McLaren 765LT review

Open the door and you can sense weight has been saved. The dash trim looks leaner, there’s barely any padding about the place, the steering wheel is hard in your hands, the seat equally unyielding. Carbon and alcanatara dominate. The standard 720S is hardly plush, but the 765LT definitely hits a more pared back note.
 
The driving position is superb, the wheel lovely to hold, you’re sat low in the car, and although the fundamental controls and layout are the same, the vibrations and noise in here make it feel every inch the track car. Aiding this is the £28,730 Clubsport Pro Pack (Senna seats, titanium harness bar and harnesses, three camera telemetry system, upgraded brake discs), plus enough optional carbon to keep McLaren’s new Sheffield facility buzzing – this was the first car to have components made there. Not that that’s made them any less costly as you’ll pay £3,600 for an LT branded carbon fibre sill plate.

How’s the practicality?

That hasn’t suffered too much amongst all the weight saving – if you want to use the 765LT for weekends away, it has the same 150-litre nose boot and 210-litre back deck behind the seats as the standard 720S. The Spider loses the back deck space, but is otherwise just as useful, with handy slots and pockets about the place.
 
In its place, it has a one-piece roof that tucks out of sight on the rear deck at the press of a button, a separately-opening rear window if you want to maximise engine noise and our car had the optional Electrochromic roof (£7,500) that allows you to vary the light that comes through the glass roof when it’s closed. The electric roof can be operated at up to 30mph.

Has McLaren ironed out the quality and electrical gremlins?

As far as our experience goes, mostly yes. We’ve had no instance of cars refusing to open or screens going haywire for a while now. But the 765LT’s on board system, which doesn’t support Apple CarPlay, is starting to feel a little dated. The Artura now features an upgraded system. Still, the 765LT is solidly built, has the drama of that flip screen dash display and the optional 12 speaker stereo (another no cost option) is much better than other McLaren systems we’ve tried.