2015 MCLAREN 650S SPIDER REVIE

The McLaren 650S Spider does absolutely everything well. This technological masterpiece will go from 0-62 MPH in 3 seconds flat, and a top speed of 204 MPH will have anyone in the passenger seat shrieking in delight (or maybe panic). On the road, the 650S turns and stops better than just about anything else, and no matter where you park it you’ll draw a crowd of earnest admirers

You want this car. Obviously. The only question is, do you want it bad enough to lay down one-third-of-a-million bucks for it, compared to everything else on the market

Power and performance

The 650S is the latest supercar from McLaren Automotive. The 650 stands for the car’s Pferdestärke rating (roughly equivalent to horsepower), the S is for Sport, and the McLaren means Magnificent. Like past offerings from the exotic car company, the 650S is a pure supercar where price is no object and performance is paramount

Digging right in where it counts, the 650S is powered by McLaren’s own 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine, designated the M838T. The engine weighs just 438 pounds owing to its all-aluminum construction, and features a dry sump oiling system commonly found on racing cars. The engine also gets the usual array of nifty features including new development work on the heads, pistons, valve timing, and so on

Most of the engine work, but not all of it, is designed to bring more power to the car throughout the engine’s power band — which stretches all the way up to a shrieking 8,500 RPM. You get four engine/transmission modes: Normal for around-town driving, Winter for driving in poor conditions, Sport for enthusiastic driving, and Track for obvious purposes. Most of the difference in these modes comes in the transmission, which will change its shift points and behavior to match the mode 

you’ve selected

Sport mode contains a gimmicky feature that’s pure entertainment: In this mode, the engine will cut spark for a moment on full throttle upshifts. This produces a bolus of unburned fuel in the exhaust stream. That fuel is ignited when the spark comes back, creating a burst of flame out the back and a delightful pop. Sure, it’s a trick, but it’ll put a grin on your face every time

The transmission is McLaren’s own 7-speed twin-clutch Seamless Shift Gearbox (SSG). Development on this unit has made upshifts lightning fast. McLaren isn’t lying about seamless, either. Upshifts are so smooth you have to listen for them, because at anything less than wide-open throttle, you won’t really feel them

Downshifts give you a satisfying sense that someone (not you) is actually rowing down through the gears with a tight clutch. McLaren gives you a set of paddles to select your own gears, but don’t kid yourself; with the exception of knowing in advance that you want to take off like a bullet, the car shifts itself far more expertly than you can ever hope to achieve

Oh, you get launch control, too. Don’t use it at Cars & Coffee