Thoughts on McClaren 650

[BlackICE]

I agree. I was killing time in Palo Alto last year and strolled into the Mclaren dealership, since I had never been near one before.

EP this is great news, the dealer in Palo Alto is about 400 miles closer to you!

 

[GTdrummer]

I actually met and hung out with 2 McLaren corporate guys at the Amelia Concours about 2 weeks ago. Great and cool guys. One guy is one of their top engineers. After a drink or two, he pretty much said the 650s has some slightly different front trim and only about 35 hp more than the 12c - a mere 5% bump. Unnoticeable performance difference to 99.9% of folks. The 12C will, and has depreciated because of it, which makes it, as W.Mitty said, the performance bargain of the decade. If only I had more time...

They must have had several drinks--McClaren is telling a much different story to the public.

Listen, I am the first to admit that the 650 I have ordered is not radically different than my 12C Spyder, but

1.It has 25% or more different parts
2.Improved shifting, chassis changes, suspension changes , shocks etc are different
3. Front styling and various other styling changes similar to P1
4. 25% more downforce--pretty damn significant, more HP, better times

Now they claim the 12c will remain but I will believe it when I see it.

I am the kind of idiot who buys this to deflect the further depreciation of my 2013 12C--so I will end up with 2 cars that will likely depreciate--brilliant!

 

[BelgianGT]

Last September I wanted to trade in my 12C coupe for a spider and heard of the upcomming model and immediately signed a PO for it. I had to wait until february to go to MTC to see the car in real life. ActuallyI had to pick the colour but rather difficult if you don't know yet how the car would look like. I ended up selecting volcano yellow with lots of cb parts, lift system, sport seats alcantarra/ leather, stealth pack,rear vieuw camara (important) ... It'll be a nice optioned car that should arrive end April.
If I didn't want to switch to a spider I do think I'd kept my 12c coupe. It's such a great handling car and even comfortable for the longer drives. Ok I had those software gremlins who drove me crazy often but 1 trip in the mp4 and all was forgotten. The way this little thing pulls is unbelievable. I like to compare it with a great handling little lotus but with much much more power.
The 650S should be similar and hopefully without the software troubles