It's the hottest racing car that McLaren has ever built on this side of Formula 1. And after the first lap with the McLaren 720S GT3 X, the grin is carved on the driver's face. But there is a catch.
It's Sunday noon in the Basque Country and time for a high mass. Only this time it will not be celebrated in the church, but on the Circuito di Navara. Instead of heavenly bells, one hears an infernal roar. And instead of a supernatural being, it is a diabolical high-flyer as you have never seen him here before. Many a fast car raced through the field of vision of the Spanish marshals. But here and now, McLaren asks on the small but fine circuit for a maiden voyage with the sharpest racing car they have built on this side of Formula 1 to date: the garage door is open and the track is clear McLaren 720S GT3 X.
There are two reasons why the black flounder is all alone in the pit lane. On the one hand, the racing car is one of only 15 examples that are built by hand in the racing department at Woking for prices over 700.000 euros, and despite all the alleged trust in the driver, they want to reduce the risk of serious foreign contact to a minimum.
The top of McLaren
On the other hand, he literally has no opponents. Because built in a generous ignorance of registration regulations and racing rules, not only the road is taboo for him. It has no place in the GT3 series either. “We wanted to get everything out of this car and finally not have to worry about any rules,” says chief designer Sam Purvis, whose team is already barely controlled GT3 race car that's why the last shackles have been removed. Instead of limiting the power to around 500 hp for the tiresome balance of power, there is already “significantly more than 700 hp” here, reveals Purvis. And as if that weren't enough, there is also a push-to-pass button in the steering wheel, which saddles up another 30 hp for up to 30 seconds and lets "Go Baby, Go!" Shimmer over the instruments to cheer you up. As if a car like that needed some encouragement.
There are also sharper splinters and larger spoilers and a diffuser at the rear that makes the throat to hell look like a secret path into heaven. It pays off: No other McLaren is so sharp and fast, the engineers rave about and can still hardly believe that their GT3X is in the famous Hill Climb this year Goodwood or that he is taking the eternity of five seconds off a normal GT3 here on the Circuito.
The car may be totally unleashed, but the opposite is true for the driver. Because as if Helm and Hans weren't uncomfortable enough and the roll cage was a tight enough climbing frame, the mechanics also tie the driver so tightly in his tight seat that the last of the air is blown out of his lungs. An overseas package, on the other hand, is loosely packed and bondage games with a dominatrix have something of a kindergarten experience in comparison. The head a few degrees to the left and right, the arms a few centimeters up and down, just enough to steer, and the legs so flexible that the feet can find the pedals somewhere in front - more room is needed in this frenzy not.
Then just put the racing steering wheel on the hub and let the door fall into the lock without a nut, then the racing car jacked up by the pit crew with hydraulic tappets plops onto the asphalt and the start button wakes the 4,0-liter eight-cylinder in the neck to life. Until the driver immediately strangles him again. Because from second gear shifted sequentially, you still need the clutch to start - and more speed than you think possible. Nothing works below 4.000 tours and only beyond 5.000 tours does the GT3X roll out of the pit lane without jerking.
But then the co-pilot deactivates the pit cruise control, which limits the low-flying aircraft to 50 km / h, the right foot drops and within a few moments the previously learned coordinate system of longitudinal and lateral acceleration collapses. So the dance with the unleashed fury can begin.
Even on the meager remainder of the start-finish straight, the world out there switches to fast forward and the small grandstand is blurred in the corner of your eye. 150, 200, 250 km / h. Instead of braking, you stay on the gas, shift up a gear quickly and only get into the iron just before the turn-in point. After all, the carbon-ceramic disks act like an anchor and resist gravity with an incredible force. Incidentally, just like the shiny Pirellis, which the professional warmed up specially beforehand. With a grip as if they were from Pattex, the GT3X shoots through the corners, does not push a millimeter outwards and follows a line that you wouldn't even dare to dream of in a street car - even if it were a 765 LT. You can hardly take the course closer, and not faster either. Especially when, in addition to the tires, the driver is warm and familiar with the tricky route. Clack, clack, clack in staccato shifts the gearbox, while the LED blocks of the rev counter in the digital cockpit flash like the strobos in a techno disco, bamm, bamm, bamm, your foot hammers between the accelerator and the brake and with minimal steering movements you can Drift the GT3X around the course and act as precisely as a surgeon's scalpel - and of course just as sharp.
And if the grip breaks, it is surprisingly easy to catch again - even without a net and a false floor, this two-seater is a good-natured car. So good-natured a low-flying aircraft of 720 hp and barely 1.200 kilos, with a steel-hard chassis and razor-sharp steering and brakes with the stopping effect of a bazooka.
But when things are going really smoothly, the co-pilot finally stops nagging and two turns in a row are halfway successful, after ten laps and what feels like an eternity, the checkered flag suddenly flutters over the long straight and the co-driver points unmistakably into it Box. Three liters of sweat less, but a lot richer in adrenaline, the driver reluctantly follows the instructions and can hardly leave the handlebars: yes, your arms burn, your back hurts, your ears are booming and in the upper room it feels like you have you put the head in the washing machine for a full cycle. But the command “Go Baby, go!” Is burned into the retina and a grin is carved on the face that is made to last.
Of course, it's frustrating that the journey is over again. And that such an opportunity will probably never come again. And even if they do, this 720S is denied any victory as an endorsement. But that won't bother the 15 proud owners, and they don't need such confirmation either. Because if you have made it behind the wheel, you don't have to compete with anyone anymore, you are a winner from home. Especially on a Sunday lunchtime alone on a racetrack in Spain.