You join us for the final part of our Senna vs 720S series where we’re going to find
out which is the most fun on circuit. It really doesn’t get any better than this, a twin
test which the 710bhp, quarter of a million pound supercar is the slow one, this is going
to be one to remember.
So far in this series we’ve found out that the Senna is quicker to 100 and back to 0,
it beats the 720 around a lap of Anglesey by more than 2 seconds and if you head over
to our McLaren soundclash, you can vote on which one sounds better.
But listen, we can look at numbers and data all day long, what I want to know is which
one of these two cars is more fun to drive on circuit, that’s what matters to me. That
Senna is 3 and a half times more expensive than this 720S, 3 and a half times. OK it’s
not going to be 3 and a half times more fun to drive but if you’re paying that much
more money you want a more exciting driving experience don’t you? So, starting out in
the 720S.
These cars are so good, they really are explosive performance. 710bhp, foot down, BANG! It explodes
out of the corner. It feels relentlessly fast and it doesn’t have that crazy aero that
that Senna has got; so it keeps on pulling. Where that Senna starts to slow down, this
keeps on pulling harder and harder.
The 4.0-litre V8 engine produces 710bhp with the help of two turbos, so what’s it like
on track?
In these really tight, slow corners 2nd gear so the engine drops below 4000rpm and that’s
when it feels a bit boosty, a bit laggy, you need more than 4000rpm and then my God, it
comes alive and it thumps you out of corners. Gorgeous steering in this car, McLaren get
that right, they really do, pin point steering, perfect weight, really good feel, you feel
exactly how much grip there is and that means you can use all of the grip with confidence
and the steering wheel itself is a gorgeous thing to use. Church corner, scary fast right-hander,
really have to grow a pair for that corner and this kink through here as well, such a
fast bit of track but the car feels so stable and then immediately we’re into a really
tight sequence where the car is agile, through these really tight corners you start to sense
the limit of grip at the front axle.
The 720S comes on Pirelli P Zero Corsa’s and compared to the Senna which is on super
sticky Trofeo R’s, the 720S doesn’t have quite the same tarmac pulling grip.
I’m not going to say that the car understeers like a pig, it doesn’t but you start to
feel the front axle just wash slightly but at least you can feel it and you can drive
the car right up to that point and no further. The car’s got such a sweet balance so, you
know when the front axle is loaded up, the rear axle is right there with it and the car
feels planted, it’s got so much grip and when you get the car working at the limit
of grip it’s adjustable, it’s controllable, it’s playful. What a thing.
The 720 doesn’t have a race mode like the Senna but the body is planted, this car has
such good body control.
So, we’re in track mode for the powertrain and also for the chassis and in that mode
the body is just so flat. Honestly, this car is spectacularly fast, massively entertaining
to drive, how good is that Senna going to be?
So what do we want to see from the Senna? If the 720 is that good, the more extreme
car is going to have to be more thrilly, more grippy, more immediate, faster everywhere,
more exciting, more challenging. It’s a very tall order.
Into the Senna and we’re straight into race mode because if you’re driving on track,
you’re going to drive it in race mode, aren’t you? And immediately it’s a completely different
animal to that 720S, it’s so loud and it’s so raw, it’s a more physical car to drive.
It’s almost completely overwhelming and throws your mind with how fast it is, how
loud it is, it feels like the engine is in the cabin with you rather than behind a firewall,
it’s so noisy.
The engine in the Senna is an uprated version of the same 4-litre V8 in the 720S and it
now produces 789bhp.
So we’ve got 10% more horsepower than that 720, a big chunk less weight and so the car
does feel more violently accelerative, it does feel faster but not by a huge amount
and as I said in the 720, that car’s bodywork is so slippery so when you get up to higher
speeds it keeps piling on the speed whereas this thing has got massive wings hanging off
it that generate so much drag that once you’re into 3 figure speeds it doesn’t accelerate
any faster than that 720. Like that car, it’s a boosty engine, it’s got 200bhp per litre
so you need 4000rpm again before it really starts going and then BANG! It just thumps
you up the road, wow. It’s so fast. The steering, sharper, more physical, more feelsome,
more precise, it’s sensational.
What about the grip? Those Trofeo R tyres are stickier than the 720’s Corsa’s with
a much softer compound and a more aggressive tread pattern.
So we’ve got more mechanical grip and we’ve also got 800 kilos of downforce so, through
the quick stuff, my God, it’s absolutely pinned. The thing is, this car has got the
aero of a GT racing car, it’s got loads more power than any GT racing car, it’s
got great traction, it’s got amazing braking performance, it just hauls you down from big
speeds so fast. What it doesn’t have is the mechanical grip of a slick tyre, everything
about this car is so motorsport that you feel desperate to put a set of slick tyres on it
because in these corners, these second and third gear corners you don’t have the otherworldly
front end grip that you expect the car to have, there is just a little bit of push in
it. Through there, there we go, there I can feel the front end washing out, it’s because
it’s on road legal tyre but through here, through Church, mega, mega fast, 4th gear
coming out at 100mph, the grip is incredible.
In race mode the car’s so low to the track that huge splitter could shave a layer of
tarmac away from the surface. The Senna is so immediate, so tightly controlled.
The car’s so agile through there, it feels so light, no inertia in it at all. It gets
to an apex so quickly, wow. My God, this might be the most exciting road legal car i’ve
ever driven, it’s something else. I’ve driven the McLaren P1 around this very circuit,
I thought that was a monster of a car, this thing makes it feel like a pussycat, honestly,
this is another level altogether, it really is, way more raw, way quicker around a lap,
more intense, more physical. Even in race mode that P1 was playful, it could be a slidy,
drifty car, this thing really doesn’t feel like that at all, this thing feels like a
monster, it feels like it wants to hurt you. It’s so physical, what a machine. It’s
a complete head scrambler, you have to work so hard to stay on top of it. The performance
there, that thump you get in the back and then the braking performance, what a machine.
I don’t want to take anything away from that 720S because it’s a stunning car, this
is something else altogether, wow wow wow.
Even if the #blessedlife of an Autocar road-tester days like these don’t come around very often.
The 720S is such a impressive car but the Senna is more remarkable still, i just wanted
to keep on driving to get more and more out of it to try and get somewhere near it’s
limits.
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