Hot and Tested: The 2024 McLaren 750S Is Freaking Insane ... But, Er, Slower?

Our instrumented testing of McLaren’s new 750S left us scratching our heads. The numbers were good—oh, who the hell are we fooling, they were spectacular—but a couple of them were not what we expected. What followed was a deep dive into octane, launch techniques, and our number-crunching methodology, and if you have no patience for such things, here’s the TLDR version: The 2024 McLaren 750S is ridiculously fast, and if you are lucky enough to drive one, its awesomeness will forever change your perception of what a car can do. But you already knew that, right? Come on, Constant Reader, take our hand and follow us down the rabbit hole. Oh, and if you’re a California hater, you’re going to love this story.

30 Percent New, 1,000 Percent Awesome

First, let’s recap. The 750S is McLaren’s follow-on to the 720S, with about 30 percent new parts content over its predecessor. But it’s just as sensible to view this car in relation to the 765LT, the convertible Spider version of which holds the record for the quickest time around MotorTrend’s figure-eight handling course (21.6 seconds at 1.03 g average). Per McLaren, the 765LT is meant to be a hardcore track car while the 750S is meant to be more enjoyable and accessible. Enjoyable is the understatement of the millennium, but more on that in a moment.

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Slower Than Its Predecessor?

Let’s talk about the head scratcher. The 2024 McLaren 750S, like the 720S before it, is powered by a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8, but the 750 delivers 740 hp and 590 lb-ft as opposed to 710 hp and 568 lb-ft in the 720S, which we last tested in 2018. The weight difference between the cars is minimal—the 750S was just 37 pounds heavier, and given the increased power, we expected it to be on par with its predecessor, if not slightly quicker. 

It wasn’t. Back in 2018, the 720S got to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds. The 2024 750S did it in 2.7.

Yes, 2.7 seconds is quick. Like, way the hell quick (not that we need to tell you that). But it was still slower than the less powerful 720S. What was going on here?

Our first thought was this could be down to the car’s performance when launching off the line. Sorting through the numbers, MotorTrend testing director Eric Tingwall noted the 750S was quicker than the 720S from 60 to 100 mph. Its quarter-mile time, while still behind the 720S’, was closer: 10.2 seconds for the 750S versus 10.1 for the 720, though the 750’s trap speed of 141.1 mph was 0.4 mph slower than the 720’s.

Several factors can affect acceleration from a standing start, including the temperature and composition of the pavement we drive on. (We correct our times for ambient temperature, but we can’t do much about surface variations.) Also, raw power: At a certain point, even the best tires in the world (and the Pirelli P Zero Trofeo Rs fitted to the 750S are damn good) can only do so much. Due to traction limits, we’ve seen diminishing returns in the 0–60 times of ever-more-powerful versions of Dodge’s Hellcat cars, and the 750S could have been running into the same issue.

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Is Octane to Blame?

Diving deeper into our records, we found a critical differentiator: fuel octane. The 750S, like the 720S, most other McLaren cars, and many other performance cars, is tuned for 93 octane (98 Research Octane Number [RON] in Europe). Here in California, 91 is the best we can get. Back in the day, running on lower-than-needed-octane meant detonation and potential engine damage. Today’s engines automatically compensate for lower-octane fuel, usually by changing their ignition timing to eliminate knock at the expense of performance. 

We do most of our testing in California, and if you read our 720S First Test, you know we had an issue with that car losing power at high speeds. One of our test objectives on that day was to get a good lap time on the big track at Willow Springs, so we added a few gallons of 101-octane racing fuel to raise the average in the tank and get the car running smoothly. It worked.

Fast forward to 2024, and we noticed no such ill behavior from the 750S on 91-octane pump fuel—just slower acceleration times. We called our McLaren contacts, and they invited us to a quick conference call with their engineers. Yes, naturally, we’d be losing horsepower using 91 versus 93 octane. About 60 horsepower, to be specific. But wait, we explained: Unlike the 720S, the 750 seemed to run just fine at all speeds on the California fuel. “We know,” the engineers said, explaining this was one of the goals of the 750’s revised engine tuning. McLaren sells a lot of cars in California, and one of the objectives was to ensure they now play nice when burning the 91.

The engineers agreed with our assessment about launch traction. The 750S has a shorter final-drive ratio than the 720S (3.727:1 for the new car versus 3.308:1), and this, plus its torque increase, makes it trickier to launch. They pointed out the Trofeo R tires need a lot of heat in them before they start getting sticky—like, a lot of heat—and can exacerbate launch difficulties when cold. We warm up the tires for acceleration runs, but we don’t do hot laps, which is the kind of heat a tire like the Trofeo is designed to work in. Also, the 2018 720S did not have Trofeos, which may have given it an advantage in the off-the-line hook-up.

Bottom line: We didn’t have a firm answer why the more powerful 750S would turn in a slower time than the 720S, but we had a list of plausible factors that could have led to the result.

The Rest of the Tests

Of course, acceleration is only one of our measured performance tests. We also evaluate braking, with the 750S coming down from 60 mph in 96 feet versus 93 for the 720S. Close enough. Skidpad grip was identical for both cars, an astounding 1.09 g average. 

Really, what we wanted to see was the time for our figure-eight course, a deceptively simple handling loop that puts everything together: acceleration, braking, grip, handling balance, and response. As mentioned, the McLaren 765LT Spider holds the record for the fastest figure-eight lap, circling the course in 21.6 seconds. (To put that in perspective, the bonkers 911 GT3 RS rounded the course in 21.9 seconds, a Miata does it in about 26, and our long-term Sprinter van did it in 32.7.) The McLaren 750S did its best lap in 22.5 seconds, trailing the 720S (as well as the Corvette Z06) by 0.2 second but quicker than the previous-gen Corvette ZR1 and the Ferrari F8 Tributo.

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“What a Beast!”

Readers who have experienced the joy of driving any McLaren at full tilt are probably lining up to punch us in the jaw right now. Because while the 750S’ numbers give a clue as to just how capable it is, they tell you nothing about the raw excitement of driving it. Our performance-testing notes are usually pretty dry—just the facts, ma’am—but the McLaren’s sheet is peppered with exclamations like “Wowzers!” and “What a beast!” and “Cold tires—I spun it midcorner on the second lap of the figure eight.”

What the 2024 McLaren 750S gives you is an extreme feeling of confidence. It drives like most people probably imagine a race car does, with a rock-solid brake pedal (modulated more through pressure than travel) and a controllable nature that starts out neutral, perhaps with a bit of understeer, and transitions to oversteer as you apply throttle. Switch off the stability control (as we do in testing, to see just how far we can press and what happens afterward), and the 750S might try to get away from you, but it’s easy to catch. 

Although we knew full well this is the lesser car, we found ourselves chasing the 765LT’s record lap time. It wasn’t going to happen; the 765LT just seems to have more tire grip in all situations, be it braking, cornering, or getting back on the power. But, man oh man, the 750S made us feel like we could get there.

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Better Than Any Number

We can be difficult to impress, but there wasn’t a single MotorTrend staffer who drove the 750S who wasn’t afterward at or near socks-blown-off territory. It’s not just that the car is so damn quick; it’s that it’s so damn approachable. Anyone, even a timid track driver, can get in this thing, open the taps, find their own personal limits, and go hella, hella fast. It’s rare we discover a car that delivers such exalted levels of performance while making fast driving feel so easy and natural. Driving the 2024 McLaren 750S feels like your racetrack dreams have come true, and that is more important to us than any number our instrumented testing can prove.