2015 McLaren 650S Spider Photo Gallery
The 2015 McLaren 650S Spider is a candy-colored, Tarocco Orange, hot tub time machine. The swan-shaped front light kits, scissor doors with massive air scoops and a two-piece retractable, aluminum hardtop make this supercar scream, “look at me!” It’s hard not too, but it’s even more fun to drive.
The tony, two-seater has a lightweight, carbon fiber MonoCell chassis (seen above without an interior) that is about the size of a small hot tub and it weighs only 165 lbs. The MonoCell provides torsional rigidity and is used in both the Spider and Coupe versions. Aluminum beams are bolted to the front and rear to absorb impact and are easy to replace says McLaren. The Spider weighs about a hundred pounds more than the Coupe at 3,236 lbs and feels incredibly agile on the road.
This is a small race car and there’s enough room to fit a small camera bag between your legs in the snug and spartan cockpit. Also there is a little room under the front hood/trunk or “frunk” that can hold two small bags of groceries if you are lucky. But this is definitely not a car for trips to the mall, it was made for serious weekend runs to the track where you can drive it at ridiculous speeds.
Of course, it’s still a blast rolling down scenic California back roads in a 641 horsepower dream machine with the top down and no particular place to go. But you will struggle to keep the McLaren at legal speeds and find it hard to resist the urge race motorcycles or the California Highway Patrol.
This British high performance beast is packed with a potent 3.8-liter, twin turbo V8 mid-engine, a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and 15-inch carbon ceramic brakes the size of a large pizza. It’ll hit 0-60 in 2.9 seconds and only needs 94 ft to brake from 60-0 mph.
The engine sounds like an incredible, eight-cylinder symphony behind the back of your head and there’s an electric window that can be lowered if you prefer more of its sweet sounds. You’ll feel the engine’s heat too but there’s icy, air-conditioning to take care of that.
The 650S Spider is a time machine, not because it has a top speed of 204 miles per hour, but because it will take you back to the very first moment you ever drove a sports car and make you feel like a kid again.
The steering wheel has easy to reach paddle shifters and the center console is pretty easy to figure out. The interface is simple, buttons are few and the seven-inch touch screen is a breeze to use.
There are three handling and performance modes to choose from normal, sport and track. Normal mode seems silly for a supercar like this, sport is fantastic for curvy patches of road and track mode will make it fly. Well, practically fly around a circuit like a small jet.
And here’s the best part about dropping $280,255 on a McLaren 650S Spider, aside from going really fast and looking great doing it – there’s no gas guzzler tax!  This beautiful beast gets a combined 22 mpg around town. How cool is that?
So, if you have piles of cash, are having a midlife crisis or you are a rap star in need of a serious ride for your next video – get yourself to the nearest McLaren dealership immediately.
