The McLaren Longtail is back in the form of the 675LT, a halo model designed to be the fastest, lightest and most powerful street-legal model in the McLaren Super Series range. Just 500 examples of this coupe will be produced, which sounds like a lot, but as you’ve guessed by now, all have already been sold out.
Super Series cars already use plenty of weight-saving materials, but McLaren engineers have been able to shave an extra 220 pounds from the base car, thanks to even more liberal use of carbon fiber, resulting in a dry weight of 2,712 pounds. The 675LT also borrows the suspension geometry from the McLaren P1, resulting in a track that is 0.7 inches wider. A lower ride height plus stiffer and lighter suspension gives greater agility and roadholding.
McLaren has reworked the body of the Super Series for this model, using carbon fiber where possible and redesigning a number of aerodynamic elements, including the front splitter, airbrake and rear deck; F1-style nose end-plates are also added. The result is a 40-percent increase in downforce compared to the 650S, which is no small achievemenent, given how the 650S manages aerodynamics.
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Power, meanwhile, froms from a 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine producing 666 hp at 7,100 rpm and 516 lb-ft of torque between 5,500 and 6,500 rpm. That’s enough to propel the Longtail from 0 to 62 mph in just 2.9 seconds, with the car passing 124 mph at the 7.9-second mark. The top speed is a breezy 205 mph.
“The Longtail is a famous name in the history of McLaren, first used on the fastest version of the iconic McLaren F1,” said Mike Flewitt, McLaren Automotive chief executive officer. “The McLaren F1 GTR Longtail was the final highly successful iteration of the F1, and it is an appropriate name for the most exhilarating and driver-focused version of the Super Series. The 675LT is the purest distillation of what McLaren stands for — pure driving pleasure.”
The interior of the 657LT has also received attention, with the model gaining more carbon fiber elements, including the bucket seat shells and steering wheel column-mounted, while losing a number of steering wheel-mounted switches. The aim of the Longtail is a more racing-focused environment at the track; to achieve further weight savings, McLaren has ditched the carpets and the sound-deadening materials under the skin.
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In all, the 675LT shares two-thirds of its parts with the 650S, while the engine features 50 percent new components.
“Though brilliant on the track — and likely to be extensively used on track days — the extra engagement and performance is immediately obvious when driving on the road, even at low speeds,” Flewitt said.
The price? Well, as we said, they’re already sold out, but we’ll tell you anyway: the 675LT went for approximately $405,000, a price that can simultaneously seem extreme but also a bit of bargain considering the tech on offer.