McLaren

650S Coupe/650S Spider

The McLaren 650S was billed as the company’s most engaging, beautiful and best equipped model ever and few people are likely to disagree. The 650 refers to the 650PS power output so blistering pace and outstanding handling capabilities are guaranteed.

Test Drive

McLaren 650S Spider

Naming a car is a tricky business – it needs to be snappy and easy to remember yet also somehow sum up the car. Some manufacturers come up with a mishmash of upper and lower case letters, others choose random apostrophes and under-scores, whilst some opt for unusual towns or natural phenomena. McLaren, on the other hand likes to keep things nice and simple.

Take the 650S Spider for example. The ‘650’ refers to the power output of 650PS; the ‘S’ stands for Sport and the ‘Spider’ means it’s a convertible with a retractable folding hard top – it’s that easy.

With a starting price of £218,250 the McLaren 650S Spider sits in the company’s Super Series line-up which is one group up from the Sports Series which features the 540C Coupe, 570S Coupe and 570GT cars. And that step up to Super Series means the vehicle will deliver the ultimate driving experience on both the road and the track.

The test car featured a number of optional extras, including Volcano Orange elite paint (£4,190), a sports exhaust (£4,910), a carbon fibre diffuser (£3,260) and carbon fibre sills with the McLaren logo (£2,750). These add-ons along with a few more brought the price-tag soaring up to £246,560 – that’s pretty close to a quarter of a million pounds.

But super expense mean supercar status and there’s no denying the fact that the McLaren is a magnet for attention. Factor in the dazzling burnt orange paintwork and there’s nowhere to hide. But why would you want to hide? The hand-assembled 650S Spider is one of the most beautifully-crafted machines on our roads today. It features a combination of incredibly strong carbon fibre and aluminium and follows a design ethos inspired by the McLaren P1.

And just like the company’s Formula 1 cars, every ounce on the 650S Spider has to justify its existence – even the 3-stage paint technology (inspired by F1) ensures the colour, tint and finish is perfect while keeping weight to an absolute minimum.

The ultra-lightweight alloy wheels are exceptionally strong and the all-LED headlights are as bright as Xenon yet more energy efficient.  Then there is the retractable hard top which folds gracefully away into the bodywork in just 17 seconds at speeds up to 19mph.

Step, or rather climb inside, and the carbon black Alcantara interior provides excellent comfort and support levels while, once again, keeping the weight to a minimum. The race-crafted steering wheel was inspired by all the years in F1 with paddle shifts to blast through the seven-speed dual clutch gearbox. Or you can put your faith in the car for super-fast automatic gearshifts. There is no gear lever, just simple buttons – a D for drive, an N for neutral and an R for reverse.

There are numerous techno treats to be explored, including climate control, sat nav, a rear-view camera and a DAB radio. Then in addition there are some rather interesting buttons that are very difficult to ignore. The driver can tailor the car’s responses with Normal, Sport and Track modes and there is a launch button too for ultimate circuit exhilaration.

But as we were sticking to the beautiful roads around the leafy Cotswolds on the test drive there was no need to ‘Launch’ on this occasion.

Despite sitting inches from the Tarmac, the McLaren 650S Spider is incredibly comfortable and you don’t need to be a contortionist to get in and out. That said; it would be fair to say it is quite difficult to exit the car through the gullwing doors in a particularly graceful fashion! Once inside though, all the controls, dials and instrumentation are perfectly positioned in the driver-focused cockpit.

There’s a tiny amount of storage under the bonnet, but that’s about all because the engine fills most of the area behind the front seats. A push button starts up the car with a roar – even in sedate mode – then with the slightest pressure to the throttle the roar becomes fever-pitch.

Then it’s just a case of pressing D and away you go. However, it’s worth remembering the McLaren 650S Spider can reach from 0-62mph in just 3.0 seconds and has a top speed of 204mph so it’s going to be fast… very fast!

And yes it is, but somehow it remains beautifully composed at the same time. Corners can be attacked at pace and the assured grip means you are tempted to accelerate through the long sweeping bends, but still the car maintains its poise.

With the roof down, the noise is electrifying from the engine and exhausts and that means the car will gain plenty of attention from onlookers. Rather surprisingly I did find other motorists were especially courteous – probably because they wanted to follow the McLaren and take in such a beautiful car in all its glory.

You will need to make frequent visits to the filling station to top up as the official combined economy is just 24.2mpg (if driven sensibly) with carbon emissions of 275g/km, so it’s not the most efficient supercar out there. But who cares? If you’re going to spend close to £250k on a car then a hefty fuel bill is hardly going to be an issue.

All in all, the McLaren 650S Spider is an exquisite piece of work and the longer I spent behind the wheel the longer I wanted to stay there.

With the roof down and open road ahead, the 650S Spider is one of the finest cars to drive and, although it’s only likely to be for the super-privileged, it’s wonderful that the great McLaren racing heritage is being brought to the public roads for all to see and admire.