The 2026 McLaren 750S Spider is a serious supercar that challenges drivers to engage fully, offering a raw and exhilarating experience. Nowadays, you can dumb down even the most hardcore supercars with the push of a button. From Bugattis to Ferraris and your run-of-the-mill Germans, the quest for versatility has delivered both great and horrible things to supercar owners. Sure, dailying your 800-hp statement piece is nice, but have you ever feared that making a mistake could cost you big time? The 2026 McLaren 750S leans more toward the latter.
The McLaren 750S, as I recently found out, is focused on one thing: going as fast as possible all the freaking time. Whether you’re taking a corner or driving in a straight line, the car’s sole desire is to do so as quickly as possible, just like its Papaya Orange siblings in F1. Taking it easy, cruising for the sake of showing off, or being practical and comfortable are things the 750S isn’t concerned with. In fact, it kind of despises all of that.
It’s not uncomfortable or torturous, but the difference in behavior between Comfort and Sport mode is minimal, unlike in other supercars that can be completely subdued by their software. The 750S always feels like a supercar, always feels on-edge, and when you really ask it to be a supercar, it basically lights your pants on fire.
View Price on AmazonThe 750S is not exactly new, and we’ve driven it before, so I’ll focus on my driving experience of the Spider rather than give you the whole enchilada once more. You can revisit our first-drive review, where we called it “Incremental Excellence,” or check out its reveal, where we appropriately called it “The 720S but turned up to 11.”
On a recent jaunt up the Los Angeles Crest Highway, I found out just how intense the McLaren is, and most shockingly, just how much skill and attention it requires to perform at its peak. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hop behind the wheel thinking this was a Cozy Coupe that required little to no skill to drive fast, but having driven some of its direct rivals on that same road, I was blown away by how much more engaging and raw the 750S really is.
It all starts with the foundation of every McLaren: the carbon fiber tub or “monocell.” This is what differentiates it from the Ferraris, the Astons, and so forth. The car’s otherworldly handling begins there and is further enhanced by McLaren’s adaptive damping system on its double-wishbone independent suspension. Damping has three modes: Comfort, Sport, and Track. The rear-mid-mounted, twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 produces 740 horsepower at 7,500 rpm and 590 lb-ft of torque at 5,500 rpm. Those ponies are sent to the rear wheels only via a seven-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission with the same three powertrain and transmission modes as the suspension.
It’s those key bits and McLaren’s decades of engineering and racing experience that make the 750S feel like something completely different than everything else out there. Taking a corner at speed requires an understanding of basic physics and how a car’s dynamics work. If you come in too hot, you’ll probably just fly off the road because it’s so easy to carry so much speed. Carry too little speed into a corner, and you’ll be bored because things feel unventful. However, nail the pace and your hands’ movements, and you’ll hear the angels sing as the McLaren settles into your chosen driving line.
Source: thedrive.com
