mclaren senna
McLaren01McLaren named the car for famed and adored Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna, who scored scored a staggering 35 F1 victories and three driver’s titles with the marque.
McLaren02Unlike the Italian exotics whose curves ancient Roman sculptors would recognize as beautiful, the Senna is all lines, planes, and intersecting surfaces. It’s made for the wind tunnel, not the human eye or heart.
McLaren03McLaren will make just 500 street legal copies of the car, plus 75 track-only GTR models.
McLaren04McLaren incorporated the brake booster from the race-prepped P1 GTR into the Senna. It also made drastic improvements to the six-piston ventilated front discs, which now require seven months to construct. That’s seven times longer than typical carbon ceramics.
McLaren05The rear wing, which weighs only 10.8 pounds but can support more than 100 times its mass, uses hydraulic pressure from the gearbox to adjust its height and angle of attack in fractions of a second.
McLaren06The 4.0-liter V8 spins so eagerly with each twitch of the right foot, you wouldn’t know it’s twin-turbocharged.
McLaren07The central, 8-inch infotainment touchscreen is oriented in portrait mode to save space. Other than that, it’s all windshield and the road ahead.
McLaren08For weight savings and fun havings, McLaren ditched much of the sound deadening material. Gun the throttle, and the low-pitched sound bludgeons the cockpit.
McLaren09The Senna's interior is a moonscape of carbon fiber and Alcantara, aka synthetic suede. If you order the leather trim and soft-closing doors, you’re missing the point.
McLaren10The Senna’s most alluring attributes are its featherweight construction, tenacious handling, considerable downforce, and relentless brakes. All of which lend it more in common with a race car than a street legal road car, leaving concessions to comfort and convenience by the wayside.
