The 620R is about lap times most of all of course, but in road car terms it uses its 620PS and a (targeted) dry weight of 1,282kg to good effect, sprinting from 0-62mph in 2.9 seconds, 0-124mph in 8.1 seconds and despatching the standing quarter mile (400m) in just 10.4 seconds. It’s performance that belongs more in McLaren’s Super Series.
Keeping the weight down involves the inevitable ditching of road car fripperies like air-con, navigation, audio, carpets and glovebox, and the installation of two super-lightweight carbon-fibre racing seats and six-point racing harnesses, though you get regular road seatbelts as well – a bit easier on a trip to the shops. Extended shift paddles and McLaren Track Telemetry (MTT) are included.
McLaren’s Flewitt says the 620R has been developed so it retains the DNA of a fully homologated track car in order to deliver the most authentic race-car feel and is very much he says a response to “repeated customer requests”.
The customers always know best? Of course. Super-luxury Speedtails and comfortable and accommodating GTs of the sort we have seen recently from McLaren are all well and good, but the 620R shows that McLaren’s focus on cars to go around circuits as quickly and securely as possible remains as laser-sharp as ever.