McLaren Senna: Top 10 cool things

One McLaren Senna or 117 Suzuki Swift hatchbacks? The hypercar's price of £750,000 – or about $1.3 million in Australia – puts it out of reach for 99 per cent of the car-driving population. But wait, there's more! It will likely end up costing closer to $2 million for the handful of Aussie buyers once local taxes are added, but it's all academic really because they're all sold out!

The McLaren Senna's M840TR twin-turbo V8 belts out 588kW at 7250rpm: enough power to make most Russian oligarchs do a double-take. It features a flat-plane crankshaft, dry-sump lubrication and special conrods and pistons. Peak torque from the mid-mounted force-fed engine is 800Nm between 5500rpm and 6700rpm. A seven-speed twin-clutch 'seamless-shift' gearbox transfers the ungodly power to the rear axle, the ratios of which can be manipulated with steering wheel paddle shifters – in carbon-fibre, naturally.

With blistering performance thanks to its light weight and violent power delivery, the Senna accelerates to 100km/h in 2.8sec, 200km/h in 6.8sec and the quarter-mile in 9.9sec. Top speed is 340km/h. Bring on the traffic light tango!

Only 500 McLaren Senna hypercars will be produced, and all of them have been spoken for. Based around a 'Monocage III' carbon-fibre tub and an aluminium subframe, wrapped with carbon-fibre body panels, each hand-built vehicle takes 300 hours to make.

The McLaren Senna bucks the trend of petrol-electric hybrid powertrains that many modern hypercars employ, such as the LaFerrari and upcoming Mercedes-AMG Project One. McLaren reckons the extra electric boost of a hybrid module made no difference to lap times, so instead it relies on a good old-fashioned twin-turbo V8.

At the front of the car there are aero blades that are automatically adjusted by the car's computer brain to provide more downforce – and traction – the faster the car goes. The same principle is in effect at the rear of the car thanks to an electro-actuating rear wing. The net result is 800kg of downforce squeezing the car onto the road at 250km/h.

Made from titanium and Inconel, an alloy of nickel and iron, the clever slash-cut exhaust system exits upwards, which reduces turbulent airflow around the rear wing. It also makes a sound akin to a motorcycle race engine (read: it's loud. Real loud). Especially if McLaren takes out the silencer for you, when the exhaust volume increases by 10 decibels for every 2000rpm. Anti-social? You betcha!

The two-seat hypercar features a clever swivelling, two-sided driver display, one side designed for the road, the other for the race track. When folded away it improves vision and displays only critical info, such as engine revs, road speed and selected gear. Even the infotainment system has been angled up and out towards the driver, so it's "easily visible within line of sight even when a helmet is being worn," according to McLaren.

Want to make an entrance next time you visit granny? Do it in style with the McLaren Senna, whose dihedral doors open up and out like a peregrine falcon diving on its prey. Given the car's light-weight ethos everything is stripped back and exposed, even the door gas struts. Thankfully the struts can be matched to the colour of the front aero blades and brake callipers. Choice.

The Senna has been built to dance gracefully – and vociferously if it gets to that. Double wishbones front and rear are joined by hydraulically linked adaptive dampers. Together with more sensors than a CIA spy drone, the suspension automatically adjusts to ensure optimum grip, responding to changes in road surface in just two milliseconds.

Related reading

>> McLaren Senna deep dive

>> McLaren Senna goes sideways

>> McLaren Senna breaks cover