McLaren 720S touches down in Australia

MCLAREN’S second-generation Super Series coupe, the wild 720S, has landed on Australian shores, with the order books for the $489,900 plus on-roads supercar filled until the second half of next year.

Following its global reveal earlier this year at the Geneva motor show in March, the first second-generation vehicle from the British manufacturer is poised to help bolster its rapidly growing sales figures Down Under.

To the end of May, McLaren has sold 51 vehicles, a 143 per cent increase over the 21 it had sold in the same month last year, but McLaren Asia Pacific managing director George Biggs told GoAuto that growth would follow customer demand, and not the other way around.

“Whether it’s going to increase (overall sales) or not, we’re interested in making sure that we can satisfy our customers with the cars that they demand and desire at the right time, and numbers will come as a consequence of that,” he said at the Australian reveal in Melbourne last week.

“It’s not really a ‘I’d like to be X at this time’, it’s more of a let’s see the customer demand and let’s make sure we supply to that level, and let’s make sure that we’re having the demand lead us as a brand, and not the other way around.”

Sales of McLaren vehicles is also limited by the size of its production facility in Woking, England, which is currently capable of producing about 4500 vehicles per year for sale globally.

The first examples of the 720S are expected to be seen on Australian streets in four-to-six weeks.

Powering the 720S is the new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, which pumps out a tyre-shredding 530kW/770Nm for a zero to 100km/h sprint time of 2.9 seconds, while the 0-200km/h dash takes just 7.8s. The top speed is 341km/h.

Official fuel economy is rated at 10.7 litres per 100km, while carbon emissions stand at 249g/km.

Extensive changes have been made to the replacement of the outgoing 650S Super Series, including the use of the Monocage II carbon-fibre chassis, improvements in aerodynamic efficiency, and greater handling with the inclusion of updated chassis control systems.

Mr Biggs said that so far, the customer response to the new car has been excellent.

“We’ve had a phenomenal response since the global reveal, and obviously this is the first time we’ve brought it to Australia but we’re in a very good position in terms of the demand for Australia and that’s the case around the world,” he said.

“So we’ll be working very hard to satisfy that demand in the future.”

In terms of allocation, Mr Biggs said that there was no set number for any particular country, instead, McLaren executives would meet every week and determine where customer demand is around the world, and base their allocation on need.

The 720S will be joined by a convertible Spider variant further down the track, and the range could be expanded further with a more comfort-oriented GT variant as in the 570, and an exclusive Long Tail (LT) variant nearer the end of the 720S’s life cycle, as happened with the 650S with the 675LT.

With the first examples arriving in coming weeks, Mr Biggs said he was just keen to get the car into the hands of the customers to see what they think of the vehicle.

“The second generation of our product line-up is very important to us and it’s one which we’ve worked very hard and listened to a lot of customers and a lot of feedback, and built that into the development,” he said.

“For me, I’m just eager to get it into customers’ hands and see what they think. Fingers crossed, I’m pretty confident it’s going to do the job we want it to.”