McLaren 765LT Coupe: SuperLight SuperCar

McLaren has earned its spot in the pantheon of supercars along with the Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini and the rest with a panache all its own. It did so by delivering indisputably iconic models like the eternally pleasing P1, and the hot-blooded M6GT.   

And McLaren continues to do so with aplomb in the new 765LT Coupe. McLaren’s organically inspired curves, look like they are conspiring to create a synthetic organ, and its minimalist head and taillights designs continue to set our hearts all aflutter with their shameless beauty.  

Did you ever want to look like a superspy pulling up to a French riviera casino? Courtesy of Mclaren

But before we get too carried away talking about what the car looks like, and end up becoming an entirely different kind of publication – suffice it to say that we really like the way it looks – we wanted to explore something that really caught our nerdy little eyes.  

It’s something that might slip beneath some enthusiasts’ radars as they froth about the 765LT’s looks, or its all too expectedly brawny drive train. We’re talking a 4-liter twin-turbo V8 producing 755hp, in a body that’s lighter and more aerodynamic than the 720S. Do you want to go 0-60 mph in 2.7 seconds? Who doesn’t, right?  

But the thing that caught our eye here specifically is the word “lighter.” What does it mean to be lighter when you’re a fire breathing dragon? Well, it means that you can fly higher and fast than the other dragons, without expending more energy. It also means you can stop on a dime, which is great for dragon safety to keep with this metaphor.  

And this dragon’s scales were produced by the new McLaren Composites Technology Center (MCTC). It’s the first model to have parts of the chassis strictly designed and produced by the MCTC since it received a Royal ribbon cutting  back in 2018, and producing its first test chassis in 2020. 

The net result here is that with the MCTC producing the rear articulating spoiler and rear fender the weight has dropped by nearly 175 pounds. And being the nerds that we are we can’t help but wonder what kind of future applications, beyond the 765LT.  

While making super pricey hyper sports cars – the 765LT is about $400,000 – faster is a wonderful thing and we are very much here for it, there are applications for composite advancements for the rest us the unwashed masses, if you will. 

McLaren is of course not the first manufacturer to have a materials division, many large scale manufacturers already have in-house teams as well as work with outside companies. But there is something very exciting about McLaren doing it that is noteworthy.  

There’s a popular maxim in motorsport that says that most things that end up on the road start on the track. Meaning that innovations made in racing to better performance or safety end up in main line production cars, and we believe that applies here. If McLaren makes a big push to shave large chunks of weight off in a proprietary way, it will push more mass consumer manufacturers to figure out how to do it more efficiently and cheaper. Along with electrification this will benefit us all in the long run. That’s just economics, right?  

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