Drove a 720S Spider at Sebring

A good friend of mine going back to the original Gran Turismo days, is now a mechanic for a Bentley/Rolls/Aston/McLaren dealership, and they occasionally hold track days for their customers.  They have a novice group, and were looking for instructors.  I am about to begin my 30th year of racing at Sebring, so I know it well, and have instructed my friend in his Spec Miata there before, so he recommended me as an instructor.

My student had an AMG GT-S, with some work done that brought the hp to 600.  Not a great car for your first time in a road course, but he has a CTS-V that he drag races, so at least he was used to acceleration and high speeds.  He also (very smartly) figured that TCS was his friend in this situation.  He picked up the basics very quickly, and showed good speed by the end of the thirty minute session, even touching the curbing at most apexes (most drivers THINK they’re close to the curbing, but are still three or four feet off, especially with the right side tires, their first time on track).

Near the end of the day, the dealership had a 720S Spider they brought to the track to give customer ride alongs.  They allowed me to take a few laps around Sebring with the car right before they started loading up to go home.

The car was quite low on fuel when I got in, so I did five laps before bringing it in.  And what an AMAZING five laps.  An absolutely PHENOMENAL BEAST of a road car.  The acceleration and braking (pedal feel is high effort with the carbon/ceramic brakes) are beyond anything I could have imagined, and the cornering grip is other-world level.  The most amazing thing to me about this car is, for such a brutal beast of a car (it’s faster than the P1!!!), it’s quite easy to drive fast.  Easy in the sense that, if you know what you’re doing, this car will make you feel like a super hero.  The TCS/Yaw control system has a lot to do with that, and talking with Randy Pobst earlier in the week, he told me the system was so good, he doesn’t even bother turning it off.  Put me on a track I don’t know as well, and I might not have had the confidence to push as hard as I did, but I still would have been impressed with the capabilities of the car.  It’s that good.

My previous best speed down the backstretch at Sebring was about 125.  I hit at least 170 yesterday.  In a street legal car, on D.O.T. tires.

Just scary what road cars are capable of these days. Wonder how many more years track events have before being shut down by insurance companies due to novices running 600hp street cars around race tracks with a helmet and 3 point seat belts. 

Glad you got to push a McLaren and props for having the balls to PUSH a McLaren. My only few McLaren tests have been short bursts of straight line speed but I couldnt even keep my foot in it all the way it was such a scary onslaught of speed. 

I spend a fair amount of time in maccas these days, they are very cool. The speeds that modern super/sports cars are capable of is amazing, and 720s are savage. Glad you got to play with one. 

Boy howdy this really drives home just how much performance is on tap these days. Here's a driver with 30 years time on track and takes his vmax from 125 to 170 in one fell swoop...jeebus. 

Oh and I'm not jealous AT ALL.... 

McLaren track day

Here’s a video that Matt, the salesman who puts on the event for the dealership, made for his Youtube channel.  The in-car stuff is of him driving the Spider that I got to drive.