The rigmarole of placing on a number of layers of fireproof clothes, adopted by a helmet and the marginally uncomfortable piece of carbon fiber that could be a HANS device, places you in a sure way of thinking. A targeted, however barely nervous way of thinking. Strolling down a pit lane to a automobile that appears as severe and aggressively purposeful (some may simply say ugly, however I am going to go together with brutal) because the McLaren Senna does nothing to vary that mindset. Understanding that this can be a automobile that produces 1,764 kilos of downforce at 155 miles per hour, and that these rear wheels need to cope with 789 horsepower, additionally does nothing to dispel these jangling nerves.

Clicking the six-point harness into place, pulling the belts as tight as doable as a way to try to fuse myself with the automobile, I’m anticipating a race automobile expertise. I’m anticipating to be sensorially assaulted. I’m anticipating to search out the subsequent quarter of an hour intimidating.

So, after I drive again into the pits 15 minutes later after my first few laps across the Autódromo do Estoril within the Senna, I am a bit confused. I am not terrified and I do not really feel like I have been attempting to show a bear to bounce. The entire expertise was remarkably… refined. Do not get me improper, the automobile was definitely race car-fast (and I do know that there’s nonetheless extra velocity to return) however it wasn’t mind-bogglingly noisy or recalcitrant or snappy or awkward like race automobiles can typically be.

I rerun the laps in my head, attempting to course of all of it. Pulling away from a standstill is simple. No juddering clutch to handle, simply squeeze the throttle and let the acquainted seven-speed dual-clutch transmission ease you into movement. It is pleased crawling alongside the pit lane, too. Monitor automobiles at low velocity can typically really feel like a teen pressured to attend a 50th birthday celebration, all uncomfortable and misplaced. However the Senna is pleased so that you can short-shift and potter. No trace of 590 pound-feet of torque straining on the leash.

Visibility is fantastic, so the automobile feels immediately simple to position and the cockpit is much much less cramped than the one earlier Ultimate Series McLaren, the P1, the place you rub shoulders along with your passenger. Ease out of the pit lane exit, cautious of chilly tires and into the primary bend. The steering is responsive however nonetheless easy, and it is surprisingly calmly weighted. It definitely does not really feel such as you’d must take up a fitness center membership to drive this automobile. Till, that’s, you hit the brakes.

Having completed some sighting laps in a 720S earlier than moving into the Senna, that is the primary massive discrepancy within the management weightings. Apply the identical stress to the Senna’s left-hand pedal as you’ll within the 720S and nothing actually occurs. This, lastly, is one thing you’d count on in a race automobile. It’s a actually meaty, strong brake pedal and as soon as as much as temperature you may lean on the brakes as laborious as you want along with your proper (or left) foot.

In actual fact it’s the Senna’s braking that actually stands out within the reminiscence and the factor that I actually work on after I return out for my second set of laps. The aero is so nicely managed that it makes the automobile really feel splendidly secure at excessive velocity. The Flip 5 kink on the again straight is simple flat (not like within the 720S) and the automobile feels completely unflustered. The acceleration is great (Zero-186 mph in 18.eight seconds) however unusually, as a result of the Senna is so nicely tied down from a suspension perspective and since you are held so tightly by your harness, it feels much less exceptional than within the 720S, which squats and rolls and feels extra distant.

However the braking, that is one thing else. It may brake 95 ft later into Flip 1 at Estoril than a 720S, and with a tailwind on the pit straight the Senna will hit over 180 mph earlier than you hit the left pedal. The deceleration began simply after the “200 meter” board, which I can let you know now took some constructing as much as, as a result of it is a downhill braking zone and initially my thoughts couldn’t compute that type of stopping distance with out seeing an accident as the top end result. I’ve by no means skilled braking prefer it in a highway automobile. And essentially the most spectacular half is that there stays actual really feel by the pedal as you smash it with all of your may, producing as much as 2 G’s of power within the course of. The lively aero additionally helps you enormously in order that there is not any difficult compensating modulation required because the velocity comes off and the automobile stays secure.

It is advisable brake late and deep into corners to get essentially the most out of the automobile, too, weighting up the entrance tires (bespoke Pirelli Trofeo Rs) and urgent them into the tarmac. Do that and you may really feel the automobile start to rotate across the entrance, opening up the nook, letting you get again on the facility earlier. Personally I would really like a wider entrance tire, simply as I needed a wider entrance tire on the P1. A 245-section entrance is fairly skinny and it signifies that by a nook the place you may’t trail-brake or by a protracted nook just like the Flip 11 Parabolica at Estoril, you are left with a automobile that actually solely desires to push into understeer. I perceive why McLaren has given it this stability as a result of it makes the automobile extra accessible and pleasant on the restrict, however equally it may really feel irritating in sure conditions.

Not that the Senna will not oversteer if you’d like it to. The automobile was (at McLaren’s insistence) in its Race ESP mode all through the laps, however this wasn’t in in the slightest degree irritating. It’s supremely nicely judged to permit you loads of slip whereas giving the boldness of an digital security web (albeit one with greater holes). You may be capable to chase the throttle a bit extra on the exit of some corners with ESP off however that is one thing to construct as much as, and out of Turns three and 9, I had some deliciously progressive slides that I might preserve and even change gear midway by. No sweaty palms, no skipped heartbeats. Even the marginally greater, quicker, much less intentional slide that I had on the off-camber exit of Flip 6 was simply caught.

The velocity that the Senna generates is phenomenal. McLaren claims it’s six seconds a lap quicker across the comparatively quick Estoril circuit than a 720S. Six seconds! And, as everyone knows, a 720S is close to as rattling as quick as a P1. But I might wager that it might be much less scary getting inside a second of the Senna’s final lap time than inside a second of the 720S’s final lap time. This brutalist trying, 789-horsepower monster makes race automobile efficiency appear accessible and virtually pleasant.

Curiously, after I stepped out of it, a part of me was left virtually underwhelmed, as a result of other than the efficiency there wasn’t as a lot drama as I used to be anticipating. It was simple to get into with the roof cutout and there is not any FIA roll cage to clamber by. The noise from the turbocharged V8, admittedly muffled by a crash helmet, wasn’t one thing to set your eardrums alight, and on the straights I discovered myself watching the shift lights fairly than counting on some wailing crescendo. There was additionally no race automobile NVH buzzing up by the carbon chassis to the seat of my Nomex-clad bottom. It was fairly serene actually. Nearly unexciting. Nearly.

And that is after I realized that I would been approaching the Senna all improper. All of the discuss and the buildup had made me consider this as a calmly civilized race automobile. However as quickly as you keep in mind that this can be a highway automobile — a correct highway automobile, not only a cursory one like a Radical or Ariel Atom — it adjustments all the things. When you think about the velocity that you’ve got simply pushed ‘around the circuit after which keep in mind that with none adjustment (aside from the press of a button within the roof to launch it from its ground-scraping race mode) you possibly can drive it out right into a metropolis rush hour, that is if you respect the achievement of the Senna.

And no, I wasn’t allowed to drive it on the highway, so a few of that’s conjecture, however due to the vagaries of filming I spent fairly a while within the automobile pottering round and driving slowly and doing three-point turns, so I am fairly assured of that presumption. I additionally hope I get to substantiate my suspicions by driving one on the highway in some unspecified time in the future, as I believe it might be a spectacular sight.

In fact, if this has acquired you reaching for the variety of your native McLaren seller, able to half with $1 million, then I am afraid you are too late. All 500 Sennas are already offered. I simply hope they’ve been purchased by individuals who will drive them and drive them laborious. That bodywork is made to chop by the air, not be stared at in a static assortment.

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