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What's the difference?
Years ago, McLaren wasn't really making McLarens. The ill-fated SLR was still in production, but was an oddity that made little sense - it was a highly specialised Mercedes and built to sell for crazy money to mega-rich F1 fans. Production was down to a trickle,and the iconic and legendary F1 had completed its run a decade earlier.
The "new" McLaren Automotive had a shaky start in 2011 with the unloved MP4-12C, which became the 12C and then morphed into the 650S, getting better with each reinvention.
The P1 was the car that really grabbed the world's attention and was then-new designer Rob Melville's first project for the British sports car maker.
Last year, McLaren sold its 10,000th car and production numbers are closing in on Lamborghini's. Sales have almost doubled in Australia and Rob Melville is still there, and is now the Design Director. The company, clearly, has done very, very well.
Now it's come time for McLaren's second generation, starting with the 720S. Replacing the 650S, it's the new Super Series McLaren (fitting in above the Sport Series 540 and 570S and below the Ultimate P1 and still-mysterious BP23), and is a car McLaren claims has no direct competitors from its rivals at Ferrari or Lamborghini.
It has a twin-turbo V8, a carbon fibre tub, rear-wheel drive and bristles with cleverness.
There’s no point waxing too lyrical here, because the facts surrounding the M3 Touring are more than exciting enough.
It’s a (kind of) family friendly wagon with oodles of space and practicality. It’s also an unhinged performance weapon with a thumping 3.0-litre twin-turbo-petrol inline six-cylinder engine.
And it has been years — decades, even — in the making. So, has it been worth the wait? Let’s strap in and find out.
Past McLarens have been accused of being a bit soulless, but this one is alive. The last time I felt like this in a car was a Ferrari F12, one of the scariest but most brilliant cars I've ever driven. Except the 720S isn't scary on the road, just sheer genius.
The 720S doesn't necessarily beat the competition but it opens up new ways of doing supercar things. It's a car that looks amazing, is more than fit for purpose but has a wider range of talents than the others.
That makes it ever more compelling, both as a piece of automotive brilliance to admire, andl as something to consider when you've got half a Sydney apartment to spend on a car.
Australian roads await, but the drive through rural English country roads and villages was a great preview. All I can say is: gimme one.
Long live the mighty wagon. The BMW M3 Touring is treat to look at, and an even bigger treat to drive.
If you want one, act fast. We waited a long time for a wagon-shaped M3, and with electrification increasing in the automotive industry, this will likely be your last chance.
The 720S has received mixed reviews but nobody will say it isn't striking. I love it - every designer says their influence is a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (designer Melville even jokes about it), but you really can see it in the 720S, especially in the cockpit design, which looks like a glass canopy from that surveillance jet.
McLaren's signature dihedral doors, which go all the way back to the 1994 McLaren F1, are substantial, with a double skin to act as a serious piece of aero kit.
Melville told me in January that he thinks the cars look shaped by nature, using the example of a stone left in a stream to erode. The 720S is full of details evoking that image, with a clean, taut surface. Where everyone complained that the 12C was "designed in a wind tunnel", the 720S looks designed by the wind. In the carbon and aluminium, it looks extraordinary.
One of the most talked about features are those headlights - almost always finished in black, they're known as "the socket". When you get close you see slim LED DRLs, small but powerful headlights, and you then discover two radiators behind them. Follow it through and the air exits through the bumper, around the wheels and then through the door. It's quite something.
Inside is the McLaren we've come to know and love, but with a clever kicker. The dash panel looks lifted from a race car - but with far nicer graphics. Switch to "active" mode, turn everything up to Track and the panel swings down and presents you with a minimised set of instruments to reduce distraction and make up for a lack of head-up display - just speed, get and, revs.
It looks spectacular, this M3 Touring, and even more so given a) wagons are so rare, and b) proper low-riding performance wagons with massive alloys are even rarer.
That said, I expect it will be polarising – and possibly too shouty for some – but I've got to say, I like it.
I’ve seen it described elsewhere as a bit of a sleeper, but for mine, you’d need painted-on eyes to not see there’s plenty going on with the Touring, especially one finished in the same Frozen Black paint as our test car.
It is at once sleek and swept back, and bulging and aggressive, especially at the flared wheel arches and fat exhausts poking from its diffuser-filled rump.
Inside, it’s mostly business as BMW usual, though with more carbon-fibre elements — our vehicle was equipped with the M Carbon Experience pack — but snug-fitting seats aside, it’s a premium, if performance-focused, place to spend time.
For a supercar, there is a surprising amount of space in the cabin. You can strap 220 litres of (hopefully) soft stuff on the rear shelf behind the seats and there's a 150-litre boot under the nose. You can store your track gear under there, including helmet, or even cram in a few soft bags for a weekend away.
Again, unusually a for a supercar, you're also treated to a couple of storage cubbies in the centre console.
There's plenty of room in cabin for two bodies and the driver's seat offers lots of adjustment. Despite being so close to the front wheels, your feet have space even for my ridiculous duck feet to fit easily. There's even enough headroom for those over six feet, although the glass portholes in the top of dihedral doors might not be so welcome in an Australian summer.
A performance-focused wagon is still a wagon, right? And that means there is oodles of space in the boot, though the seating choices in our test cars made the front seats less comfortable than they could, and should, be.
But first, the boot. The M3 Touring is a 4.8m-long wagon, which pays dividends when it comes to cargo. BMW says you'll find a minimum 500L of storage space, which grows to 1510L with the rear seat folded.
In the back, you’ll find seating for three, with the requisite ISOFIX attachment points, and with enough head and leg room to get comfortable.
But those carbon front seats are an option I wouldn’t be springing for. They arrive carved out of the rock-hard material, though with big holes throughout to reduce their overall weight, and they’re not only challenging to climb in and out of, but they’re awkward and hard to sit behind.
Stick with the regular seats and both rows will be happier.
Kicking off at $489,900 plus on roads, it's fairly clear that the car the local operation has in its sights is the Ferrari 488 GTB, which sells for around $20,000 less but rarely arrives with less than $40,000 in options on board. Two further versions of the 720S are available from $515,080, the Luxury and Performance spec levels, both largely cosmetic.
The 720S ships with 19-inch front wheels and 20-inch rears wrapped in Pirelli P-Zeros. The exterior is finished in "dark palladium" trim and the cabin is lined with Alcantara and Nappa leather. Also onboard is a four-speaker stereo, digital dash, dual-zone climate control, sat nav, active LED headlights, power windows, sports fronts seats and not much else.
A predictably lengthy options list includes paint from $0 to $20,700 (McLaren Special Operations, or MSO, will cheerfully find ways to charge you more for that extra special paint job), but most of the list is carbon fibre bits, reversing camera ($2670!), a $9440 Bowers and Wilkins stereo... you get the picture. The sky, or your credit card, is the limit.
The front lift kit is $5540 and totally worth it to protect the underbelly from driveways. Unlike a couple of Italian rivals, it's not mandatory for all speed-bump ascents.
As we discover every time we look at a car like this, the spec seems slim but none of its competitors have much in them, so it's line-ball.
The BMW M3 Touring lists at $180,100, which isn’t chump change, and positions the wagon body shape a fair way above a regular M3 sedan.
That’s before on-road costs, of course. According to BMW’s website, putting an M3 Touring on the road in NSW will be more like $194,039 — before you start ticking option boxes.
The 'M Carbon Experience' adds $17,500, and reduces overall weight by close to 10kg through carbon bucket seats, and adds more visible carbon and even more possible headroom to fit a helmet
The 'M Carbon ceramic brakes' add another $16,500, and while there are plenty of free paint colours, you can pay up to $7000 for the 'Frozen White' paintwork.
Our test car was finished in 'Frozen Black', a bargain at $5K.
Elsewhere, there is plenty of equipment on a stacked standard features list.
That includes staggered 19- and 20-inch alloys, BMW’s digital 'Laserlight' headlights, and an automatic boot.
Inside, there’s a 'BMW Live Cockpit' with a 12.3-inch instrument display, a 14.9-inch central screen, a head-up display, wireless device charging, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and a premium Harman Kardon surround sound stereo.
You also get three-zone climate, leather seats, an 'Active M Differential' and 'Adaptive M Suspension', and seat heating up front.
Oh, and there is lots — lots — of performance, but we’ll come back to that shortly.
The 720S runs a 4.0-litre version of McLaren's familiar flat-plane crank twin-turbo V8. Power is up to 537kW (or 720PS, hence the name) and torque up almost 100Nm to 770Nm, from 678. McLaren says 41 percent of the components are new.
A seven-speed twin clutch sends power to the rear wheels and the 1283kg dry (down 106kg from the 650S) monster hits 100km/h in 2.9 seconds, surely a cautious claim. The more alarming 0-200km/h clam is a terrifying 7.8 seconds, half a second quicker than its closest rival, the 488 GTB. That is seriously, insanely quick, while top speed is equally bonkers at 341km/h.
Instead of a complicated and heavy active differential, the 720S uses the rear brakes and various other methods to get the same effect. It's one of several ideas pinched from F1, some of them now banned.
The M3 Touring’s engine might well be one of the best in the business – a hard-charging 3.0-litre twin-turbo-petrol inline six-cylinder engine that produces a sizeable 375kW and 650Nm.
That power is sent to all four wheels via BMW’s 'M xDrive' with Active M Differential, producing a sprint to 100km/h of just 3.6 seconds.
McLaren claims the European combined cycle could return 10.7L/100km, but we have no way of knowing if that is accurate because we weren't mucking about on the day we had the car.
Officially, you should see a claimed 10.4L/100km on the combined cycle, but as is often the case in cars with engines that tempt you to be aggressive with the accelerator, the reality can be a little different.
We saw more like 16.4L/100km, but in the big bruiser’s defence, we spent a lot of time in city and suburbs, and a lot more time standing on the accelerator.
The M3 Touring is fitted with a 59-litre tank, and will only accept 98RON premium fuel.
Range is close to 570km using the official consumption figure and around 360km using our real-world number.
One of the biggest changes from 650 to 720 is the new Monocage II carbon fibre tub. The drop in overall weight is partly because the cage now includes the windscreen hoop, which previously was metal. Kerb weight with all fluids and a 90 percent full fuel tank (don't ask why 90 percent, I don't know either) it weighs 1419kg, giving it the same power-to-weight ratio as a Bugatti Veyron. Yikes.
The 720S is an astonishing car. We always say you can pootle in a modern supercar, but the 720S is so user-friendly, maneouvreable and so easy to see out of - there are no significant blind spots with an almost entirely glass roof - you can tackle city and country in comfort mode and actually be comfortable. Comparatively, a Huracan goes all blergh in Strada mode and the 488 GTB never stops begging you to kick it in the guts. The McLaren is easy, liveable and smooth.
I was driving a left-hand drive car in the UK, which should have been a complete nightmare, but it was fine - the vision is excellent, particularly over the shoulder.
But when you do decide to kick the 720S into action, it's wild. The acceleration is brutal, the handling impeccable and the ride, oh, the ride. No supercar can handle bumps, irregularities and flat out poor surfaces like the McLaren. The 540C's ride is incredible as it is, but the 720 is just wow.
Because it's quite light, the nose goes where you point it, the huge brakes have less to stop, the towering power less to push. The steering in the 720S is well-weighted but has tons of feel - you know what's going on underneath the double-wishbone sprung front wheels and you can adjust what you're up to accordingly. The stability system is excellent, too. Never overbearing or abrupt, where talent ends and the help begins is delightfully blurry.
The new engine is a bit more tuneful than past McLarens - there's even a loud-start party trick - but it's not loud and overbearing. You'll hear turbos whisting, sighing and pshawing, a deep bassy exhaust note and some awesome intake roar. But there's not much off-throttle character. It does at least do away with the histrionics of the Italians.
The only serious drama is the amount of noise bouncing around the cabin over about 100km/h. There's a lot more glass than sound-soaking Alcantara, which explains some of the extra tyre racket over a 650S. You can't have everything, I guess.
In a word? Delightful.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the easiest car in the world to daily drive. The carbon-fibre seats fitted to ours, for example, made getting in and out a slightly embarrassing challenge, and there’s a surging eagerness to the delivery of power that makes you look a little like you're showing off.
But the adaptive suspension serves up a far more comfortable ride than you might be expecting (more comfortable, in fact, than lesser, cheaper M models), making tootling around town easier and less chiropractic than I was expecting.
But it’s away from the city, with its traffic and red lights, that owning the M3 Touring becomes a delight, from its potent and punchy powertrain to the thrum of its exhaust, and the EV-like immediacy of its power delivery.
This is a driver’s wagon, there’s no doubt about it, with proper seatback-pushing acceleration, direct and confident steering and enough body stiffening and bracing that you really would have no idea you’re driving a wagon when cornering.
Engage its sportiest settings, and disengage its electronic nanny systems, and you can even set to work judging your drifting skills, courtesy of the (as yet untested, honestly) 'M Drift Analyser'.
A family car like few others, then. That you can also take it to Bunnings and throw some sleepers in the back is just a very welcome bonus.
Along with a super-strong carbon tub, to which is fitted aluminium crash structures front and rear, the 720S comes fitted with six airbags, stability and traction controls and carbon ceramic brakes with ABS (100-0 happens in fewer than 30 metres).
Neither the M3 or M3 Touring have been independently crash tested to date, but it’s worth pointing out the 3 Series and 4 Series received maximum five-star scores from Euro NCAP.
Standard safety kit includes AEB with pedestrian detection, active lane keeping assist, blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control and rear cross-traffic alert.
You’ll also find six airbags on board.
The 720S comes with McLaren's three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty with roadside assist. McLaren will want to see you every 12 months or 20,000km, which is quite unusual at this level.
The BMW M3 Touring is covered by a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, and servicing is "condition based", in that the vehicle will tell you what maintenance is required, and when.
You can prepay your service costs at the time of purchase for all BMW vehicles, covering the first five years of ownership.