeller blades in the two turbochargers. And by the time you’ve driven the first hundred metres it already feels like an obviously different car from the 12C or 650S.

Ride quality is the first surprise; the LT feels like an S&M session after the well-damped compliance of the 12C and 650S. It’s firm. Even with the dampers in their softest setting ride quality feels marginal at low speed, like you might shake a filling loose on rougher surfaces.

It improves with speed and, while the chassis doesn’t find much more compliance, the dampers deliver exemplary body control over rougher surfaces, and there’s almost no roll under hard cornering.

Tyres are track-biased Pirelli P Zero Trofeos, and we’ve been warned that they need to be warmed through to deliver their best. But on the public roads around the Silverstone track, where the LT was launched, grip levels are high enough as to be effectively total.

There’s no understeer and – with the stability control standing guard – no oversteer. It just grips and goes. The steering is faster geared than in the 650S; it’s heavier and has more unfiltered feedback.

The engine doesn’t punch noticeably harder than its cheaper sister, but it revs more keenly and sounds angrier when it gets close to the 8500 rpm redline. And even at road speeds you can feel the reduction in inertia from those saved kilograms in the car’s enthusiasm to turn and change direction.

But it also feels like trying to walk a tiger on a short leash; what this car really needs is the track.

Fortunate then that McLaren also generously laid on a session on the Silverstone circuit. And although the home of the British Grand Prix remains one of the worst places in Europe to go and see a race, it’s one of the best tracks to actually drive around.

The LT takes to its new environment like the England batting line-up to a mid-order collapse. It’s accurate, massively fast and seemingly unflappable as the brakes and tyres shrug off multiple laps of the hardest use.

The higher chassis loadings possible on track reveal a neutral handling balance that willingly takes throttle adjustment with the stability control switched to its more permissive ‘Dynamic’ mode; this allows enough movement for all but the most committed hoon hounds.

And McLaren’s chief test driver Chris Goodwin is on hand to show what the car is capable of with everything switched off. In short, it’s the definitive riposte to the accusation that McLaren makes very fast but slightly dull cars. That one dies here.

If you’re tempted, then you’d better already have your name on the list; just 500 675 LTs will be built and all have already been sold. But take heart, McLaren always seems to have something exciting around the corner these days.

2015 McLaren 675LT pricing and specifications:
Price: $616,250 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged V8
Output: 497kW/ 700Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 11.7L/ 100km (NEDC)
CO2: 275g/km (NEDC)
Safety rating: TBC