What is it like to own this supercar?

Could you live with a supercar? We’re not talking about those almost mythical moments when, as an empty road winds and plunges into the distance, you open the gas pedal and start chasing spikes with a 612 horsepower growl in your ears. We’re talking about real life: crawling through city traffic, dragging through the suburbs, humming on the highway. You could? Okay, let’s raise the stakes. Could you live with a used supercar? A used McLaren, to be precise?

In the 13 years since McLaren F1 Team Principal Ron Dennis decided to emulate Enzo Ferrari and build street cars, the Woking, UK-based manufacturer has produced some truly impressive supercars. Lightweight and well balanced, McLarens are incredibly fast, holding three of the 10 fastest lap times that Randy Pobst achieved in MotorTrends Best Driver’s Car Testing at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. These times include the then absolute lap record for production vehicles of 1 minute and 27.62 seconds, which was set by the brutalist McLaren Senna in 2019. (It was recently surpassed by the Czinger 21C.) But the internet is full of stories of quality issues, does buying a used McLaren make sense?

With a certified used 2020 McLaren GT that will become our long-term test fleet over the next few months, we’ll find out in a moment.

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A refresh of the McLaren GT

There are faster, more focused McLarens out there, but the GT is arguably the most interesting. Built on 720S hardware, it is powered by a slightly detuned version of the mid-range 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 from this car. It produces 612 horsepower and 465 lb-ft of torque, still enough to get this 3,373-pound McLaren to 60 mph and a top speed of 203 mph in our tests in supercar-worthy 2.9 seconds. What makes the GT interesting, however, is that it tries to combine the performance, handling, and style of a mid-engined supercar with the comfort and ease of use of a Gran Turismo. That sounds like an impossible circle squared, but after driving the GT in Europe and the US, we have to say that McLaren got damn close.

The base price of the 2020 McLaren GT in the US was $ 218,695 and included the P22 Luxe spec interior as standard, which is optional in our car roof ($ 950), the luggage restraint ($ 550), and the carbon Ceramic brakes (an option for $ 6,500 for 2020 model year but standard on 2021 cars) would have cost $ 232,195. Our Storm Gray over Jet Black GT is one year old and has 4,341 miles on the clock. Price? It would likely sell for just under $ 200,000 in the US, says McLaren spokesman Roger Ormisher.

Pick up our car

Horses wander the narrow road in front of the McLaren and Bentley showroom, which is nestled deep in the idyllic setting of the New Forest in Hampshire, England. Originally designated as a hunting ground by William the Conqueror in 1079, the New Forest seems like an odd place for a high-end car dealer. But there is money here, with big houses hidden between the trees, and the dealership’s catchment area stretches across the south of England, from Cornwall in the west to Kent in the east. This little shop moved over 60 new and used McLarens and Bentleys last year.

I am greeted by McLaren Sales Director Harry Donaldson-Mills. The GT sits under a dark curtain in the middle of the showroom, ready for the big unveiling. Most of the McLarens are leased; A typical US deal for a 2021 model year GT costs $ 1,999 per month over 36 months, with $ 15,000 less and a limit of 5,000 miles per year. Our car is pretty typical for its age in terms of mileage, says Donaldson-Mills, who reports that 70 to 80 percent of owners switch to another McLaren after their lease expires.

Buyers of certified used McLarens are treated no differently from buyers of new cars. Once delivered, they will be taken on a half-day tour of the McLaren factory and invited to watch days of hot lapping of McLaren-owned vehicles. “McLaren is like family and we’d like to keep them in our bladders,” says Donaldson-Mills. Then he pulls back the curtain, shows me around, and gives me the key. I am part of the family now.

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“Nice furnishings,” says a man who looks at the black Artura in the showroom. He is British but spends six months a year in San Francisco and has owned a McLaren 650S for six years. He loves driving the 650S, but “the build quality is poor,” he says bluntly. “The owner experience wasn’t great.”

Hmmm … families can be complicated. As an added bonus, and to give us twice the sample size of life with a CPO McLaren, MotorTrend Editor-in-Chief Mac Morrison is going to get his hands on a used 2020 720S Spider in Los Angeles. We’ll keep you updated on how our new family is developing as the miles go.

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