Any chance to get to see McLaren’s Speedtail, or any other rare supercar, has to be grasped with both hands. Well, Instagram user and car content creator Aaron Moniz spotted one of these in the heart of London while out and about recently.
Moniz regularly spots supercars on the roads in England’s capital city, and the Speedtail is one that is a real coup for the content creator. It is the fastest car that McLaren has ever produced, and its design and seat layout were directly inspired by the McLaren F1.
Seeing it is a special occasion given that just 106 have been built, and each example of the supercar costs its owners at least $2.2 million, potentially rising to nearly $3 million depending on the specification. So you had to have had deep pockets to be able to get your hands on one of them.
In a direct nod to the McLaren F1, the Speedtail has a central driving position, similar to how you would sit in a Formula 1 race car. It is the first McLaren since the F1 to feature this very interesting seating position.
Why Spotting a McLaren Speedtail Is Such a Big Deal
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This particular Speedtail was spotted painted all-white, and it drove right past Moniz as he was filming the supercar. Seeing one of these on public roads isn’t exactly an everyday sight, with just 106 of the cars produced in total. What is remarkable is that this car first emerged eight years ago, back in 2018.
It is the fourth McLaren in the Ultimate Series, coming after the Senna, P1, and the original F1. Sitting under the hood is a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine. Paired up with the car’s hybrid system, the Speedtail produces 1,036hp and 848lb-ft of torque with a top speed of 250mph. Thanks to that power, it has a 0-60mph time of just 2.9 seconds, and 100mph can be reached in just over five seconds.
The most novel feature of the car is its three-seat layout. This has the driver sitting in the middle of the car, like the F1, with the passengers sitting slightly to the left and right of the driver. The idea behind this arrangement was to maximise visibility for the driver of the supercar. It got its name from the long, sleek rear-end, making the car look like an arrow as it rockets away at over 200mph.
Top Gear Raced the Speedtail Against a Fighter Jet
Whilst seeing the car on the streets of London is impressive, there is much more to the supercar. In 2020, Top Gear showed the McLaren Speedtail take part in a race alongside an RAF F-35 Lightning II fighter jet. This was effectively a rematch, after the Bugatti Veyron driven by Richard Hammond raced against a Eurofighter Typhoon on an earlier episode of the show.
Unsurprisingly, despite the speed of the Speedtail, it lost to the F-35. That wasn’t the point of the challenge, however, as it showed just how fast a Speedtail was, with straight-line racing being the supercar’s forte. Even though the F-35 had to go wider around the course and execute longer turns, it still won the race, although it was close. Arguably the coolest film Top Gear has ever done? It’s certainly right up there.